Everything That Swims: Trout Fishing in Southwest Virginia

This weekend, I stayed with family in Abingdon, and as always, we (my dad, my two brothers, and myself) went trout fishing on Whitetop Laurel. Last week, the area received a heavy amount of rainfall, and the creeks had been quite a mess. We did a quick 30 minute scouting trip on Thursday evening to try to figure out what sort of shape the creek was in, there was still much more water flow than usual, and the creek was very green.
The forecast called for below freezing temperatures until 10:00am, so we arrived at about 10:30 on Friday morning to start fishing. We started fishing an area in the stocked section of the creek, and fishing was tough. We landed 3 between the 4 of us in about an hour, in an area that normally yields a dozen or more fish. We then headed to the Taylor's Valley section of Whitetop, and connected on quite a few trout there, including a 14" wild brown that I landed on a drifted salmon egg. That evening, we fished the stretch of creek above and below the parking lot. Ewing and my dad went upstream, and Wyatt and I fished downstream. Wyatt and I found a pool with lots of fish and managed to land 5 in the fading light, including a stocked brook trout of about 2 pounds, and a 15" wild brown.
On day two, we had a much better idea on where and how to fish. We went back to fish the 12" minimum, single hook, artificial lure only section right above where Straight Branch feeds in. I had purchased some Berkley Power Eggs (scented soft plastic eggs), so I could still legally fish something somewhat similar to the salmon eggs that had outfished everything else on the day prior. I had been drift fishing with 2-3 size bb split shot about a foot above a #10 or #12 hook, and since I was using fluorocarbon, no leader was necessary. The fish were holding in most areas with slow moving water 3 feet deep or more, and as long as the bait was presented with a drag-free drift, there was usually a hungry rainbow eager to bite. I landed more wild rainbows than I ever have before, all of them between 9 and 11.5 inches, with a brown mixed in here and there. The browns were much larger, averaging about 13-15" in length. We also landed a few very large stocked brook trout, all 13-15" as well.
We (my dad, Wyatt, and I) ended up with five browns over 12", one brook over 12", and one rainbow over 12" from the 12" minimum area. We then caught wild and stocked rainbows in the stocked section of the creek to finish out our 18 fish limit between the 3 of us. My youngest brother Ewing, who didn't have any luck on Whitetop, waded up straight branch and caught his 6 fish limit of rainbows, all stocked.
I landed 30 trout on day two, most of them being wild rainbows. Compared to 10 on the first day, I definitely made an improvement. Hopefully I will be able to do well again when I head back again this year for new years. Thanks for reading!

Here is my biggest brown of the trip