The Pound River

Cold, cold, cold, was what the thermometer said when I left the house on Monday and began my two hour drive to the Pound River. The Pound winds along for many miles paralleling the Kentucky state line. Just out side of Haysi (pronounced with a long i on the end), the Pound is impounded by the John Flannagan Dam, an Army Corp. flood control dam.

With the cold weather, I was sure that the fishing would be just as difficult as had been for the past two weeks. Cold temperatures seems to put the bite off, but a tailwater, like the Pound, is another story. With the water staying a more consistent year round temperature, the trout seem to have an easier time with atmospheric temperature changes.

I didn’t get my hopes up too much. It was only suppose to reach 27 degrees for the high and snow was falling hard when I reached the dam. I came prepared for a shut out. I had even been told by a local guide to wait a couple of weeks for a warm spell.

With the snow still falling I made my way down the winding road to the park area at the foot of the dam. This was one time I was glad I was driving a four wheel drive truck. The road was rather steep and covered in an inch of snow. I don’t think I would have attempted the descent without the truck.

With in a few minutes of reaching the river I was in the water. I started fishing directly under the spillway in a large pool. The trout were giving splashy rises to what I assumed to be rising midge pupa. I tied on a brassie, a strike indicator, and began casting into the areas where the trout were rising. Within a couple of drifts I was hooked into a decent trout.

I fished in this pool for about two hours and managed the hook and lose several. I then began to work my way down stream fishing pocket water along the way. The cold was beginning to get to me so I stopped for early lunch and to warm up in my truck.

Lunch on days like this is usually light and packed in protein. I’m

not so sure of how healthy it is, but it does taste good. There’s nothing like summer sausage, spicy mustard, and hot coffee to get you through a day of fishing.

Warm and with a full belly I continued down stream, working pocket water and pools along the way,for almost an half mile to the special regulation water. Fishing the special regulation section, which extends from the a sign posted .4 miles below the dam to the confluence with Ravens Fork, is a must. This section is artificial lure, single hook, and nothing is to be kept under 16 inches. This section is stocked with fingerling browns to supplement the wild browns that hold in this mile and a half of water.

The section I fished was great. I landed three trout ranging from six inches to ten inches, but I lost a whole lot more than that. Then there is the one that got away. I hooked into a nice bow and fought him for about four to five minutes. I worked him to with in six to seven yards when I felt the line go limp. Like a boxer waylaid by an unexpected punch, my line lay sprawled out on the water, and the victor quietly slipped back into the dark depths of the Pound.

Brassies seemed to be the hot item for a cold January day. Midges were in abundance in the water and on the rocks. I also found lots of sow bugs, actually more sow bugs than midges. I was fishing a size 18 brassie with no weight. I may have done even better if I had slipped on a couple of split shot and put the fly on the bottom faster. If you go fill your fly box with brassies from size 16 to 20, sow bugs in sizes 14 to 18. You may also want a few streamers in you box, which drew a couple of strikes in the late afternoon for me.

A couple of warnings for those who plan to head to the Pound River. First, the Pound is a tailwater and the Army Corp. of Engineers does release water from time to time. There are no release schedules that are posted, so be cautious when wading below the dam. Secondly, didymo is present in this stream, as well as in several other Virginia tailwaters. If you are not aware this a very invasive and annoying algae that spreads from river to river on your fishing equipment. Please properly clean your equipment after fishing the Pound and let your waders fully dry before moving on to the next stream.

The Pound River should be one of the streams you plan to fish this year. It is one of the top trout streams in southwest Virginia and should be at the top of any fisherman’s to do list. I have already been trying to get some of my friends to go back with me and I am sure you will want to do the same.

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If you have ever fished the Pound River let me know or if you have photos of some hog you have pulled out of there I would love to see them.

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Virginia Trout Stocking Updates

Map of Pound River and close by community of Haysi.

Closest Weather Station

You may be interested in reading about other streams I have fished.

Wolf Creek

Laurel Creek

Laurel Creek

It was spiting snow when I crossed the top of the divide heading into the Freestone Valley on Monday. The the muddy ruts in the road were frozen and covered with a dusting of snow. It seemed like a typical January morning.  With the temperatures hovering around freezing, I knew I would be in for a tough day of fishing.

