Rock Castle Creek: Great bugs, where were the trout?

I just took my first trip to Rock Castle Creek in Patrick County, Virginia today. My friend and I chose to head down that way on a beautiful 55degF January day to see the wild trout of this stream. Unfortunately, the trout had other plans, as the best we turned up was a spotting I made of a somewhat lethargic 7 incher that, upon spotting me, ambled from a slack hole to the shelter of a nearby rock. Throughout the afternoon, though, I spent nearly as much time fishing as I did turning over rocks in the stream looking for other fauna. I was impressed with each rock I picked up to see a plethora of creatures scurrying to get to the other side. There was an entire spectrum of sizes of mayfly nymphs from tiny (let's say #26) to about #12, a few caddis larvae, and plenty of stone fly nymphs. The first rock I flipped even had a freshwater shrimp (is this called a scud in this case??). I was particularly impressed to see a very large stone fly nymph under each of the reasonably large-sized rocks that I flipped. These bugs would have been a real treat for any hungry trout, at sizes of #8-#10 by my estimates.

Seeing all the great aquatic insect (and crustacean) life made me really wonder where the trout were. I can only guess that the recent two weeks of actual winter weather had really slowed down the feeding action. It was my hope that today's warm temps would have the trout up and going, but apparently the ice storm that struck last week had waited until today to melt off and leach 32degF water into the otherwise warming stream. Well, all for the better, these fish will have no hope if August brings 75degF water temps; so I guess for now, the best thing to do is to be happy with a chance trout spotting and dream of the March Browns when they hatch.

Self-improvement

My wife is always adamant that I plan and pack ahead of any significant event involving travel. Well, for me a significant event can be as insignificant as half-day fishing trip.

Now to plan for the trip, no problem. I know enough about places around and have spoken to people about where to go, what to take, etc. to be ready. The problem is the actual execution of the plan in terms of the 'packing' or in this case preparing.

When it comes to fishing, there is a danger for me of beginning this too far in advance. No, I don't mean days or weeks in advance, but even the night before. Despite my terrible proclivity to forget vital items when packing for say, a trip to Europe, I pack for fishing with a meticulousness not known to most other facets of my life. Every little piece of equipment has the potential to be improved--frayed leaders; not enough #14 royal Humpies; out of #6 tippet; clean the fly line; grease the reel; the list goes on. If I begin to address any one of these the night before, it could snowball into a 4 hour affair that may include a trip to –GASP- WalMart before it is all over. I have found, however, that if I refuse to think about these things, I can for the most part just throw together what I usually use, hop in the car and go. Certainly, I catch just as many fish as when I extensively prepare the night before; and I spare myself the disappointment that comes with the build-up of excitement during the preparations.

This year, I am trying the mature fly-fishing method instead. I have read of those who handle their lists of to-do’s for gear improvement throughout the winter as therapy for the lack of time actually fishing. It’s not easy for a night-before’er, but I figured it is worth a try. So far this year, I’ve handled an astonishing amount of these preparations at a snail’s pace. For instance, I will tie three or four flies several nights a week and this will adequately stock my fly box soon, at least for the undiscriminating brookies I love to catch (I’m putting off tying those tiny flies needed for a trip to a place like Smith River in Henry County, Virginia known for its scholarly brown trout). For the first time in memory, I cleaned my fly lines. There’s still more to do, but I still have some time. Yes, this is the way to go; and here’s hoping that I remember that next winter.

HCRI Roanoke Area Practice Group

I attended the intensive Hollins Fluency System (HFS) course in April of 2006 to improve the fluency of my speech, and the results have absolutely changed my outlook on life! In the two weeks span before attending HCRI and finishing the course, I went from uncomfortable in nearly every speaking situation to being confident and fluent in every situation. I am happy to say that I have relasped very little since, including increasing my speaking situations enormously in public speaking engagements and numerous 'cold' phone calls for building our business (Applied University Research, Inc.).

