We really would like to rent our cabin to you. (For photographs and direct information about the cabin itself scroll down to the June 14th post.) However, we want to tell you a little about our visit to this great region of West Virginia the week of the Memorial Day holiday. The natural characteristics of the weather is the first thing you notice about the West Virginia mountains this time of year. It is constantly changing literally by the hour. The intriguing thing is that the changes are captivating and only the extremes urge one to seek momentary shelter.
This year the trout fishing is unbelievable on the Williams River. It was so great that we could not pull ourselves away from the Williams to experience what the Cranberry River had to offer, which we would expect to be equally marvelous. Our thanks to West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources for their commitment to stock all of the 2010 quota of trout that was planned, produced, and raised for the Williams. DNR usually begins stocking the Williams in January, but do to the extreme depths of snow in the mountains this winter they could not begin their stocking schedule for the Williams until the middle of March.
Though my boys, Dona and I returned all of the trout we caught to the stream Phil, who rented the cabin the five days before our arrival, kept two of his fish he caught in the morning before leaving. He cleaned the fish, and put them in a bowl of ice in the refrigerator for when we arrived that evening. We grilled those two trout along with the shrimp we had bought for dinner that evening along with the corn on the cob, coleslaw, and strawberries. Dinner evolved into a very healthy feast.
Following is a photograph Tyler shot of a beautiful Golden Rainbow Trout that I caught on a very small fly that presented as a close match to the current hatch. In the evening as these small insects emerged the trout had no use for anything else and a fly rod with the little floating fly was the only opportunity to attract a strike. I have more success with a fly rod than a spinner on the Williams River. There are other photographs of our trip as well.