This cold January morning had me heading into uncharted territory, I had never been in this part of Virginia before. The Freestone Valley, which lies in the southeastern most corner of Tazewell county, is home to one of the tributaries of the North Fork of the Holston River. Laurel Creek, along with three or four other larger streams in the area, eventually forms the North Fork of the Holston River.

Laurel Creek is one of a hand full of streams that feed the North Fork and hold trout. Two of these are Roaring Fork and Lick Creek. All of these streams are know to hold Rainbows and Brooks.

Laurel Creek would be ideal for those looking for semi-remote fishing. The creek appears to get a low amount of pressure and has access to most of it by FR 222. This road winds it’s way through the Jefferson National Forest from highway 16 and it is nice on a cold day having the truck close by.

By midmorning I was easing up on a beaver pond that was a short way down stream from where I first caught glimpse of Laurel Creek. The stream looked promising and after a few minutes of rigging up my 7’6” 5wt. rod I was searching for trout.

I could tell the stream was swollen from the inch and a half of rain we had received the week before, and the six plus inches in the past month. The leaves had been striped way along the bank revealing the dark soil and indicating the water was receding.

All morning I used searching patterns and an across stream swing presentation as I tried to locate the trout. I covered the whole pond and didn’t even see one fish. I began to get disappointed but all the while reminding my self ‘winter fishing is tough.’

Breaking the ice out of my guides was a constant reminder of just how cold it was. Even the more was when I began to dig in the creek bed looking for any sign of life and what these trout, if any, were eating. I came up with very little. I didn’t even find a mayfly nymph, only the cases of a few caddisflies.

When lunch time rolled around I drove down stream to a place where the stream wondered through an open area and finished my lunch. I had pack a lunch, knowing after looking at a map I would not be close to much, of tuna and a hardboiled egg. It’s not much as table fare but it will get you through the day.

After I ate I headed over to the stream. This section meandered back and forth through this flat open area. The water went from short riffles, to even shorter pools, and then into a hard turns all throughout this clearing. I was constantly changing my location and hopping from one side of the stream to the other.

Removing the 7x leader and rigging from the morning, I tied on a 4x leader and a conehead sculpin pattern. Switching back and forth between a between an upstream pitch and strip, and an across stream swing I managed to stir up some strikes but no takers.

It was a great day and definitely a stream I would fish again. Between the solitude and the beauty of the the landscape, Laurel Creek is one of those places you just keep coming back too.

The sections that I fished where part of the upper reaches of this branch. According to Trout Streams of Virginia: An Angler's Guide to the Blue Ridge Watershed the better sections are from the bridge, where Roaring Fork enters, down stream to where National Forest meets private property. This section is better accessed from highway 601 off of Virginia 16.

If you decide to fish Laurel Fork be sure to plan ahead. The area is fairly remote. There is no cell phone signal and no apparent permanent residents. If you get stranded it is a couple mile hike up hill to highway 16 from the stocked waters. Be sure to pack a lunch, no restaurants or service stations are close by to stop at for lunch.

Before you go fill your fly box full of streamer patterns from sizes 16 down to size 10. I would take patterns like the sculpin, Mickey Fin, muddler, and the sliver darter. I would also take along a few caddisflies in sizes 14-18. If  you go in late summer to early fall be sure to take a few terrestrials along.

Be careful the stream is narrow but I found its depth deceiving. More than once I found myself in deeper water than it appeared.

Laurel Creek was a lot of fun and I would go again. My day ended fishless, cloudy, and cold (basically, the way it began). Don’t let my down day in the middle of January stop you. Good water lies in the Freestone Valley and plenty of elbow room give it a try and let me know what you think.

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If you missed last week’s post on Wolf Creek you can find it here.

Information on Jefferson National Forest is available here.

Virginia trout stocking information is available here.

The above link is updated weekly. You can search through the archives for past stockings.

The closest weather station available is in Bland, Virginia.

Wolf Creek

Just north of Wytheville Virginia, along I-77, is a small community by the name of Rocky Gap. The community is aptly named, for as you leave the interstate you will notice a shear rock cliff that is cut for the highway to pass. Along the outskirts of the community is Wolf Creek.

Wolf Creek is a freestone stream that stretches from Burk’s Garden in Tazewell County to the New River in Giles County Virginia. If you are coming north out of Wytheville you will travel along side of Wolf Creek for several miles. At one point the stream flows between the north and south bound lanes of the highway.

