Two day fishing trip

[gfiad]

It’s spring break in Northern Virginia, so I decided to yank the iPad out of my son’s hands and take him outside. We had a great time fishing for wild brook trout in the mountain streams and then big rainbow trout the next day. My son tried out his new 7’6” 4wt L.L. Bean pocket water rod and reel (his new brookie outfit) and we both liked it very much. It’s lightweight and casts great.

We stayed in a cabin overnight so we’d be close to the rivers and fished a pond in front of our cabin that we thought had large mouth bass in it. Turns out it was stocked with 12-14 inch rainbows which was fun but I was looking forward to catching some LMBs on my new 6wt. I switched over to my 3wt after a while and had a blast catching those stockies.

The first day it rained off and on while we were in the mountains and then it starting pouring around 5:30pm so we only fished the pond for about an hour. The second day the temps dropped and the wind was howling. It was tough to cast but we managed somehow. All in all, I had a blast and I think my son did as well.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[k_e_v]

Boy those are some great photos, not much better in life than a smiling kid. Well done��

 

[Joey Bagels]

Quality stuff here! Love that you got the boy outside and in the real world. Thanks for the great photos too!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Monello]

You might want to take your son over to Fletcher's boathouse in Georgetown. Shad come up the river to spawn just south of the falls. You can rent a boat and row out into the current. If you time it right, it can be a fish every cast.

 

[gfiad]

You might want to take your son over to Fletcher's boathouse in Georgetown. Shad come up the river to spawn just south of the falls. You can rent a boat and row out into the current. If you time it right, it can be a fish every cast.

We usually fish for Shad in Fredericksburg on the Rappahanock. We were going to fish there on Thursday but the river is too high so we went fishing in the mountains again for wild trout. Thanks for the suggestion. If the rain ever stops we’ll check it out.

Here are some pictures from Thursday.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gfiad]

Guess I might as well post Wednesday’s pictures also. We skipped Tuesday and Friday we got a lot of rain. Wednesday was actually perfect weather and the spring creek we fished was the perfect color. The fishing was on fire!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Capt. Josh Gisclair]

Nice photos! Nothing like a smile on a kid when hooked up! Great job!

 

[bigspencer]

Absolutely GREAT to get him outdoors and to have him get the feeling of tying into some weight of really nice trout! Hate to hand you any of my opinions...but I absolutely HATE the mediocre reels offered by any company these days. The HEAVY, automated drag reels(and their pricetags) have burned their way into most companies' minds that offer them in packages....Especially for young guys...HOWEVER in the last few pics I see he's using something a little more relaxing = your rod/reel? The closer the caster's hand is to the reel the better = less "hinge" factor between the reel's heaviness and the upper rod's lightness.
They are kind of expensive but I love Sage's CLICK reels(choosing the smallest/lightest matching).....they're MUCH lighter and really not that overly expensive, thus enabling young people to 1) relax their forearms, wrists and grip and 2) hold their rods low on the grip, not up high...as seen in many of your pics. They move their hands up to lessen the weight factor but lose a lot of the butt's stiffness when casting. Just something to think about whenever.....and the heavier reels tend to turn less stiff rods into spaghetti noodles = heavy weight below caster's hand/much lighter rod above the caster's hand.
Anyways....great stuff!


(Hung out in northern Maine @Moosehead Lake camp, near brook that upstream hatchery used to dump out brooktrout(grandparents..when in diapers)....moved to/grew up in upstate NY, now living back(almost retired) in Bangor, Maine)

 

[gfiad]

Absolutely GREAT to get him outdoors and to have him get the feeling of tying into some weight of really nice trout! Hate to hand you any of my opinions...but I absolutely HATE the mediocre reels offered by any company these days. The HEAVY, automated drag reels(and their pricetags) have burned their way into most companies' minds that offer them in packages....Especially for young guys...HOWEVER in the last few pics I see he's using something a little more relaxing = your rod/reel? The closer the caster's hand is to the reel the better = less "hinge" factor between the reel's heaviness and the upper rod's lightness.
They are kind of expensive but I love Sage's CLICK reels(choosing the smallest/lightest matching).....they're MUCH lighter and really not that overly expensive, thus enabling young people to 1) relax their forearms, wrists and grip and 2) hold their rods low on the grip, not up high...as seen in many of your pics. They move their hands up to lessen the weight factor but lose a lot of the butt's stiffness when casting. Just something to think about whenever.....and the heavier reels tend to turn less stiff rods into spaghetti noodles = heavy weight below caster's hand/much lighter rod above the caster's hand.
Anyways....great stuff!


(Hung out in northern Maine @Moosehead Lake camp, near brook that upstream hatchery used to dump out brooktrout(grandparents..when in diapers)....moved to/grew up in upstate NY, now living back(almost retired) in Bangor, Maine)

Spencer, thanks for the comments and advice. I’ll take a closer look at his grip next time we’re out. He went back and forth on using his rod and mine most days. Whichever one wasn’t tangled, he’s still learning. You are correct in that he’s holding my outfit on the last pictures, though I felt the like the Orvis access reel on his 5wt was better for him than the Abel TR1 on my rod. He had a harder time with the click and pawl reel than the one with a drag when fighting larger fish. Or at least he lost more fish when using my outfit. Both of our brookie outfits have click and pawl reels.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cpiercem]

Outstanding! I love seeing that smile on a kid's face.

 

[bigspencer]

Forget any stuff I commented about man, your little guy is doing just great.....and kudos to showing him the way on those beautiful streams down there! Nothing nicer than Browns and Rainbows..

 

[mcnerney]

Great report, I loved all those awesome photos with your son smiling ear to ear, great memories for sure!