This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to take a brief fly fishing adventure with my friend, Russ, and my oldest son. We were fortunate that recent cold winter weather took a brief hiatus and we decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm (64 degree) weather. So, we drove 30 minutes to the local Rapidan River. My son was anxious to try out the fly fishing rod that he received for Christmas and I was happy to try out some new camera equipment. Although ice still held tight to some small waterfalls, the small pools were ice free. After a 25 minute hike upstream, we started exploring various pockets and pools while trying to keep our lines out of the trees crowding this small stream. We were fortunate to catch a half dozen native brook trout. The biggest fish was no larger than 6 inches (if you factor the standard fisherman’s exaggeration, you can assume the biggest was probably only 5 inches). Despite the small size, their coloration was immense (no exaggeration here, more like an understatement). We caught the brookies on a variety of bead head hare’s ear and prince nymph patterns, nothing fancy. We took a few quick shots of each fish before returning them icy water unharmed. Each one quickly darted off to find a dark place to hide.