It was cloudy when I arrived in Rocky Gap on Monday morning and there was not a soul in site. May be this should have been a sign for me. I had hoped for a great day in the water: the skies were gray, the temperatures were mild, the water flows were decent, and I was told the stock truck had ran just before Christmas. The Virginia DGIF stocks the stream six times between October 1 and May 30. I was hoping to find a few of the trout that might have escaped the on slot of egg chuckers, but sadly no such luck.

My weapon of choice was my wife’s 7’ 6” 5 weight that I bought for her about a year ago. I had the rod made for her by a fellow blogger in Alabama. Nathan Kennedy blogs over at the TVAngler. Along with the good quality posts he has about fly fishing in Alabama, he builds rods and does a little photography on the side as well.

The rod is an absolute pleasure to cast. Aesthetically it is very pleasing as well. The green shaft, reddish orange color of the reel seat, and the green and gold wraps all make for a very nice looking rod. He told me he wasn’t pleased with some areas of the rod, but I think it looks great. And more importantly so does my wife.

I started my morning just underneath the new bridge along highway 61. With in thirty minutes I managed to slip on some rocks and fall. I was able to catch my self in the knee deep water but one arm of my shirt was soaked. I knew for sure I would have to call it a day, but the mild air temperatures allowed be to keep fishing.

I fished the pocket water between the new bridge and the old metal frame bridge until my belly began to growl. I had several light strikes on my pheasant tail nymph rig, but I didn’t manage hook set.

If you do go to Rocky Gap to fish Wolf Creek make sure you stop by Woody’s Grocery for lunch. It’s located along highway 52 right where you turn onto highway 61 heading toward Narrows, Va. The BLT and curly fries are great.

After lunch I fished from above the old bridge to just above the confluence of Clear Fork. I consider the afternoon to have been better: I caught one minnow fish, and saw another. The one I saw was of decent size, between 10-12 inches, and bolted when I crowded his space.

This is nothing like what the to old men at Woody’s said it was just a few weeks ago. They said you could stand on the old bridge and watch the trout in the creek by the hundreds. They also let me know that the stock truck had actually ran about the second week of December.

I believe the next time I go to Wolf Creek I will begin fishing above the old bridge. I also will make an effort to get there as soon as I find out the stock truck has run. I wish I could tell you what flies to take with you but after that day I really don’t know. I did manage the one fish on a hares ear nymph, though. I was hoping for BWO’s but saw nary a one.

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Map of Rocky Gap

Virginia DGIF Stocking Info

Closest Weather Station

You May also be interested in my post on Laurel Creek.

West Virginia’s New Hot Spot

World class fly fishing in West Virginia? Well that was the statement given by Curtis Fleming of the Fly Rod Chronicles, a fly fishing show hosted by the The Sportsman’s Network. It could be quite possible.

West Virginia DNR has been working for several years to improve the conditions of its trout populations in many of its streams. There are examples of this in the Monongahela Forest and now another example of it in the Pipestem State Park.

Pipestem State Park in corroboration with WVU has been work to stock the Bluestone river with citation trout (or in fly speak “Pigs” or “Hogs”) big trout. Most of the trout that were stocked last fall were ranging from the two to five pound mark, with some of them five pounds plus. 

The folks from WVU tagged the trout with radio tags to help them determine whether or not they would stay in the one to two mile stretch they were aiming for. They were pleased to fine most of them did.

Curtis Fleming and his film crew, along with some guides from the area, were taken on a special trip into the canyon on a dry run for what the Park hopes to be a regular event.

Pipestem Park has dubbed this the “Trout Wrangler” package. The package will, it appears , only be available in the spring and fall  of next year, and hopefully the years to follow. The package includes a horse back ride into the canyon, meals,  lodging at the Mountain Creek Lodge, and it’s guided  to boot. 

The price tag – $319.00! Not bad.

The only catch is you must have a party of at least six but no more than ten. The minimum is for economic purposes and the maximum is for comfort purposes – you can only stretch a guide so far.

I hope to hit several West Virginia streams in the next year, I think I just found one of them.

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For more information call Ed Wooton, Pipestem’s outdoor specialist, at 1-304-466-1800

Or email him at edwootonATwvdnr.gov

Or visit the Pipestem State Park web site.

 Original Article

Florida Bound

The whole Grits-N-Flies family is on its way to the Florida coast. At this moment we are planning our departure from a nice hotel in southern Georgia.

