Bluestone Trout Fishing Year 4

Well it's year four of the great trout experiment in the Bluestone River. We found out that WVU finished their study last year and would not be stocking the Bluestone anymore. Fortunatlly the State has taken it over this year, and hopefully from now on. We got some information that a stocking was taking place this week so Nathan, Austin and I decided to hike in and see what kind of trout action there was. We packed a lunch and left before daylight as this was going to be an all day affair. It was hard to tell what to expect. When we first arrived we were pounded with snow, which turned to rain as we decended into the valley. It rained off and on (mostly on) throughout the day; however having the right kind of rain gear and insullation makes all of the difference between having a fun comfortable time and being completly miserable. This trip was absolutly ridiculious. I thought last year was insane when Austin and I caught over 50 fish apiece. The size of the average fish was a little smaller this year, but the numbers were just crazy. All three of us caught about 30 fish a piece before we left the first hole. We fished spinners primarly with Austin and Nathan switching to hair jigs. I considered switching to a jig as well, but I figured if it isn't broke don't fix it. I like the action of a spinner and its ability to cover lots of water really quick so I stuck with that. In addition, the stinger hook trailing behind a spinner makes unhooking the fish a little more difficult, but it also betters your chances at hooking the fish in the first place as many of them would just nip at what was thrown to them. Truth be told these fish would have hit just about anything thown to them, and the fishing skill required to catch these trout was virtually non-existant. Obvisiouly the stream was overstocked with nearly 2000 pounds of trout in the little 2 to 3 mile stretch of river to accomindate the patrons of paying trips. This is clearly not sustainable, but as long as they keep stocking it we'll keep fishing it. The average fish that was caught was 12-18 inches long; however, Nathan managed to catch a couple really nice ones. One measuered in at 24 inches and the other at 20 inches long. These two fish provided a great excuse to use my new net, which proved invaluable in landing them. One good thing is that we didn't see any otters. That doesn't mean that they aren't there, but hopefully they've at least moved on to somewhere else. Nathan had to cut his trip a little short and left after catching and releasing a total of 65 fish. Austin and I stayed another hour or two and ended up catching and releasing 101 a piece. These numbers are ridiculious by any standards and only go to show how easiley anyone could catch them, but it was fun all the same and a nice change of pace when you've had slow days where you're lucky just to land one fish.