Post by johnzett on May 14, 2007 21:52:22 GMT -5
This is for bluedog and anyone else that's interested. Since this is my first year fishing in the park, Ideciced to concentrate on the northern half and eastern slope streams, except for Jeremy's Run, since I live in Culpeper County. I wanted to make the trips to and from less than an hour. So far, I've hit every stream north of the Rose River, plus Hogcamp Branch. Hogcamp Branch, the Hazel for the first mile up from the bottom, and the South Fork of the Thornton have been the toughest. Everywhere else has been teriffic at one time or another. I've fished all of the north Fork Thornton, The Piney from the lower park entrance up to about one half mile past the school trail, the first five miles down Jeremy's from the first trail crossing,(this is about 1000 paces past crossing #12 or 10, I'm not sure which and I can't find my notebook), Buck Run for the first mile up from the 211 entrance, The Hughes from the bottom to 1 mile past Hannah's Run, Cedar Run from 500yds below the trail crossing to 1 mile above the trail crossing, and White Oak Canyon Run from the top down to the upper falls, including the branch to your left after you cross the footbridge. I'm convinced that the SI indicator that Harry sells makes all the difference. From my experimenting, I don't think that his bright butt leaders are necessary, but I use my own version of them anyway because I can't find another butt material that works as well as far as stiffness and general behaviour is concerned. It took me many many hours to figure out how to interpret what the strike indicators were telling me, and I know I missed a heck of a lot of good sized fish in the beginning because I didn't realize how incredibly subtle the takes of the larger brookies are most of the time. I wasn't exaggerating about the nymph fishing, either. If I'm on the water for six hours, it's very seldom that I'll spend even 45 minutes with a dry fly. For those of you that don't nymph fish very often, a way to start is with the 2 Mr. Rapidans in sizes 12 and 14 and 2 or 3 caddis worms, pupas, and emergers. The patterns Harry sells work fine, but so does everybody elses. I haven't found any mayfly nymph patterns in the same league as the Mr. Rapidans, however. I am really curious about how it's going to be as the mayfly season ebbs and the low water of summer approaches. I've already gone from 4x to 5x mono to 4x to 5x fluoro and am having to learn all over agaion how to approach the pools, but don't bypass the skinny water. I've been amazed at the number and size of fish I've caught in places where I'd walk up to the spot and still not understand how a fish could be in that place. On Sunday, I caught 3 in one spot that honestly was about 2 feet square and no more than 12" deep. Good fishing and I'll check the forum for comments. I'd really like to hear from others about how you're doing.