Fishing Taylor's Valley

I got out yesterday afternoon for some fly fishing on Whitetop Laurel which runs beside the VCT for a good portion of the trail in the Mount Rogers area. I went to the special regualtion section near Taylor's valley. Special reg is for single-hood artificial lures only which is no problem since I'm a fly fisherman. I did notice one other person on this section with a spinning rod but we didn't talk so I don't KNOW that he was using anything illegal. It still kind of bugs me though since there is so much other water for bait casters to fish. Maybe he was using artificial or maybe he just missed the sign and didn't know he'd wandered into the special reg area. Oh well. I have to admit, it didn't make a lot of difference to my success as I tried every fly in my box without much luck. The VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries just stocked the stream last week and there were lots of trout visible in the low water, mostly staying as deep and cold as possible in whatever pockets of water they could find. I started with dry flies on top of the water but when they didn't come up for those, I decided to plumb the depths (such as they were) with weighted nymphs and woolly boogers. The air temperature was warm again, in the 60s and the leaves were absolutely spectacular. I encountered lots of bikers on their way down from Whitetop. It sure was a beautiful day to be out on the trail. On the way home, I stopped at the coffee shop in Damascus. I can't remember the name but it's right beside Subway. I hadn't noticed them before and I'll be sure to stop back again.