Virginia Medical Fly Fishing

Thanksgiving Trout

2011-11-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving I was fortunate enough to have an entire week without hospital responsibilities and great weather to boot. No better time to go fishing.

First I drove west from Charlottesville and met up with Pat & Taylor to fish the Jackson River about 15 miles north of The Homestead Resort. Taylor's dad had added around sixty big rainbows to their stretch of the river a few weeks before, so we spent the whole day catching them on various bugs. Though certainly not the purest form of fishing, it was still provided good practice in fighting and landing big fish. We were also surprised to catch some big 12" fall fish as well.

After settling back in to Georgia for a few days, Steven Pruitt and I finally made a day trip happen after many missed promises. Steven and I went to high school together and were roommates at the University of Georgia. While I worked briefly as a maid at Yellowstone National Park during the summer before medical school, Steven worked as a fly fishing guide at Turpin Meadow Ranch in Moran, Wyoming, which is just north of Jackson. In retrospect Steven probably had the better gig. Anyway, last Wednesday we fished the Toccoa River in the town of Blue Ridge, Georgia with our dads. The weather was not nearly as warm as we were anticipating, and on the way up there was some doubt about the point of even going. But we finally made it and started fishing not long after daybreak below the Blue Ridge Dam. We had the section of river to ourselves for the whole morning, which indicates how cool the weather was considering that the parking lot is often full of vehicles. Steven was fishing about 100 yards below me when I looked up to see him fighting a fish. He yelled upriver for me to come that way so I casually walked over to the river's edge. He again yelled and I then realized that he must have a big fish on and needs help landing it. Sure enough it was a big healthy rainbow that took a size 16 prince nymph from beneath a submerged log. It was a great fish and definitely worth fishing in the cold all morning. And to think that we had questioned making the trip.

After stopping by the local fly shop and filling up with some hot barbeque, we headed upstream to fish the Toccoa River above the dam. The water was relatively high but still very clear and the sun was finally pushing the temperature into the tolerable range. We fished various patterns for several hours with no hookups and finally called it quits in the early afternoon. Another fisherman pulled up just as were breaking down our rods. After correcting our strategy for this section of the river (he strongly favored fishing woolybuggers through the deep holes) he showed us the Oyster bamboo fly rod that he crafted as part of a rod-building class in Blue Ridge. The classes take you through every step of the rod-making process over the course of two weekends or one full week, and in the end you have built your own bamboo rod.

On Thanksgiving day my parents and I went back to fish the Toccoa above the dam, but this time we went several miles father upriver to fish a stretch near the Benton MacKaye Trail, which is named after the Harvard educated conservationist who originated the idea for the Appalachian Trail. Like the AT, the BMT begins at Springer Mountain and works its way north through gentle mountains of Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. It crosses over the Toccoa River via a 265 foot swinging bridge, the longest of its kind east of the Mississippi River. The area is beautiful, but the water produced only one 10" rainbow that took a caddis pattern. There are almost certainly more fish to be caught here, and it's worth the drive just to see the bridge.

I was driving back to Charlottesville on Friday afternoon, which ended up being the mildest day of the entire week. The sun was out and it looked like a perfect day to be on a body of water. Unfortunately I was stuck in my truck, driving up I-81 knowing that Mossy Creek must be covered up with bugs right now. Serial calculations on my phone showed that I could be in the parking lot by 4:00 PM, which would only give me one hour of fishable daylight at best. What the hell, I thought. It's better to fish for one hour and watch the sun set on a farm than to have it go down behind me while driving east on I-64. So I drove the extra 20 miles and watched the sun set and missed several fish rising to a BWO. Well worth it. The weather on Sunday was nice as well, and I couldn't resist going back to Mossy to make a more thorough attempt to catch fish. There were two guys in the parking lot getting ready to leave, and one of them introduced himself as James Garrison. In addition to religiously fishing Mossy and nearby streams, he also contributes to the blog Fly Curious. I caught a few small browns on BWOs but couldn't convince any larger fish to rise.

All in all it was a week of good weather and even better fishing.

North Fork of the Moorman's - 11/6

2011-11-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

I took advantage of the great fall weather to head out to the moorman's river on a tip from the Albemarle angler guys. Brent and I got to the river around 9:00 and I was blown away by the fall colors. It was prime time for the leaves, but fortunately they didn't cause too much trouble on the water. We took the right at Sugar Hollow reservoir to the north fork and pulled off at the second obvious pull out.

I caught the only fish of the day on a #16 orange/yellow Stimulator right next to where we left the car. It ended up being the biggest brook trout I've caught and it was fun having a dry fly take

so late in the season. The amazing colors on these brook trout have really won me over. Even though

they are the runts I've really enjoyed fishing these small streams. That being said we fished hard the rest of the morning with stimulators, dry-dropper rigs, and nymps, without another bite. Overall the water was pretty

low and there weren't many good holding places (at least that were obvious to me!) The banks are also pretty rugged and makes sneaking pretty tough. I'd really like to solve the puzzle on this river because it's so close, but I left not feeling confident that there were a lot of fish to catch. If anybody has any advice on what to try let me know I'd love to go back.

