It’s been awhile. Our area in the mountains was hit with a once in a lifetime storm not too long ago. It utterly changed our mountains. Our community rallied with support from all over the country to get supplies to those without anything, housing to those who lost their homes, and more. I did a river cleanup a couple weeks after with Virginia Creeper Fly Shop and my buddy Travis Proffitt and saw firsthand how different the rivers are. It was like losing an old friend.
On the other side of that coin, our rivers require relearning. I fished Big Laurel in town on the first. Water was around 925CFS on the Damascus flow chart and it was indeed up. I prefer low risk wading in winter. It was deep in many of the familiar runs and some of that is attributable to flood damage. There were many pockets and fish were still eating.
I saw midges and winter stoneflies. All small. I took several on a size 18 evil olive and a size 16 orange hot spot peridgon. They days will start to get longer, and in this new year I hope to embrace the changes.
Of note, the Virginia Creeper Trail and route 58 are still unsafe and impassable in many locations. Please do not attempt to circumvent the safety barriers.