September 10, 2016 - Around Culpeper

Went fishing, intending to also scout locations to put the canoe into the Rapidan and Robinson Rivers.

The first spot I went, there were a couple of rednecks sitting on the bank dunking worms and drinking beer, so I went elsewhere, a few miles downstream.

The river was low, and the character of this river seems to be dominated by sand and silt bottoms at this point.  Nothing much to be seen in the way of structure, although at some point, it would appear the river was less burdened by sediment, since there were still rocks to be seen poking up through the muck.

Didn't catch anything, lost heart pretty quick, and decided to go elsewhere.

On the walk back to the car, I picked up a traveler, a marbled orb weaver, which I figured would provide some point of interest even if fishing was a bust:

Then I went over to the Robinson. Same basic character as the Rapidan, but with more shade, and more structure due to more fallen trees in the stretch I fished.

Waded upstream, casting a small chartreuse popper.  Caught a number of pumpkinseed, a fallfish, and a couple of smallmouth, one of which probably counts as pretty decent for this water.  

Eventually, I got hot and tired, and my wading/tennis shoes were full of sand and gravel, so I got out, picked up a couple of grocery bags worth of trash, and made my way back to town.

Ate dinner, then ran errands, afterwards stopping at a stormwater pond to fish.  Had one strike that I missed, but got a grainy, out-of-focus picture of what I can only assume is an immature plesiosaur.