Goose Creek...

[Joe Molloy]

I was able to make it out to Goose Creek on Sunday morning. This was a surprise since my son, who is an early riser, has had no interest in fishing for the past year and suddenly had a change of heart. So we packed my 5 wt. and his spider man spinning rod and headed out to Goose Creek near where it intersects Snickersville Turnpike.

I had resigned myself to helping him fish and just drinking coffee but after he pulled in a couple bluegill (using worms we dug up earlier) he said his arm was tired so i could fish (Sweeet!). After a couple of casts with my trusty(and beat up) muddler minnow I pulled in a nice 13-14" smallmouth. I actually got my son to hold it by the lower lip (for the first time ever) but he let it go before I could get a picture (he claimed it injured his finger) but I swear it was a nice fish.

Then he said he wanted to use a fly on his spinning rod. I was trying to explain to him that it wouldn't really work so well when it donned on me to tie a wooly bugger under the bobber he was using. We tried that and it worked great. He managed to pull in a smallmouth and rock bass for the first time (previously he had only caught blue gill). That had the added bonus of not losing worms all the time. Now the next time we go I can just let him use my flies and drift them under the bobber(errr, I mean strike indicator) and leave his little tackle box at home.

Anyway, the creek was really nice and it was good to catch something other than fall fish. I believe the Leesburg stream gauge had the creek at just under 2ft which was perfect in my opinion (although now it's higher due to the rain yesterday).

-Joe

PS: I was also getting plenty of hits on the surface with a light blue popper.

[Matthew Longley]

Sounds like a great outing!  You know Eagle Claw makes a really cheap 6'6" glass fly rod (they had larger ones too) that only costs ~25 bucks at a big box or online.  I keep one in my car for unexpected fishing opportunities, its actually pretty great, but would also make a great starter rod.  Just saying, you gotta correct those bad habits early in kids these days :)