One of West Virginia's Temptations

Tucker's Clover Run
A great piece of water for dry fly and wet fly enthusiasts alike. I have personally fished it consistently for the last eight years and love not only the fishing but the scenery in and around the river. A nice piece of water for a 7'-8' bamboo fly rod and a 4 or 5 wt. line. My average fish size is typically between 8"-15" with some whompers lurking about mid summer early morning, late evening. Great early season hatches, and get my butt outta bed summer early morning sessions.

-Dave

Stocked from bridge on WV Secondary Rt. 21, one a half miles south of St. George, upstream 4 miles to WV Secondary Rt. 23 bridge at the mouth of Valley Fork.
Stocked once each month February through May 

The Orvis Trout Bum Pull Over

Sam and I both have been wearing these for winter steelheading purposes. The pullovers are great because your sweat wicks and you do not get that steamy sweaty feeling after the day is done. I have tried Under Armour and some Patagonia under garments but these pullovers seem to do the trick!

Dave

Rade Hawkins Custom Knives

I recently purchased one of these knives and highly recommend them as far as edge quality and overall craftsmanship. The picture above is the Mamoth Ivory Hunter with a fixed blade. Rade is a superior craftsman and a great guy and has been making knives for 30 plus years.

http://www.radehawkinscustomknives.com/

Seneca River Update

Sam and I fished yesterday late on the Seneca, fished wet flies mostly, saw some risers to midges in the afternoon hours. The fish are still sleepy but managed to catch a few. Took my Clint Bova “Moluntha” out for a spin and caught a few on a pink Lady and some Parmachene Belle's. Spring is knockin at the door.
Sam brought some Gentleman Jack so we tripped a few times out of the stream but got home safe and sound.

       Dave

Favorite Small Stream Bamboo Fly Rods

Here are four of my all time favorites:

Paul Young Midge 6’3”

Some small bamboo rods just have a presence and action that lends themselves to Brook Trout fishing. I’m not talking about just any fairy wand, but truly special rods. The first one is Paul Youngs Midge rod 6’3”. The first one I casted was around 1987 up in MI. It was the rod that really inspired me to get into small stream fishing. Since then I own two of them and continue to fish them readily. Parabolic rods lend themselves to wet fly fishing but I fish this rod with dry’s mostly. I find most of Paul Youngs rods great for larger stream situations and they have a lot of guts as far as casting distance goes. The Midge represents a softer side of PY tapers. It’s hard to find rod makers that really delve into small stream rods.

H.L. Leonard The Baby Catskill Model 36-3

With a beautiful swell in the butt section, this rod speaks volumes about olde world meets new casting styles. Casting this rod may just be like stepping back in time. A nice dry fly action in a tiny 6’ package. I fished this rod heavily one summer and really enjoyed it. Although being a 3wt. it had its limitations but nevertheless when a small stream just down the road why not grab a 3wt.

Chris Bogart’s Yellow Rose 7’ 2wt.

So when I take a trip to the Smokies this is my go to rod. Buttery smooth with enough umph to cast in a slight breeze, great for midging, and casting lil beetles. I typicallycast this rod with silk line, it eats it up.

Clint Bova Mad River Rod Co. Little Mecoche 6’9” 4wt.

I took a fishing trip across PA and a friend from Wilkes Barr loaned me his Little Mecoche 4wt. for a small stream walkabout. I wished I owned one. This all around is one of my favorite “small stream” rods. Although I used it on mid sized water and it casted and performed great as well. It loads in close and out far, buttery smooth, and I fought some large fish on it and it tamed the big uns. Its a beautiful rod to boot, I mean dreamy. A 6’9” just seems like it’s shorter than a 7’ but larger than a 6’3” so it’s got potential everywhere in the small stream network.


-Dave

From the West Virginia DNR

“The brook trout is the only trout species native to West Virginia streams.  Native brook trout live and reproduce in only the coldest and purest of our mountain streams.  These streams are generally less than 15 feet wide, well shaded, and have numerous pools.  Although these streams often support large numbers of brook trout, the trout tend to be small fish that average five to six inches in length and seldom exceed 10 inches.

Brook trout are characterized by a dark green back covered with lighter worm-shaped markings, bluish sides and a pink to scarlet belly.  The sides of the trout are profusely sprinkled with yellow spots, interspersed with red ones.  The lower fins are orange-red with a distinctive white stripe on the front edge. 

Given its beauty and the fact that the brook trout is our only native trout, it’s no wonder that in 1973 it was selected to be the official state fish.

Brook trout spawn primarily during October.  Their nests, called redds, are built near the lower end of the pools where the gravel is swept clean of silt and fresh oxygenated water is abundant.  Since these streams are generally low and clear during the fall, spawning activity can be readily observed in many of the small, cold headwater streams of the Elk, Greenbrier and Williams rivers, as well as Seneca and Gandy creeks. 

While there are 500 miles of native trout streams in West Virginia, the streams are small and represent only two percent of the total miles of stream in the state.

Brook trout are not picky eaters and feed on a wide variety of food items.  During the winter and early spring, much of their food consists of aquatic insects and other fish. The insects include mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies. 

In the summer and early fall, their diet changes to terrestrial insects.  These are insects like grasshoppers, Japanese beetles and bees that normally live on the land but become fish food when they fall or are washed into the stream.”

The WV DNR did a great job on this synopsis of the Native Brookie and its habitat and mentions Gandy creeks which have been hot lately.

~D

Winter Doldrums with Sam

Sam and I went to the river today. He hummed a bit, actually a lot, maybe even to the point of being annoying. I suppose he's just bored with the winter doldrums. He's tied just about every fly in the book and then some. He perked up a bit after receiving a catalog from Mad River Rod Co. saw one of Clint Bova's rods at a gathering last year and decided maybe it's time to bite the bullet and get one. That's something to look forward to...sam you paying attention? He fell asleep in my truck last week after work and his head bumped the dashboard twice before he finally woke up. I'm about ready to drive him straight to the Seneca and drop him off with his rod to get him out of his funk.

~D