Many mutual thanks go to the attendees of the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI) Roanoke Area Practice Group that met Saturday, January 20 at HCRI. This was the first Roanoke practice group that has convened since my attendance of the course, and it was a great experience to share thoughts and sharpen 'targets' with fellow HCRI'ers. Through only three HCRI functions (the HFS, the 2006 phonathon, and this practice group meeting), I have met some of the most-remarkable people in all walks of life. I am amazed about the number of shared perceptions and experiences that we all have; its like instantly meeting friends you never knew you had!

I would certainly recommend the HFS to anyone serious about improving their fluency and reducing the amount they stutter. The system addresses the root causes of stuttering--the biomechanics of speaking, not the psychological issues that may accompany disfluency. By doing this, you are given actual tools for improving your fluency--you can control it! If you have specific questions about attending the system, you may contact me directly. Otherwise, feel free to visit the HCRI website and contact the fine professionals there.

Pseudoscorpions!!

My wife discovered a most-curious 'bug' the other day crawling around on a pillow case in our house. I could not believe my eyes when I saw it and we both went through a couple of reactions. First, the creature was tiny, flat, and it clearly had eight legs--so instantly we thought we were dealing with a tick. Its body was very robust-looking, not spidery at all. Next, my mind just could not come to terms with the fact that this thing had claws that stuck out at least as long as its body was. My third-grade-quality sketch:














I quickly went to trusty Google and typed in 'tick with claws' and, -BAM-, there it was thanks to someone else who made the same 'discovery' and searched in a similar way. There was a site devoted to these harmless and in-fact beneficial creatures, pseudoscorpions. These guys are mite predators that live throughout the world and amount to a miniature scorpion without its stinger. They are tiny, no bigger than a couple of millimeters, and they are prolific, some 2000 plus species exist worldwide. If this has piqued your interest, check out the links:
Wiki
What's that bug?

Now for some lasers...

I was pleased to stumble upon a page buried in the National Science Foundation website that highlighted the work that Dr. Roger Simpson and I conducted during my Ph.D. studies. The website (http://www.nsf.gov/eng/cbet/nuggets/1443/1443_simpson.htm) contains a descriptive 'nugget' of our accomplishments in developing laser instruments for near-surface fluid flow characterization. Ours was selected as one of three among several funded research programs to represent the Fluid Dynamics initiative of the Chemical, Bioengineering Environmental and Transport Systems program. Our program managers for this have been Drs. Michael Plesniak and William Schultz. We are certainly indebted to them for their support during our funding term.

Fly of the day! Hard Foam Bass Popper

An exciting Trout Unlimited joint chapter meeting between the Clinch Valley and New River Valley chapters led to a lot of shared information last night at Tangent Outfitters in Pembroke, VA. Apart from the great brook trout conservation on the horizon at Dismal Creek in Giles County, the folks at Tangent gave great demonstations for tying some flies of local interest. I was amazed at a hard-foam popper recipe that Tracy at Tangent has worked-up and discussed there. These flies are deadly for smallmouth bass in the New River (and beyond) and could not be easier to make for the wow factor and productivity they give. I wish to thank Tracy again for sharing his insight on this fly, which I ran home to tie as soon as I was able!
Hard Foam Bass Popper



















Hook and body: Wapsi Perfect Popper
Tail: Saddle feathers, flashabou, crystal flash, marabou, use your imaginination!
Hackle: Saddle
Legs: Rubber legs, flashabou, etc.

Brook trout fever

The warm weather of late has drawn my wife and I out-of-doors this winter much more than usual. Although the 'weather outside is frightful' and not because it is cold (as paraphrased/quoted from a headline in the Roanoke Times), it does make for good early season native trout fishing. I was amazed on an outing Saturday (Jan. 6th) that fish were very actively feeding in the 68deg.F. heat of the afternoon. I even saw one brookie take something on the surface! Right after that I caught her on my black Marabou Nymph.
Now, I didn't get any 'lunkers' on Saturday like this one from Little Stony Creek (Giles County) in 2002:














(and yes, a 12-incher is a lunker in my book!), but it was hard for me to beat a 20 fish afternoon in a step-across stream in January! I hope these warm temps do not exacerbate summer water temps, but for the time being a few warm days sure offer great therapy for cabin fever.

