Dave

277 posts

Fly Tying – The Adams

Fly Tying the Adams
Fly Tying the Adams on MidCurrent by Tightline Productions

MidCurrent has another good fly tying video, this time for the basic Adams pattern, courtesy of Tightline Productions. The Adams is of course the super popular and versatile pattern for imitating a lot of common mayfly species. It’s very easy to tie, and one of those flies that always seems to end up on everyone’s “if I could only have x number of flies” lists, even though there seem to be a lot of flies on those lists! There are tons of great resources for tying the Adams, such as this one on hipwader.com, a new site to me. YouTube also has a bunch of great videos for tying the Adams. Tons more, too, just search.

I’m especially interested in all this right now because for several days it’s been in the low thirties and very windy around here, and so the fly bench is getting some use!

Fishing (er, Hiking) Report – Jeremy’s Run, Shenandoah National Park

See him? Spawning Brook Trout, Jeremy's Run, Shenandoah National Park.

My wife and I decided to work off the turkey and pie the day after our Thanksgiving feast and go for a hike. The woods around here were crawling with hunters, so we headed to Shenandoah National Park. Neither of us had ever been to Jeremy’s Run so we figured we’d hike the trail there. Besides getting some exercise, I wanted to photograph spawning brook trout. Nothing like fishing, but this would also be something new. I normally don’t come out here this time of year and have never seen spawning brookies. I didn’t know if I would have much chance to see any. When you’re fishing, these guys are usually well hidden until they hit your fly. Without a fly rod, well, it didn’t seem so likely to me.

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Reintroducing Brook Trout to Northern Virginia Streams

Tiny Brook Trout

I just ran across this item on the Northern Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Kirk Smith, a PhD student from George Mason University, spoke to the TU chapter on November 4th about his efforts to reintroduce brook trout into area streams. This guy is doing some really exciting and groundbreaking research to restore local streams to support brook trout.

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Spawning Brook Trout and Why No Fishing Lately

Brook Trout
Brook trout ready to spawn and looking spiffy.

I would love to be hiking around Shenandoah National Park right now catching brook trout. Any other time of the year I would regularly be getting out there. However, as you may know, brook trout spawn in the fall, typically from late September through December. Everyone who fishes for them hopefully realizes that it is best to leave them alone for a few months until after the spawn.

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