SNP Report

[jhaner...@gmail.com]

I drove out to the SNP with a buddy who is new to fishing hoping to get him into endless brookies.  We drove out to rose river farms and continued on Old Blue Ridge Turnpike through the dirt road until the dead end.  We hiked up the trail for about 10 minutes before hiking down the river.  I was using a double nymph rig.  On my first cast my indicator went under.  After fighting the fish for about 10 seconds I realized that this was not my ordinary 6 inch SNP brookie.  The fish jumped and I could tell that it was a big fish and not a brookie.  After about at 3-4 minute fight I brought the fish in to see that it was a large (probably my largest ever) brown trout.  I did not have a tap measure with me but estimate it in the 16-18 inch range (maybe a bit smaller maybe a bit bigger).  I did not know that this section of the SNP held brown trout.  Has anybody else has this experience?  The weird thing is that brown trout came on my first cast and I did not catch another fish the entire day.  Typically, a bad day for me on that stretch of the rose river is 10-15 brookies.  I did not even see a brookie all day.  Has anybody fished this part of the Rose River recently and had a similar experience? 

[Lane Thurgood]

Yes, I have caught browns on the Rose.  You are supposed to kill all brown trout encountered in the Park.  https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/FishingRegulations.pdf  See the last section:  "The release of any captured brown trout back into any Park stream is prohibited."  And take special note of what you have to do with the sub-7-inch browns.

 I have caught browns on both the Hughes and the Rose.  One time on the Rose, I took 3 in about a 20-minute span.  And although I hadn't killed a brown since I was about 12, I do in the Park for the good of the brookies.

The brookies should be plainly visible on the redds right now.  I did not fish last weekend, but hiked and pointed out the spawning brookies to my daughter.  

[ALarge]

Seems to me there might be a causal relationship between the presence of a large, fat brown trout and the absence of typically abundant brookies...

[Andrew Sarcinello]

I suspect Lane's observation below could be part of why you didn't see any brookies. I say this without knowing the particular stretch of water you guys fished, but they may not have been in their typical places because of the spawn. But it sounds like you are familiar with that section, so I'd probably guess someone fished it before you and put down the brookies.  Big browns like that are often hiding under rocks 90% of the time and just come out for a short window to feed.  Possible it was not spooked because it was already in hiding when the first angler passed through.

That is a beauty of a brown trout! Maybe there will be some tiger trout in that section next year...

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 2:48:24 PM UTC-4, Lane Thurgood wrote:

[Bob Richey]

The park had planned to shock that section of the Rose last year to catch and kill the browns. Looks like they need to do it again, they’re bad news for the brookies.