The Conway

I went fishing at the Conway River today.  The Conway flows down  from the Shenandoah National Park to just outside the town of Stanardsville, Virginia.  Unfortunately, despite wonderful temperatures and overcast skies prompting a hatch of blue wing olive mayflies (BWOs for all you fishermen), I did not catch a single fish.  I did not even see trout feeding on the naturals.  The only fish I did see were some large suckers feeding on the bottom.  

The Conway was the subject of some controversy a few years back.  Word got out that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) was going to remove all brown trout from the river in order to rehabilitate it for native brookies.  Local fishermen had some debates at Trout Unlimited about whether this order was appropriate.  A few weeks later, rumors went around that the VDGIF and removed "hundreds" of browns, "big ones too."  Though later denied by our local Trout Unlimited President, I found myself wondering if there were any fish left in the river.  This summer's drought certainly did not help.