In about 4 to 5 hours I hope to be looking at the emerald waters of the Gulf.

More to come later.

Trip to the Little River

They say, “Expectation is the death of gratitude” and I guess I came to understand that a little this week. All week long I looked forward to my fishing trip this on Friday. Every day I got out of bed and went to work thinking about fishing in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park on Friday. While I worked out in the hot sun with the temperature pushing 100 degrees, I could almost imagine myself standing along the bank of one of those cool mountain streams catching fish.
Thursday, though, brought concern that I may not get to stand along one of those mountain streams after all. All the heat and humidity had caused storms to boil up almost every evening this week. Thursday was no different. Blount County, the county between where I live and the park, was hit with a severe thunder storm that evening. This storm was packed with heavy lighting, hail, and high winds. There were even some reports of flooding in some areas.
As I sat at home and looked off to the south, watching this massive thunderhead gully wash the neighboring county, all I could do was think that those peaceful streams were going to be turned in to roaring rivers. I just knew my long awaited fishing trip was going to be shot! Now I had to decide what to do: (1) go ahead as planed or (2) find some where else to fish. After checking the release schedule for the two closest TVA tail waters and a couple of remote weather stations near the park, I opted to go ahead as planed.
I won’t go into all the details of the next twelve or so hours other than to say I was excited. Just the thought of fishing for wild trout in a mountain stream, very much like what I grew up on in south west Virginia, kept me up until midnight. I could see myself casting out into one of those small pools and easily hooking up with a wild trout. I could smell that damp air coming off of that mountain stream. The thought of possibly no other anglers on the stream or at least in line of sight kept my mind reeling. The only problem with sleep deprivation from excitement is it can cause you to over sleep the next morning.
So as usual I, or should I say we, got going late. My wife reasoned that because it was a tax free school shopping weekend and I was going to be driving by the shopping mall anyway, I could just drop her and the kids off on my way. Seeing that she is my wife and I love her very much and that my old truck doesn’t get that great of fuel mileage, I yielded and we loaded the family car up and we headed for Sevierville. By the time I got her dropped off and made a quick stop at the fly shop, I was able to make it into the park by 9:45.
I did one thing out of the ordinary on this trip to the park today. No, it wasn’t fishing while my wife shopped, or leaving later than planed. Today I left my fly vest at home and it wasn’t an accident either. I had just finished reading a book by John Gierach on fly fishing small streams. Actually that’s the title of the book, Fly Fishing Small Streams. In his book he talks about carrying only what you need to catch fish. I also heard an interview with a fly fishing instructor who talked about thinking like a predator. He said in order to be a good predator you must blend in with your surroundings. One tip he gave was to lose the vest and take on a chest pack. So I dumped the vest, put on a pair of green cargo short, and stuffed my pockets with only what I needed.
Needless to say I had some decisions to make before I left the car. What is essential? When I left my car, at the foot of the Little River Trail, all I had with me was my fly rod, fly box, forceps, split shot, polarized sunglasses, and a spool of tippet. After I was on the water for about an hour the phrase, “I wish I had” came out of my mouth at least twice. Over all, though, I would say it was pretty liberating.
I hiked about a half a mile up the Little River Trail before I started fishing. I started at a nice sized pool with a #16 black foam ant. Instantly, the fish I had cast to come right up to it looked it over and went right back to the rock he had been behind on the bottom. I let the fly drift toward the back of the pool and two smaller trout did the exact same thing. I cast it to them a couple more times and they done the same thing again. I decided to move on to another pool and try again. I got the same exact response.
So, I changed the fly. Same thing again, they looked the fly over and refused it. Over and over all day long almost every fish looked over my fly and wouldn’t even taste it. I did say almost every fish; I had a couple of good hits on a Greeny Weenie. I also had a really nice trout, 12 + inches, take a swing at my foam ant early on in the day, which was exciting! The fish were willing to eat; they just didn’t want what I had to offer.
More than likely, I could have caught some fish if I had only known that it was legal to use a dropper rig in the park. It wasn’t until I was on my way out that I ran into a guide who told me they were catching them on a two nymph setup. If I had only known! I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to take a chance. Oh well, there’s always next time.
Although the trip wasn't what I had expected, it was still fun. My wife even asked me this evening if I had enjoyed myself. My immediate response was, "Absolutely! I'm already thinking about next time!"