On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, two of my close friends and I departed Richmond and headed south to Wytheville.  We were making our annual pilgrimage to Cedar Springs Sportsman’s Lodge located on Cripple Creek.  We’ve been fishing there at least once per year for the past seven years with excellent success on almost every trip.  The trout stocking program that they have is top notch.  There are always plenty of rainbow trout in the stream with good numbers of brook trout and brown trout stocked as well.  The size of the trout is what keeps us coming back.  Over the years we’ve landed rainbows up to seven pounds, browns up to eight pounds, and brooks over three pounds.  This trip was no different

After a restless nights sleep at the Hampton Inn in Wytheville, we rose out of bed at 4:45 in the morning, loaded the truck and drove to Joey’s, a great place to grab some breakfast on the way to the stream.  We finished our breakfast and were at the stream fishing by 6:30 in the morning.  A light rain had just quit about the time we wet our lines.  Immediately we were catching fish.  My first trout hit a ball of yellow Berkley Power Bait.  A nice three pound specimen.  Over the course of the day I landed eleven rainbows, three of which were over four pounds.  I caught most of my fish drifting live night crawlers and throwing #2 gold Panther Martin spinners.  I released all but five of my fish, since there is a five fish limit on the stream.  One of my buddies also landed eleven rainbows, keeping only five.  My lass fortunate friend only landed three rainbows, all of which he kept.

The next morning started much like the previous.  We started fishing at 6:15 in the morning.  After landing two quick fish, one on Powerbait, and one on a night crawler, I started fly fishing exclusively.  The trout were all over the flies.  The most productive was a #8 black woolybuggar.  Dead drifting the woolybuggar seemed to be the best presentation.  I lost more fish than I landed.  I had at least five or six throw the hook on me, and two that broke me off.  One of the two that broke me off was a rainbow in the six pound range.  I did manage to land three fish on the fly to complete my five fish limit.  My friend with eleven fish the day before also caught five on the second day.  But, my less fortunate friend managed to land four trout with a little feeling of redemption.  At 2:00 in the afternoon we packed up the gear and headed back to Richmond with another good trip under our belts and some fillets for the freezer.

-Billy