Trout Fishing in the Smoke Hole Canyon
This week I felt a great need to relieve some stress by going into the outdoors. Since the January trout stocking has started, I figured I'd give it my best shot at trying to fly fish for one of these elusive creatures.
The Smoke Hole Canyon
It was really hard trying to figure out where I wanted to fish, but finally made the decision to go to the Smoke Hole Canyon. This is about 3 counties away and it took me about an 1 1/2 hours to drive there.
It is located in the Monongahela National Forest's Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. It is a 20 mile long rugged gorge that has 1100 vertical walls towering above the river. This place is absolutely breath taking and was exactly what I needed to relieve some stress and to do some fishing.
I spent the day fishing the 1 mile long Catch and Release area that was recently stocked. The sky was clear, the sun bright and the temperature was around 40F. It was a great day to be out fishing.
This particular stretch of river is the South Branch of the Potomac, which is the same river that we canoe in our county. The river was flowing really good at about 250 cfs, so it was about the same as the tail water section that I fished last year on the North Branch of the Potomac. The main differences between these two rivers is the South Branch was not nearly as slippery as the North Branch.
Skuked Again
While it was the perfect day to go fishing, and I had a great time enjoying the scenery that was all around me, the fishing was pretty tough. I have never been much of a trout fisherman, because I love the smallmouth bass action that is all around me that provides lots of action.
Trout fishing for me means spending hours fishing and catching 1 fish if I'm lucky. However, since I started fly fishing last summer, I have decided to try and break my luck with the elusive trout.
This weekend was not unlike any other experience that I have with trout. Lost a few flies that I tied myself, got tangled in the trees several times, and fought the wind all day long. You can imagine the wind blowing in a canyon with vertical walls on both sides of the river. No matter where I fished, the gorge was like a wind tunnel
Also, being my first trip out since the fall time, I had to get re-accustomed to casting the fly line while fighting the wind. I saw one trout swimming but I was unable to entice him into chasing my fly, so once again I left empty handed but definitely feeling refreshed.
I am already planning my next fly fishing trip but I've decided to take a break from chasing rainbows and browns with my fly rod and am going to go after the Native Brook Trout in the local mountain streams
The Smoke Hole Canyon
It was really hard trying to figure out where I wanted to fish, but finally made the decision to go to the Smoke Hole Canyon. This is about 3 counties away and it took me about an 1 1/2 hours to drive there.
It is located in the Monongahela National Forest's Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. It is a 20 mile long rugged gorge that has 1100 vertical walls towering above the river. This place is absolutely breath taking and was exactly what I needed to relieve some stress and to do some fishing.
I spent the day fishing the 1 mile long Catch and Release area that was recently stocked. The sky was clear, the sun bright and the temperature was around 40F. It was a great day to be out fishing.
This particular stretch of river is the South Branch of the Potomac, which is the same river that we canoe in our county. The river was flowing really good at about 250 cfs, so it was about the same as the tail water section that I fished last year on the North Branch of the Potomac. The main differences between these two rivers is the South Branch was not nearly as slippery as the North Branch.
Skuked Again
While it was the perfect day to go fishing, and I had a great time enjoying the scenery that was all around me, the fishing was pretty tough. I have never been much of a trout fisherman, because I love the smallmouth bass action that is all around me that provides lots of action.
Trout fishing for me means spending hours fishing and catching 1 fish if I'm lucky. However, since I started fly fishing last summer, I have decided to try and break my luck with the elusive trout.
This weekend was not unlike any other experience that I have with trout. Lost a few flies that I tied myself, got tangled in the trees several times, and fought the wind all day long. You can imagine the wind blowing in a canyon with vertical walls on both sides of the river. No matter where I fished, the gorge was like a wind tunnel
Also, being my first trip out since the fall time, I had to get re-accustomed to casting the fly line while fighting the wind. I saw one trout swimming but I was unable to entice him into chasing my fly, so once again I left empty handed but definitely feeling refreshed.
I am already planning my next fly fishing trip but I've decided to take a break from chasing rainbows and browns with my fly rod and am going to go after the Native Brook Trout in the local mountain streams
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