Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.

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LEXINGTON -- As fishing days go, this one wasn't ideal.

Heavy rain had started the night before, and it hadn't stopped.

But when the window of opportunity is narrow, you have no choice. You must go.

So Roanoke Times photographer Sam Dean and I piled our gear into waterproof bags, loaded them onto the trailers behind our mountain bikes and started pedaling down the muddy trail.

Our summer adventure was under way.

This was the first of 10 trips we will take this summer to some of Virginia's lesser known lakes, those little tucked away treasures we sometimes forget about while focusing on the big lakes we can tackle in our big, fast boats.

Few are more tucked away than Lexington Reservoir, a 22-acre gem nestled in the hills to the west of the city after which it is named.

A maintained road leads to dam that creates the impoundment, but the road is not open to the public.

The only way for anglers to reach the lake is to hike or mountain bike a 2 ¹₂-mile trail.

That's not such a bad thing, as the effort helps limit the pressure on the small lake, which is stocked with fingerling brook trout that thrive in its cool, deep water.

On this recent soggy June day, the effort had begun even before we reached the trailhead.

Looking to take the shortest route to the trailhead, I'd cut up from Buchanan onto Greyledge Road, which runs along Purgatory Creek.

Actually, the road also runs through Purgatory Creek.

When the creek is at normal levels, the fords aren't bad. But the creek was rolling, so each ford was nerve-wracking, even in a big, four-wheel-drive truck.

After one particularly bumpy creek crossing I looked in the rear view mirror and was stunned to see that one of our bikes had jumped off the bed-mounted rack and disappeared.

I was relieved to find the bike lying in the bed of the truck.

Loading up for the ride into the lake was no small task.

Sam had 30 pounds of camera and video gear. We both had waders and boots, and our fishing tackle.

And then there was the float tube.

On my only other trip into Lexington Reservoir I came out thinking that a float tube would be an ideal way to reach some the deeper, trout-holding water.

The tube was already inflated, and was far too big to fit into the trailer.

So Sam strapped it on top of his trailer and off we went.

The trail is wide and well-marked, but blocked in several places by fallen logs. The trip in to the lake is mostly downhill, so even though the trail was soggy the ride didn't take too long.

Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

The Lexington Reservoir is a 22-acre body of water nestled in the hills to the west of Lexington. Primitive camping is allowed at the lake, and fingerling brook trout are stocked by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The only way for anglers to reach the lake is to hike or mountain bike a 2 1/2-mile trail.

Roanoke Times outdoors writer Mark Taylor trolls for brook trout in the 22-acre Lexington Reservoir on a rainy day.

Fingerling brook trout like this are stocked in the Lexington Reservoir.

Related

• WHERE: Lexington Reservoir is near the western border of Rockbridge County, just off the Blue Grass Trail road.
• PERMITS: Anglers and hunters need a daily ($1) or yearly ($15) pass from the city of Lexington. Call (540) 462-3702. A fishing license is required for anglers 16 and older, but no trout license is needed.
• OTHER ACTIVITIES: Primitive camping is allowed at the lake.

Reaching the lake we first tied a tarp between trees to create a waterproof shelter, mainly so Sam could keep his photo and video gear somewhat dry.

Then it was time to fish.

And the fishing can be good.

According to state fisheries biologist Paul Bugas, trout do well in the lake. Recent sampling efforts have turned up brookies to 15 inches.

"They are doing really well," Bugas said.

No, these are not wild natives. But they are close, having taken on the vivid colors of natives as they grow fat and strong on natural food.

My plan was to troll using a spinner attractor about a foot above a piece of bait, a tactic I used with great success in the high mountain trout lakes in Oregon.

Sam doesn't use conventional tackle, after reading the classic fly fishing novel The River Why having only somewhat jokingly adopted the attitude that those of us who do are mere "plunkers of worms."

But worms work.

Not a minutes after I started my slow kick troll near the dam I felt a strike but didn't hook the fish.

Over the next hour I caught three brookies, but they were all too small to keep.

Because the trout had already headed to the depths for the summer, Sam wasn't able to reach them, even with a sinking line.

We traded spots and he kicked around in the float tube for an hour, but still couldn't connect.

Casting a Super Duper spoon off the dam, I finally caught a keeper, a gorgeous brookie about 9 inches long.

By then the rain had stopped, and it the day had turned pretty.

It would have been nice to be able to fish into the evening and then camp at one of the primitive sites along the lakeshore.

But we couldn't stay so it was time to pack up and get out.

That turned out to be quite a chore.

The trail was still a sloppy mess, making the uphill grind even slower than it would have been otherwise. Complicating matters, Sam was having equipment problems with his trailer.

The trip out took a lung- and leg-burning 55 minutes, probably not much faster than had we been on foot.

But that was OK.

One thing this summer's trips seem likely to prove is that fishing isn't just about the fish, but about journey.