Rivanna River, Charlottesville

2011-10-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Long-time follower, first-time blogger

Pat, Taylor and I have been enjoying some much-needed time on the water since finishing our surgery rotation in early October. We continued this trend on Thursday afternoon after getting the nod from our resident. We headed to the Rivanna to try our luck at pulling out a bass on a fly. It was a great cloudy afternoon and all three of us had success as soon as we could get our gold Kreelex patterns in the water. We caught fish steadily until dark, and Pat hooked up with the biggest fish of the day that ended up breaking his bug off before he could land it. A fifteen minute drive up 29 is well worth the effort to spend an afternoon catching some of these little guys.

I went back on Sunday afternoon after getting a lot of rain on Saturday. The river was moving a lot of water through and it was pretty tough to wade more than about ten yards from the bank. Fortunately that was all it took because I caught fish steadily until it was too dark to see what I was doing. More smallmouth, bluegill and the occasional crappie.

South Fork Mills River, SC

2011-10-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

After a month of long shifts and scenery that included the confined walls of the OR during my surgery rotation, nothing could have been more what the doctor ordered than a day on the river. I recently moved to Spartanburg, SC for my third year rotations, and had yet to do anything in the way of wetting the waders since doing so. But today was a welcome day of exploration of my new local waters.

From Spartanburg, it's a short, easy drive on 26 to the rivers of Western NC. In another sense, you can basically throw a stone from Asheville in any direction and be in some good trout water. In fact, the few guys I ran into today stated that Western NC is fly fishing heaven.

I started the morning near Saluda, exploring the Green River. This is a tailwater probably best known for its Green River Gorge section called the Narrows, which is popular with kayakers. The two main access points are from a spot called Fishtop Access east off exit 59, and another from Big Hungry Road off exit 53. I was all set in my mind for taking on the Gorge section, but when I talked to the helpful guys in the Curtis Wright fly shop in Saluda, they informed me that due to the water release, I had better steer clear as it can be a dangerous section to fish. The river drops 900 feet in about 1/2 mile, making for some challenging pool fishing, but more importantly the unpredictable water release simply makes it a dangerous area for fishermen. I'll have to learn more about this, because I have heard some good things about the fishing in this section despite the difficult access.

So, the guys in the shop helped me out with a NC license, a map, and sent me on my way to the South Fork Mills River. This river, along with many other notable North Carolina streams like the Davidson, Looking Glass Creek, Avery Creek, and the North and West Forks of the French Broad River, can be accessed from route 208 past Hendersonville near the town of Brevard. The access for the S. Fork Mills River is from Turkey Pen road off 208, which is an immediate dirt road from the highway that takes you back a few miles to the river trail head. From there, you must hike about a half mile to the river to a wooden bridge, and from there it's best to follow the trail upstream (for as far as 12 miles if you like). I caught about a half dozen wild rainbows, the biggest being about 12 inches, during my few hours on the river. The guys in the shop told me that the river is actually known for its abundance of wild browns, which not surprisingly tend to be a lot more difficult to catch, especially in the low, clear fall conditions. For those of you more familiar with the Virginia streams, I would best describe the South Fork Mills as a slightly wider, flatter grade mountain stream that holds its share of bigger trout, with the chance for some nice browns.

After a successful first time on the South Mills, I decided to check out what all the fuss was about with the Davidson, which is about 10 minutes down the road on 208. The description would be about the same as that of the South Mills, although the access is much easier. The river essentially parallels route 276, and for that reason, along with its stricter catch and release rules, it is a much more popular river. I have read that due to the special regulations, the trout are in particular abundance here and can reach fish-tale size. Any conversation about North Carolina trout fishing apparently includes the Davidson, and certainly I am looking forward to finding a less popular time to go so I can have those big browns to myself.

The following are links to Davidson River Outfitters (intersection of 208 and 276), and the Curtis Wright Fly Shop:

http://www.davidsonflyfishing.com/

http://www.curtiswrightoutfitters.com/

Mossy 10/16/11

2011-10-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I crushed it at Mossy this past Sunday. Despite a bluebird sky, we did well on the surface as well as with nymphs. The browns took humpies with copper john/pheasant tail droppers all day like the world was about to end. We didn't catch any hogs, but we landed some beauties in the 12-14 inch range, mostly in the riffles. Fish were definitely paired up and tailing; looks like the spawn is on at Mossy. I fall in love with that creek a little more each time I visit.

Fishing Report: Upper Rapidan River

2011-10-04T07:04:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have my first fishing trip of the fall. The weather was perfect with a mild breeze sending an early batch of chlorophyll-less American Beech leaves sailing.

