Another New Member to the Sport

A couple of things I enjoy most of this sport: exploring new places/water and introducing new people to the sport of fly fishing. I get equal enjoyment out of both!

My only outing prior to this one was to introduce a fellow co-worker (and Aggie) to the sport and to show him what West Virginia has to offer in the way of scenic beauty. This time I would help introduce another generation to the sport and hopefully provide some guidance for his trip to Colorado in late July.

The interesting thing about this individual is that a few years earlier I taught his dad how to fly fish and I also took his dad to Colorado for the first time in 2011. I was also able to put him on every native species of cutthroat Colorado offers, including one of the top three streams I have ever fished in the west - I refer to it as Cutthroat Heaven.

When I introduce a new person to the sport, I like to start on a good brookie stream. There are a couple of reasons I start this way: brookies will hit anything big & fuzzy and there are plenty of strike opportunities to keep them interested. I talked it over with "dad" and we decided on a big brookie stream, with plenty of space (for casting and three people), and it also happens to have a good population of larger fish. Other than Seneca, this has become one of my favorite streams.

The first thing I always teach them is how to read the water and where the fish, most likely, will be located. From there, I go with the high stick drift...no need to worry about casting. It didn't take long for "junior" to catch his first fish on a fly rod while, basically, standing right over top of it.

Father and son sharing the moment.

"Junior" with his first trout on a fly rod; a nice, native West Virginia brookie.

After it appeared "junior" had a slight grasp on the system, and with dad assisting as needed, I was able to poke around a bit and land a few nice brookies of my own.

Soon after, dad got in on the action.

With everyone into fish, we moved much quicker upstream, picking up fish from nearly every decent looking pool. 

It was nice to lag behind and watch father and son enjoying the time on the water. With the video game craze, this is becoming even more rare every day.

Father's watchful eye...

As much as I enjoy introducing new people to the sport and showing them around some of my favorite places, I still enjoy catching fish. Even fishing used water, I was able to pick up the occasional brookie.

We fished well upstream, further than what I realized actually. After about a two mile hike out and some snacks/drinks on the tailgate, it was off to Seneca Creek to catch a few wild rainbows for dinner. That didn't work out to well...we landed plenty of fish but nothing of size to make a meal out of - car camping food for dinner it would be.

Our last stop for the day was Seneca Shadows campground for the night. I have been past the entrance of this campground a hundred times, but I have never stopped or stayed here. That has been my loss as this was the view from our tent site.

This is where I get sentimental for a moment. The reason I hadn't fished much was the business within the company I had worked for 21+ years had been sold and this was my last night as an employee of the former company. When I would wake up in the morning, I would be an employee of a new company. This hasn't happened in over 20 years and even though my job or my coworkers weren't changing, it was definitely a new chapter in my life. That always causes me to reflect on memories of what once was and thoughts of what will be. 

The one thing I finally came to realize was: I like change, I'm an explorer! Let's get this party started!

With that now behind me, I slept well and felt no different when I woke up...let's go exploring!

The next morning was a couple of quick stops to streams I had not fished previously. I hadn't checked off any new West Virginia streams yet in 2014 - that changed this day.

The first stream was one of the last two remaining streams in the Seneca drainage. It was a small stream and the water was a bit low, which made fishing with three people difficult. I left the father and son to fish together and I pushed upstream far enough to give them some space to explore on their own.

I quickly picked up a small brookie in a small plunge pool...add this stream to the list.

I moved up the high gradient stream, skipping most of the marginal water, until I spotted a good-sized pothole about eye level. With a high stick drift, I caught another brookie and a decent one at that.

I studied the GPS and topo map and decided I needed to return to this stream sometime and explore further upstream. I've heard there are wild rainbows in here too, so I added it to my never ending West Virginia streams to pay a return visit.

After a decent fish to finish up this stream, I moved back downstream to pick up the boys and move to another stream on my list.

I've stared at the mountain contour which contained this stream every time I travel down the east side of Rich Mountain. Today would be the day i would finally check this one off the list, so over Allegheny Mountain we went to where the GPS indicated the mouth of the stream should be.

We parked the truck and waded across the main stream to the mouth. After a quick couple of drift at the extreme low end of the stream, we decided to pick up an old Forest Service road and hike upstream.

I picked up the first little brookie at the bottom of a culvert hole where the Forest Service road crossed the creek the first time.

