Luke
Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
- Messages
- 250
Thank you Todd Harman! I was very blessed by the generosity of Harman’s Luxury Log Cabins in West Virginia and I enjoyed a complimentary two night stay there last week just prior to the start of the fly-fishing invitational tournament won by some fine representatives of this great forum.
West Virginia truly is “Wild and Wonderful” and Harman’s has been placed right in the middle of a beautiful landscape of steep rugged slopes and beautiful waterways.
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I took my time driving down and spent about five hours enjoying the scenery between here and there. I arrived on Tuesday around 4:00 and unpacked my things into cabin #5. I was very impressed with the cabin. It was clean, nicely furnished, had good appliances, dish-network television, wifi signal, and was well stocked with quality cookware, utensils and dishes. For sure, it was a relaxing place to retire after a rigorous day outdoors.
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It took me about four and one-half minutes to unpack, get my fishing gear on, and head upstream in my truck. I drove up and over the mountain on a road which is not for 2WD vehicles nor the faint of heart. I arrived at the upstream territory of Harman’s private stretch. It was such beautiful water that I spent most of my time fishing a ½ mile stretch up on this end. The area really had a remote feel to it and no other vehicles made the journey in the two days that I was there. The flow was perfect and the water clarity was excellent which just absolutely added to the experience. The structure and flow reminded me a lot of Penns Creek so I felt right at home.
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No fish were rising so I put on an olive wooly bugger and crimped on a couple of BBs and started dead drifting, swinging, and stripping. It did not take too long to hook up with some meaty fish. If they stock any small ones at Harman’s well then I sure did not find them during my trip there. I hit double digits that first evening and caught a lot of 18” pie plate shaped bows. My drag rarely gets a workout in my normal fly-fishing, so it was exciting to get into fish which made some runs and took line even with the drag set pretty heavy since I was using 4x tippet. For fear of my life, I really did not want to drive the road after dark, so I left prior and drove back to the cabin. I got back and smelled some goodness coming from the grill next door. I walked over an met our friend Steveo from the site. He was kind enough to let me use his hot coals later that night so that freed up some cooking time for me to walk down to the stream in front of the cabin and fish for another 10 minutes before dark where I managed to catch one on the top on a March Brown. I heard some grunting from across the creek and saw two great fisherman named “Mr. Otter” and “Mrs. Otter”. Well, Mr. Otter landed a giant rainbow. That was fun to watch.
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I had a nice cold beer, grilled a steak, and got to know Steve. What a great first evening; I think I want to stay here until they drag me away!
The next morning Steve and I made the drive back to the same spot and caught some more fish on wooly buggers. I landed one that about 20”. Steve went exploring upstream and some fish started to rise to caddis and march browns that were emerging. I had a great hour fishing dry flies but my catching to hooking ratio was only about 50%. I broke off two tippets and left two flies in fishes mouths. I really had to train myself to set the hook with a more gentle lift as I was getting way to excited when these monsters would drift up to inhale my offering. As the rises subsided and I lost my fourth fish, I decided to relax in the sun for a while and just enjoy the beautiful day. I noted that forearm was literally sore from fighting so many big fish over the last 20 hours.
This was a typical fish...
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I enjoyed a good lunch and a fine evening of fishing with plenty more action. It was capped off by a nice dinner with Steve, another cold beer, and a soak in the hot tub of cabin #5 while enjoying a fine cigar under the starlight.
Here is to Todd Harman and the good folks there at Harman’s cabins. Thanks for such a relaxing and enjoyable trip and for being a friend of paflyfish.com. I am looking forward to taking my 10 year old son down here some day in the near future and watching how big his eyes get as he tried to hold onto a big ole bow.
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West Virginia truly is “Wild and Wonderful” and Harman’s has been placed right in the middle of a beautiful landscape of steep rugged slopes and beautiful waterways.
I took my time driving down and spent about five hours enjoying the scenery between here and there. I arrived on Tuesday around 4:00 and unpacked my things into cabin #5. I was very impressed with the cabin. It was clean, nicely furnished, had good appliances, dish-network television, wifi signal, and was well stocked with quality cookware, utensils and dishes. For sure, it was a relaxing place to retire after a rigorous day outdoors.
It took me about four and one-half minutes to unpack, get my fishing gear on, and head upstream in my truck. I drove up and over the mountain on a road which is not for 2WD vehicles nor the faint of heart. I arrived at the upstream territory of Harman’s private stretch. It was such beautiful water that I spent most of my time fishing a ½ mile stretch up on this end. The area really had a remote feel to it and no other vehicles made the journey in the two days that I was there. The flow was perfect and the water clarity was excellent which just absolutely added to the experience. The structure and flow reminded me a lot of Penns Creek so I felt right at home.
No fish were rising so I put on an olive wooly bugger and crimped on a couple of BBs and started dead drifting, swinging, and stripping. It did not take too long to hook up with some meaty fish. If they stock any small ones at Harman’s well then I sure did not find them during my trip there. I hit double digits that first evening and caught a lot of 18” pie plate shaped bows. My drag rarely gets a workout in my normal fly-fishing, so it was exciting to get into fish which made some runs and took line even with the drag set pretty heavy since I was using 4x tippet. For fear of my life, I really did not want to drive the road after dark, so I left prior and drove back to the cabin. I got back and smelled some goodness coming from the grill next door. I walked over an met our friend Steveo from the site. He was kind enough to let me use his hot coals later that night so that freed up some cooking time for me to walk down to the stream in front of the cabin and fish for another 10 minutes before dark where I managed to catch one on the top on a March Brown. I heard some grunting from across the creek and saw two great fisherman named “Mr. Otter” and “Mrs. Otter”. Well, Mr. Otter landed a giant rainbow. That was fun to watch.
I had a nice cold beer, grilled a steak, and got to know Steve. What a great first evening; I think I want to stay here until they drag me away!
The next morning Steve and I made the drive back to the same spot and caught some more fish on wooly buggers. I landed one that about 20”. Steve went exploring upstream and some fish started to rise to caddis and march browns that were emerging. I had a great hour fishing dry flies but my catching to hooking ratio was only about 50%. I broke off two tippets and left two flies in fishes mouths. I really had to train myself to set the hook with a more gentle lift as I was getting way to excited when these monsters would drift up to inhale my offering. As the rises subsided and I lost my fourth fish, I decided to relax in the sun for a while and just enjoy the beautiful day. I noted that forearm was literally sore from fighting so many big fish over the last 20 hours.
This was a typical fish...
I enjoyed a good lunch and a fine evening of fishing with plenty more action. It was capped off by a nice dinner with Steve, another cold beer, and a soak in the hot tub of cabin #5 while enjoying a fine cigar under the starlight.
Here is to Todd Harman and the good folks there at Harman’s cabins. Thanks for such a relaxing and enjoyable trip and for being a friend of paflyfish.com. I am looking forward to taking my 10 year old son down here some day in the near future and watching how big his eyes get as he tried to hold onto a big ole bow.
Nice review
