RTOD-Road Trip of Death part 1

Rocking out at the Blue Ridge Music Center stage

Waders?No thanks,swim trunks and a pair of sneakers do just fine

It was all planned out,the truck was loaded with fishing gear,the cooler full of ice cold beer,my brother the nutty professor even showed up on time.All Summer I have been trying to plan a decent out of state outdoors adventure and the time had come to put my plan in action.The first part of our trip found us heading west on US-58 to southwest Virginia.My parents purchased a piece of property in the mountains,have built a house and are in the process of moving in full time.We have both visited before and this was our first stop before we were to head northwest to West Virginia.We arrived on time to the log cabin and were greeted by my mom and her beagle.I wasted little time,simply dropping off my gear,said a quick hello and I was off to the creek.I have had decent luck using black spinners in the rapids just above the pools.The creek was running at average depths for mid Summer.My brother and I put on our waders and dove in to try for some rainbow trout.

Rainbow trout,crooked creek swva

The weather on this day was in the mid 80's but getting cooler all the time with the sun going down.Even with all that factored in,the waders were literally cooking us.I remembered a trick my buddy showed me a few years ago while fishing the Shenandoah River.It's called,take the waders off,put on an old pair of sneakers and fish like a redneck.I can and did do this,no problem!That evening I managed to catch and release one nice rainbow trout that struck on a yellow spinner.We fished until sunset and then decided we were hungry and Mom had dinner ready,so we rolled out.After a nice dinner we relaxed outside on the porch listening to nature taking it's course on the mountainside.The evening ended with me passed out in a ball above the covers on the bed.The alarms were set and we again wasted little time getting back down to a different section of the creek we had yet to explore.My father,who had to leave the day before our arrival,was nice enough to draw us a map.Map in hand,we used the 4 wheel drive Chevy,nice purchase on my part,to get where we needed to be.

Red Eye Bass,swva Crooked Creek

We opted this day to leave the waders and go what we had now dubbed,Renegade Fishing.The temperatures were a little cool however the water felt fine.It took us quite some time to locate some nice pockets but when we did it was fish after fish.Mostly all small red eye bass,smallmouth bass and creek chubs.You simply can't beat fishing in a creek,in the mountains,in your swim trunks,on a Tuesday morning.We followed the creek upstream and I hooked into another nice rainbow trout and managed to land it after a short struggle.We decided to call it a short day at lunch.We didn't want to wear ourselves out,we had three more days of fishing to go.We returned back to the cabin and piled into the car to take a drive with our mom on the Blue Ridge Parkway.We found ourselves at the Blue Ridge Parkway outdoor music arena.A great place to hang out,listen to live mountain music and follow the roots of American Mountain Music in the small museum.We returned to the cabin and went over the many maps I had printed out for our next leg of the journey,the Monongahela National Forest.