Last night, on a moment's notice, I decided to try to fish Whitetop Laurel. I called my grandparents in Abingdon and they said it would be okay for us to spend the night. So we packed all of our stuff and headed out in the morning. We encountered a wall of heavy rain about halfway to our destination, but I wasn't about to give up. When we arrived at the stream, it was sleeting and pouring rain, and it was 34 degrees. But I suited up in waders and a heavy coat, grabbed my spinning rod (fly fishing would have left my hands frozen solid, and the water was really high) and headed out. We had some half dead minnows left over from yesterday, so I rigged up a #10 egg hook with two size B split shot in front of it for drifting minnows. I would cast straight out across the stream, feeding line out as needed, and letting the minnow swing across the river, bumping along the bottom. I rolled one particular 12" rainbow 3 times before finally landing him, frustrating, but it worked out in the end. The next pool I found with fish produced 3 small 9-10" stocked rainbows, I released two of them, but one swallowed the hook. I also caught one 10" brookie. This was my first brookie at Whitetop, so now I was determined to score a triple crown, a brown, brook, and rainbow trout in one day.
I headed upstream to a good section of pocket water that always produces 8-12" wild browns. I fished the stretch with no luck, and decided to move on to a large pool to catch a couple more and then go warm up my hands. I rolled one small trout, but it wouldn't hit again, and took yet another precious minnow from my possession, I was now beginning to run low on bait. On my next cast, I felt the familiar tapping on the line, meaning a trout was chewing on my minnow. I fed a couple feet of line out, waited a couple seconds, tightened the line, and set the hook. I immediately saw a large brown roll over about 15 yards away. I loosened my drag and carefully brought the fish to my net, a beautiful 16" male wild brown. I had completed my quest for the triple crown, and headed back to the car.
My little brother Ewing had been drifting salmon eggs, and landed 5 rainbows, keeping 4, and Wyatt caught and kept 2. We headed to the next section of stocked Whitetop just below the 12" minimum area. I caught one 11" stocked rainbow, and Wyatt caught a small stocked rainbow. I was down to 3 minnows, and missed a fish twice in a big pool, but it quit biting after that. I hooked my last minnow on, a headless small minnow that I saved after catching a fish on it earlier. I cast out, and as the minnow swung across the current below me, I felt a couple ticks on my line. As usual, I fed out some line, tightened it up, and set the hook. I could tell it was a nice fish, but when it turned around and peeled 50 yards of drag and jumped, I got really excited, and Wyatt grabbed the net. I fought the fish for another 3 or 4 minutes on 4 pound test, and finally, Wyatt was able to wade out and net it. It was a gorgeous 19" wild brown, my 2nd largest brown ever! And to pull a wild fish that size from stocked water is pretty incredible! I'm sure many people wouldn't want me to, but I kept it. To me, part of fishing is being able to bring home some fish for the pan, or grill, oven etc. We stopped at the other section on our way out and finished our limits out, 18 fish total.
Definitely a stream-born fish, he sure didn't fight like a lazy stocker.
It was pouring a bunch of "wintery mix" the whole time, so we didn't have time for getting the perfect picture, but here is the triple crown...
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