For the wife's birthday, we took a float down the Jackson River tailwater in Virginia. The Brood V cicadas were just starting so we wanted to see if we could drum a few fish up to the surface. On the Jackson tailwater, this would be a feat as fish just don't rise.
As soon as we started off the cicadas were rocking. We went into a good run of chutes and fast water and Spence missed a couple browns and had a toad of a brown on within the first ¼ mile. She ended up catching a standard sized wild rainbow that was already pretty full of cicadas.
At this point, I was giddy, as I thought the whole float would be like this. But the cicadas were only in the first mile of water we floated and only around the fast water. Half way through the float the cicadas were a distant memory. I reluctantly rigged up a double nymph rig and Spence eventually started catching them again. All small rainbows. No browns nymphing for sure. But the rainbows were plenty and wild and lots of fun.
Instead of a birthday card, the kids and I made a Stanley Cup out of juice bottle and containers and tin foil. While we were gone the kiddos took it up a notch and decorated Lord Stanley a bit. I like the upgrade. Now the Penguins need to just close out the Cup versus San Jose tonight on home ice!
