SNP report 5/10 - 5/11

[Kevin Huntington]

A couple of buddies and me rented a cabin out in the Shenandoah Valley over the weekend and hit the park Saturday/Sunday in search of some less traveled brookie water.  We parked on Skyline Drive and hiked in a few miles and found some awesome water.  Many of the water pockets up closer to the peak are smaller but hold just as many fish.  But nonethless it was some of the most scenic water I've ever fished.  Between 3 of us we probably caught and released 25 brookies over the 2 days.  We also had a bunch of firsts on the trip.  My buddy caught his first fish on a fly rod, so it was pretty awesome that it was a native brookie.  We also ran into 2 copperheads creekside, which was a first for me.  I've attached one picture below, he had to have been at least 3-4' long - my friend Hunter almost put his hand right on him.  We also all saw our first wild black bear while we were driving Skyline Drive at sunrise.  He scampered across the street ahead of us and then about 30 yards into the woods before turning around to check us out.  Lastly, I caught my personal best brookie. The plunge pool/tail out that I caught him in was an unbelievablely scenic backdrop, I probably could have fished that hole all day and caught fish every 10 minutes.  Almost all fish were caught on home brew bead head pheasant tail soft hackles, they are like crack out there. I did see some good fish rising on Sunday but was catching too many fish nymphing so decided to be lazy and stick with it.

 

On Saturday around 3 PM the skies looked they were about to open up, and we were about 3 miles from the car.  About 5 minutes into the hike back sure enough it started to POUR.  The particular trail we were hiking was a fairly steep gradient back to the car, and let me tell you that this isn't for the weary.  If you ever go up to the park and decide to hike in from Skyline, give yourself plenty of time to get back out.  We were hauling it to get out of the rain and all just about passed out back at the car. 

 

Nonetheless, it was an awesome weekend and would highly recommend getting out there.  The hike in from lower park entrances is much more managable if you don't want to really do it big, but the water is a bit more traveled down there as well.  I think while fishing we saw a total of 6 hikers, 1 park ranger, and exactly 0 other anglers.  So if backcountry, secluded, crawling over rocks and boulders for wild fish and animals are your thing, then I definitely recommend it. Hope everyone is getting out and wetting a line. 

 

Tight Lines,

 

Kevin

 

[Parker]

Sounds like an awesome trip! Almost every time I have been to SNP, I see a bear(s) and snakes. It is truly wild. I have seen snakes that look very similar to the one you've posted and I can never tell if they are venomous or maybe just a northern water snake. Does anyone know a good way to identify the difference. In the meantime, I'll keep my distance. I've attached a photo from google of a northern water snake (top) and a copperhead (bottom). 

[TurbineBlade]

Awesome report Kevin!  I love the park and we've fished there 20 times this spring alone -- almost had to have a helicopter lift us out of one of west slope streams with a 2.7 mile hike, but great fun. 

AWESOME black bear -- holy crap my wife will be jealous when I tell her about this!  Man you're lucky to see one.  

Snake appears to be a Nerodian based upon body proportion X total length, and also markings -- do you have a closer up picture of it? It would also be somewhat unusual for a copperhead to "climb" into a position above a body of water -- I'd expect them in places more like your bear picture ;).  Having said that, I'll probably have one swing across stream in front of me next time I'm out --

I love the attention to non-fish wildlife!  Any songbirds?  

Gene

On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 11:18:29 AM UTC-4, Kevin Huntington wrote:

[TurbineBlade]

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Plants_Wildlife/vsnakes.asp

On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 11:18:29 AM UTC-4, Kevin Huntington wrote:

[Yambag Nelson]

That looks like a northern water snake to me.  Nasty things.

 

The park is crawling with black bears.  The last 2 times I have gone I have seen 7 and 3 bears respectively.  Got way too close to one on a trail a couple weeks ago.  Thing was not more than 20 feet away.

 

 
On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 11:18:29 AM UTC-4, Kevin Huntington wrote: