Memorial Day Brookies

Andrew and I made it out to the best brookie stream in all the land today. The only problem was - so did everyone else. We decided to meet up at 6 am in an effort to beat the heat and the crowds but we were only successful on the heat part. It seemed like everyone else was out enjoying the Park on their holiday and we had dogs, swimmers and other anglers sharing the stream with us. There has always been plenty of hikers on this stream but I've never encountered another fisherman before today. About halfway up the hill, I noticed the wet boot prints and knew we had company. Even so, the stream was as scenic as ever and we caught some fish, so I call it a successful day.

Thanks to all of the brave men and women who paid the ultimate price in defense of our country. May their sacrifice not be forgotten.

Springtime on the SoHo

I've been working on this video for the last couple days after returning from a Spring trip to my favorite river. We try to make the voyage twice a year in the Spring and Fall, and I wish I could do it more often. This year we were a little early for the epic sulphur hatch but the fishing didn't disappoint. Hope you enjoy!



It should be noted that I like to bust my buddy Cronin's chops (the big man) and he actually caught a ton of fish. Just not while I had the camera running. He has this river dialed in like few people do. Just sayin'.

Stripers After Work

Downtown Richmond wouldn't be the first place you would think of when it comes to good striper fishing. I caught wind of it a couple years ago and finally decided to check it out - turns out the rumors were right. Much like the shad, the stripers move out of the Chesapeake Bay and run up the James River, all the way to Richmond, to spawn. After they do the deed, they turn around and make their way back out, so you have to enjoy 'em while you can.

The striper hole leaves a lot to be desired from a scenery standpoint. Some of the nice features include trash laying around, snarls of fishing line with weights big enough to anchor a boat hanging from the trees, a smell that's something like a cross between my brother's feet and a dead sucker, and a lot of "urban art"(graffiti). As bad as it is, you get over all of that pretty quickly if the fish are there.

These fish have to rank as the best fighting fish I've ever tangled with on a fly rod. Even the small ones will put a serious bend in a pretty stout rod. They usually burn some line on an initial run and are good at using the current to their advantage. They're just a bunch of fun.







If the fishing slows down you can keep yourself busy sampling some of the local culture.



And watching the herons stalk little fish is kinda fun.



Then it's back to work.





Marty came down for a while this afternoon and did what he usually does - he caught the biggest fish. Sometimes that guy really bugs me.



But I pulled a rabbit out of the hat with a good fish right at dark. Not quite as good as Marty's fish, but I'll take it.

Bear Sighting

The gauges were showing that the streams in the Park were going to be high today - probably too high for good fishing - but I went anyway. What I found out when I got there was that the streams were too high for good fishing. Duh.



Even though the fishing stunk, I was treated to a fairly rare site, which more than made up for the lack of fish.





I've only seen bears on about 3 or 4 other occasions in my hundreds of trips to the Park, and I've never seen one with such a small cub before. What a treat.