Mountain streams ready for spring

They say trout don't live in ugly places. This is certainly true of the northern Blue Ridge Mountains in SWVA.

This fish was caught with a 7'6" Riverfeet 3# rod, double-taper Airflo line, 6X tippet and a size 14 bead-headed March Brown nymph with a little flash tied over the wing case, bouncing off the bottom of a 4 foot deep run.

The mountain streams are still quite cold, so the trout are mostly lethargic - practically have to hit them in the nose with your fly as they won't chase far.

There was a moderate hatch of size 14 brown stoneflies and size 20 grey mayflies, but during the two hours of fishing I only saw one trout rise. If this warm weather holds we should see some quality dry fly action by the weekend.