Shep, a friend of mine at work, and I have talked trout for years now. One of the creeks he frequents that I've never had the chance to fish is Ramsey's Draft, a wild brook trout stream in Augusta County. I had a free day last weekend and it turns out I'm a tad bonkers about wild brookies so fishing I went. Mark, a friend I've had the privilege to meet through my wife, also had a day free and was able to join me in exploring Ramsey's Draft wilderness area. Shep provided me with a map to our destination which, after driving there and back, I'm fairly certain is even drawn to scale.
The directions (thank you Shep)
Mark and I started off bright and early Saturday morning and found our destination without trouble. We suited up in the wilderness area parking lot. While there, a couple pulled up and the gentleman asked us if we were familiar with the area. He said that the tallest tree in the state of Virginia, a white pine, grew in this very area. We couldn't help him as neither of us had been there before and the gentleman left disappointed. We started down the trail and began a glorious day of fishing Ramsey's Draft.
The stream
After starting the day with a good bourbon (I think I'm going to make bourbon a part of my pre-fishing routine) we started off down the trail. We hiked about 30 minutes down the trail and began fishing. We started with nymphs but weren't catching a thing. Switched over to dry flies and finally started seeing some fish. It was a beautiful day and just being outside on a day like Saturday makes a trip worthwhile. After a good day on the water we started back. On the way back out we saw a woman near the trailhead staring into the trees. Mark said "Hey, isn't that the woman asking about the tree" at which point we spotted the gentleman from the morning. He must have left and gotten directions. We said hello and I asked him if they found the tree. He said "Yeah, it's right here" and pointed to a tree... I mean it was pretty tall but not like "wow, that's a big tree" tall. There was no sign so I'll have to take his word for it. If anyone is interested in the alleged state's tallest tree, it's a tall looking pine tree on Ramsey's Draft trail near the parking area and has a fork at the base. That's all I can tell you.
The Days Stats:
ReplyDelete3/20/2010
Water temp 41-42 (according to my new IR stream thermometer) at about 0940 hrs.
Water temp 45 at 1400 hrs on the way out. The air temp was about 69 when we were leaving
Streamflow Data, Maury River at Rockbridge Baths, VA:
Gauge Hgt - 2.45-2.48 feet
Discharge - 506-517 ft^3/sec
Saw a few caddis flying around but no rises to naturals. Caught 5 on a size 14 parachute Adams and a size 14 grey parachute caddis.
We saw a tent pitched in the woods on the walk in and two anglers fishing while we were walking out.