It's a good thing I caught that brookie in the first culvert hole because I didn't move another fish in that little stream. There seemed to be an excessive amount of silt in the stream. I believe there is a grazing allotment at the top of the mountain and that may have something to do with the siltation, but who knows?

After adding another member to the fly fishing community and adding two more brookie streams to my West Virginia life list, it was time to head for the house...more memories created and time to reflect - that's why we do this, right?

Chris

Why I Fish - Reason 1

I recently took my annual trip for our local TU chapter campout. For the last five years, the Friday of this outing has been spent with my good friend and WVU professor, Rick.

The first two years of this (now) annual tradition was a 10-mile trek into the Seneca backcountry. The third year water was up so we didn't make the long hike, instead I showed him a couple of my other favorite waters. Then, last year, he decided he would rather fish one of those streams. It was hard to believe it had been three years since Rick and I had been in the backcountry.

This year, we found ourselves planning the Seneca backcountry trip again. This year we would shuttle a vehicle to the top of the backcountry, make our usual gruelling hike over Allegheny Mountain, then fish our way out the gentle grade trail to the top - avoiding the brutal hike out after fishing all day.

Also different this year, we would have a couple of friends joining us. One of these friends would be (Don)  an old college friend that I've only seen a few times over the last 25 years.

We were up early, took care of the shuttle vehicle at the top, and soon found ourselves heading up the mountain on Horton trail. It's been a long time since my college friend and I have actually just talked and the hike in was all conversation  - it was nice to catch up! However, things did get pretty quiet when we got near the crest of Allegheny Mountain, as the final quarter mile feels straight up.

More good conversation ensued on the downhill section of the trail and before we knew it we were unloading our packs and getting ready to hit the water. Don and Rick getting the day started:

I took the first good looking run, while the others spread out upstream. I always catch a nice rainbow or brookie here - not this day. Although I struck out in the first run, it didn't take long to land my first brookie of the day.

After I got the day started off right with a nice, little native brookie, I caught up to Don and he invited me to share a nice pod of rising rainbows.

Don landed a nice little rainbow, stepped to the side, and allowed me to do the same. The day was looking good early!

This day was going to be outstanding,sharing one of my favorite sections of stream (anywhere) with two good friends.

We had five miles of stream and trail to cover, and even with four of us "hop scotching", that's a lot of water to cover - so we moved fast. However, I couldn't pull myself away from probably my favorite spot in West Virginia - the upper falls of Seneca Creek.

I snapped off several photos of the falls, caught a few wild/native fish, then moved on to catch the crew. When I finally caught up with them, they were watching Rick's brother-in-law working a nice pool. He landed one of the nicer fish of the day, a beautiful Seneca wild rainbow.



Over the next few hours I took more photos on the stream than I have in years. I found myself watching my friends work the water as I trailed with the camera out.



I could help but wonder when the three of us would be on the water together again. Rick and I seem pretty committed to making our annual outing happen every year. I hope we can get Don out with us again in the future.

When I wasn't snapping off photos of Don and Rick in the same frame, I was taking shots of some amazing water.

I didn't only take photos, I did pretty well with the rod too!

When we got to Judy Springs, a primary source of Seneca Creek, I knew we had three miles to the trailhead. It was new territory for Rick and they took turns heckling me as I fished for a couple of risers below the foot bridge.



After I whiffed at a couple of strikes, we took Rick over to see the springs. It's one of the largest spring heads I know about in West Virginia.

This was all new territory for Rick and it's nice to introduce friends to the sites that you hold near and dear to your heart. I've personally only fished above the springs on one other occasion, so I was going to hit new water myself.

The fishing didn't slow down above the springs. I walked up on another pool of risers, and in back-to-back drifts I landed these two guys.



The rainbow was my largest of the day and he was very dark - his mouth was actually black.

Then I made a couple more drifts for good measure and landed another little brookie.

By this time of the day we were covering water quickly, with a couple of miles still remaining to the trailhead. I was nearly done for the day, just watching everyone else work the water.

I caught Don landing one in this nice pool. On the tail of a drift, he landed one as he was about to lift his fly for another cast. I told him it almost looked like an accident.

I picked a nice little run next to the trail and landed one more little rainbow on the day.





Nobody in the crew wanted to end this day but when the skies opened up, they all packed up their rods and prepared for the final hike out. We had another two miles to the trailhead but everyone had commitments they had to meet that evening - as we all do in life.

