Post by johnzett on Jul 20, 2007 18:33:16 GMT -5
This is a long-winded question for Jeff or anybody else who has experienced this- I need some advice. Earlier in the season I was raving about the success I was having fishing nymphs- primarily the 2 Mr. Rapidans. By the middle of June, it tapered off significantly and I started dry-fly fishing, without much luck at first. On the second trip, I started experimenting and started having success as soon as I switched to a leader without strike indicators. The fish were hitting the indicators constantly. Up through the second week in July, I was catching up to 100 per trip, a few in the 11-12" range, and was feeling like I had it all figured out, for the second time this season. I'll eventually figure out that bragging prematurely will come back to bite you. Now I'm having a problem that I've never heard of. I haven't had even a rise from a trout in my last four trips because as soon as the fly hits the water, whether its nymph or dry, 12 or 18, it is immediately attacked by swarms of minnows and tiny little brookies in the 1-2 inch range. I've even caught dace minnows 2-4 inches on a 12 Mr. Rapidan dry. This lasts for the entire time the fly is on the water. I've had many occaisions where I've seen trout and have made decent casts to within a foot or 2 of them, but before the fly moves more than an inch or 2, the area is swarming with these tiny minnows and brookies. The only place I've been able to catch brookies since July 1 has been on the north fork Thornton and the Piney. On the Hazel, White Oak above and below the falls, Hughes, Cedar run and South Fork Thornton, I run into these swarms of minnows. Time of day doesn't seem to make a difference. I'm open to suggestions.