Fly of the day: Murray's Hellgramite

For today's fly, I have decided to wrap up an old promise I made to a friend as he and his son began fly fishing for smallmouth bass in SWVA. I told him about a favorite I had read about in Harry Murray's book, Virginia Blue Ribbon Streams, and on his website, http://www.murraysflyshop.com/. Mr. Murray is one of the most-renowned fly-fishers of the area, so Ithought giving my friend one or two of this highly recommended pattern would be a safe bet for catching fish. Unfortunately, more than two years have passed since I promised those flies, but I have finally 'gotten around' to tying some of this pattern. Simple to tie and, though I have not fished one yet, I would imagine it to fish fairly simply as well. Hellgramites hug the bottom, so I have heavily weighted this fly. The one photographed below is tied on a #8 streamer hook, but I would readily tie these up to #0 or even #1/0.
Murray's Hellgramite











Tail, body, antennae: Black ostrich
Hackle: Strung black hen for woolly buggers
Thread: 6/0 black
Clip tail to uniform length and optionally clip hackle for rough look.

Boise State University: National Champs

Alright, only one BCS team finished the season undefeated. Bronco's are National Champs...right?

BCS = bad, Fox+BCS = disaster

As one of the millions who love to watch college football (Go Hokies!), it is of no use for me to decry the BCS in light of a play-off system since every TV and radio analyst in the U.S. is already doing so. But I have not heard much about the TERRIBLE JOB FOX IS DOING FOR COVERAGE OF THE BCS GAMES!! It's honestly hard for me to begin to criticize the entire operation, but a couple of problems:
1. The NFL is not the measuring stick for every play, player, tradition, event, etc. that occurs during a college football game. Since these announcers primarily have experience with the pro's, most references made are comparisons to the NFL; and it comes off as if college football is lacking in its own richness. Many, many college football fans could give a flip about the NFL, and even for those who enjoy the NFL those references are very annoying and exhibit little respect for the game being played.
2. Way over-produced. Did you see a) the BCS selection show, b) the intro to the 2007 national championship? Holy cow.

To be fair, I like Fox's handling of the NFL (although they lost a lot when James Brown left), but stick to the pro's and leave college to Disney.

Fly tying, marabou nymph

I could post hundreds of links to more-complete fly-tying information (and eventually, I will give some of these I am sure), but for this blog, I will exhibit some of the things I do to create flies that catch the beautiful native and wild trout that inhabit SWVA waters.

First, I'm proud of the fly tying station that went up just this weekend!














Now, I would love to chronicle the flies that I tie as 'fly of the []' []=day, week, month, although I realize fully that the ambition I have now to do so will fade with time.... But for today, the 'Fly of the Day' is one I call the Marabou Nymph tied in olive in the photo below. I did not invent this pattern, but it was shown to me on the stream one day and it works. I caught and released native brook trout all day Saturday on the black version.
Marabou Nymph












Thread: 8/0 Brown
Tail: Olive marabou tips
Dubbing: Olive-died hare
Rib: Gold 'Ultra-Wire'
Legs: Clipped marabou
Hook: 12 streamer
Head: 5/32 oz. gold bead

Fur, feathers, trout, and lasers...

Well, at least it's not MySpace...

Here, I will share some information about our adventures in the outdoors of Southwest Virginia with an emphasis on fly-fishing and conservation. As an active member of the New River Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited, I welcome readers to learn more about our work.

Shameless plug: Please check out my work: http://www.aurinc.com/
Our company, Applied University Research, Inc., develops and markets high performance laser-Doppler velocimetry/anemometry instruments for several applications including turbomachinery, aircraft and submarine noise, and wind tunnel testing. We can also do on-site flow measurements using our advanced instruments such as the sub-miniature laser Doppler velocimeter.

To come: fly-tying, SWVA fishing journal, and more about lasers.