I've been fishing in the vicinity of Damascus VA for the past few days- Laurel Creek, Beaver Dam Creek, Whitetop Laurel. My first visit to the area. Great place.
Fished Whitetop in the wild trout special regs area at Taylor Valley for around two hours Friday, and about 5 hours on Sunday. Plenty of water in the stream (there have been rain showers), water temps around 60 degrees, slightly milky. No blizzard hatches, but bugs of various sorts have been popping up all through the day- small cream caddis, cream and black midges, small dark mayfly duns, and yellow sallies- and just recently, green drakes.
Yes, the drakes are just starting on Whitetop Laurel and other streams in the region- Tom at the Virginia Creeper fly shop in Abingdon told me to be on the lookout, and I met another angler on Sunday who told me he did well fishing green drake comparaduns. I didn't see any rises, but I put on a green drake spentwing dun, fished the water, and got a fat rainbow of around 14" within a few minutes. Got a few more taps and takes and a couple of smaller fish that shook off after that, but nothing more to hand until I switched over to a bottom-crawling bead head hare's ear soft hackle, which got me a nice 16" rainbow just before I called it quits.
Friday evening at sunset was the closest thing to a hatch that I observed- yellow sally stoneflies popping up steadily, along with an occasional cream caddis and little swarms of cream midges. I swung a yellow soft hackle through a run and got a fingerling size brown and a chunky 14" rainbow. All of the fish I caught in the two days were hard-fighting, healthy, and highly colored.
Fished Whitetop in the wild trout special regs area at Taylor Valley for around two hours Friday, and about 5 hours on Sunday. Plenty of water in the stream (there have been rain showers), water temps around 60 degrees, slightly milky. No blizzard hatches, but bugs of various sorts have been popping up all through the day- small cream caddis, cream and black midges, small dark mayfly duns, and yellow sallies- and just recently, green drakes.
Yes, the drakes are just starting on Whitetop Laurel and other streams in the region- Tom at the Virginia Creeper fly shop in Abingdon told me to be on the lookout, and I met another angler on Sunday who told me he did well fishing green drake comparaduns. I didn't see any rises, but I put on a green drake spentwing dun, fished the water, and got a fat rainbow of around 14" within a few minutes. Got a few more taps and takes and a couple of smaller fish that shook off after that, but nothing more to hand until I switched over to a bottom-crawling bead head hare's ear soft hackle, which got me a nice 16" rainbow just before I called it quits.
Friday evening at sunset was the closest thing to a hatch that I observed- yellow sally stoneflies popping up steadily, along with an occasional cream caddis and little swarms of cream midges. I swung a yellow soft hackle through a run and got a fingerling size brown and a chunky 14" rainbow. All of the fish I caught in the two days were hard-fighting, healthy, and highly colored.