Once we got to the trailhead, it was time to just hang out and laugh at each other. The day seemed to fly by but we had actually been out for nearly ten hours. It was also nice to just sit around and talk. I enjoy that almost as much as the fishing - ALMOST.

Why do we fish?

One of the main reasons I fish is the camaraderie. I enjoy sharing the water and scenery of where we find wild and native salmonids with friends. I particularly like it when it is new scenery for my friends.

I hope I have many more outings with Don and Rick - and all of my other fishing friends!

Chris

2010 Year in Review - Quality Over Quantity

As the year quickly comes to a close, it's time to reflect on the adventures of 2010. With the move to the Cincinnati area, I didn't fish nearly as much but the times I did make it out were very special.

Before I get into the video portion of the recap, here are a few numbers:

• I added 7 new streams to my West Virginia brookie list.
• I added another state (California) to my brookie list, bringing my total to 12.
• I added 2 new brookie streams in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
• I caught brookies in the same stream but in two different states (West Virginia and Virginia).
• I added 11 new native species to my personal life list, bringing my list to 25.
• One of those new species, the Lahontan cutthroat, I ended up catching in 3 different states (Nevada, California, and Oregon).
• FINALLY, I added a successful California Heritage Trout Challenge to the successful Wyoming Cuttslam, and the "unofficial" Colorado Cuttslam.

To me, the fishing is just as much about the people and places I fish as it is the fish themselves. I started out the year with the annual father/son trip to the Smokys.

We ended up hiking about 20 miles over the three days...

 saw some pretty water..

my first virgin stand of timber east of the Mississippi...

and caught a few brookies.

I didn't make many trips back to the mountains of West Virginia, but when I did they all had a purpose.

There was the Elkhorn Clean-up; where, following the work, I was able to catch all three species - two of which were wild, stream-born and the third (brookie) was a mystery.

Following this trip; I made a business trip to Las Vegas where I was able to add the Lahontan cutthroat to my life list and hike a bristlecone forest in the White Mountains of California, in search of Methusela.

My next trip back home was for the Blennerhassett chapter of TU spring campout ad hanging out with a small group of great guys.

This weekend started with the second annual 10-mile (round trip) hike into the Seneca Backcountry with another good friend.

Then was the Middle Fork of the Williams Bucket Brigade, where we had over 100 Walmart and TU volunteers show up in the rain to dump over seven tons of limestone fines - one bucket at a time.

I was also able to fish following the work with the head of the West Virginia DNR's Limestone Fines program, and add the same stream to my list - five years ago this stream was dead!

Another annual outing for me is the WVAngler.com campout. It was an incredible weekend where I caught one of my larger WV brookies followed by an incredible day with two great friends.

My next adventure was an epic road trip in which I added 11 new species to my life list, including the Life-long Bucket List hike into the Golden Trout Wilderness. I also was able to spend  day on Silver King Creek with Dave Balducci, one of the original Native Trout Anglers - another great highlight. However, I did strike out on the paiute cutthroat, Alvord cutthroat, Whitehorse Basin cutthroat, and the Humboldt cutthroat...looks like a return trip may be necessary.

I tried to summarize the trip in the following video, but there is no way pictures and words can summarize this amazing adventure!

I wrapped up my 2010 adventures with another annual event, the Blennerhassett chapter West Fork of Greenbrier fingerling stocking.

During this weekend I was able to catch brookies in the same stream, but two different states.

West Virginia Brookie:

Virginia brookie:

I couldn't close a 2010 wrap-up without saying goodbye to an old, reliable friend. These guys have literally been with me for hundreds of miles of hiking. They have accompanied me on multiple (6) 10+ mile hikes into Seneca Backcountry, hikes deep into the Dolly Sods Wilderness. They have made (2) hikes to Timber Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park - over 10 miles to over 11K feet, multiple trips into the RMNP altitude chasing (3) greenbacks and (3) brookies. They have also made hikes and been dunked in waters of Yellowstone NP, Smoky Mountains NP, Shenandoah NP, and Yosemite NP. Their ultimate demise was a 16-mile day hike in the New Mexico desert and the Gila Wilderness. If these guys could talk, they would speak volumes of the adventures they have covered with me!

I sure will miss these loyal companions!

Here's to a great year and hopefully another one for 2011, in which I hope to take my son on his first visit to the Rockies.

Chris