I dabbled in tossing nymphs for only a few minutes before I saw a single dark mayfly; Enough incentive for me to throw on a newly tied Parachute Adams. Ten minutes later I was hooked on to a very fat, very lively Brooke trout that managed to drag me down two pools (that's what happens when you insist on using 7x tippet in the Park.)

Lately I've been finding myself doing less fishing when I go fishing. This time was no exception. After catching enough trout to healthily pad my ego I spent the rest of the afternoon vegetating before having to return to the hustle and bustle of life.

All in all, a wonderful day to be out on the river.

Rivanna Largemouth 9/2011

2011-09-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Greg and I spooked out the Rivanna below the dam on the north end of Charlottesville this week. We found a mediocre bite until about 530 when the largemouth really turned on. This is one of the few spots on the Rivanna where we regularly catch largemouth bass as opposed to smallies. We mainly used silver and gold standard floating Rapalas, but I'm sure if we had been fly fishing we would have had great success with kreelex or any wooley bugger pattern. We should have another couple weeks of great bass fishing left this season before the bite cools off with the weather. Get out there and take advantage of it!

Fishing Report - South Holston Tailwater - Bristol, TN

2011-09-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

I was down in Norton, VA for my outpatient medicine rotation and had the opportunity to duck down to the South Holston tailwater on a Sunday morning. The trip started out on a fantastic note with a cool 60 degree morning and a drive through the twisty back roads of SW Virginia. I pulled into the South Holston Fly Shop around 11:00 and met a really nice guy that set me up with a great selection of Sulphur dries, nymphs, and emergers. The shop also had a great selection of hackle at very fair prices and the guy working there was kind enough to give me some tips on tying while I was there, as well as telling me what setup that was working that week with the large amount of rainfall from the tropical storm.

After leaving the shop it was a short jaunt down to the river (despite a few wrong turns) and I hurriedly rigged up a CDC dry fly to try and get some fishing in before the water rose while they were generating power. I saw lots of fish rising but didn't get any bites until I took the time to add the dropper fly they had suggested at the shop. I pulled in a great trout, not huge, but enough to whet my appetite.

It was getting late, so I decided to take a break for lunch and regroup. Sitting down on the bank, I ran into the homeowner who had just purchased this amazing home right on the river, but had recently had trouble with folks coming up the bank and making trouble. After he found out I wasn't going to "take a s#%! on his lawn" we got to talking and he remembered me from the shop and was an avid fly fisherman who knew the river really well. He was nice enough to donate some frog's fanny to my cause and I was off again.

Unfortunately, I'm still new to the sport and was wading in worn out crocs and shorts and was really struggling, not only slipping on every rock, but also freezing in the perfect trout-temperature water. Unbelievably, I turned around a

nd the same gentleman was calling me to shore holding his top-of-the-line waders and boots. He generously lent me his waders, boots, rod, and flies all while sitting on his patio that abutted the river drinking a beer and pointing out the hot spots. I caught a few more trout, but learned a ton about reading a river, landing fish, and so many more helpful tips. The river was beautiful, but this kindness made my trip.

I highly recommend this river, which supposedly has 5,000 fish per mile in the tailwater. But be respectful of those with property along the river and ask lots of question because you never know who you'll meet.

Help Protect Access to the Jackson

2011-07-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you've seen our reviews on the Jackson River, or perhaps not. But if you didn't know, below the dam, things can get a little touch and go with the landowners if you're wading or even floating their sections of the river. This has recently gotten back into the news and this time it sounds like the fishing community is putting up a fight. (For some background on King's Grant and the last serious dispute on the Jackson River, check out this)

I was contacted by Steve from Switchfisher.com last week about raising awareness. Unfortunately, I was so swamped with my Urology acting internship that I wasn't able to post a message until now, so I'm a little late on getting the message out! Here's the background for the most recent events per Steve's email:

"A developer is suing 3 anglers in Virginia for fishing a section of the Jackson River that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries considers public. If the court rules in favor of the developer, rivers throughout Virginia will be off limits for recreational use at the whim of the riverfront landowner in spite of a Virginia law that places the riverbed under the ownership of the State. These things have a way of spreading, so an unfavorable decision could ripple nationwide as a horrible precedent."

An organization has already been put together to try and help with this fight. The Virginia River Defense Fund tried to get Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli involved in the case. It appears as if he isn't going to get involved which is a shame. There is still a way you can help however! The fishermen involved are paying out of their pockets for their defense. If you'd like to help protect our right to fish here in Virginia, you should consider donating. I'm going to.

Visit their website to donate! I'll post updates about the issue in the coming months.

Review: Rose River Farm Yurts

2011-07-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

It's not everyday that you get to spend a night in a yurt. And to be honest, I had to wikipedia the word 'yurt' just to find out exactly what I was getting myself into (yes, I just used wikipedia as a verb). The definition I found was a little unnerving... "a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure", especially since I was headed to Rose River Farm with a group of guys (groomsmen) for a classy get away to celebrate my best friend getting married. Initially I imagined us sleeping in bunk beds in a cabin full of spiders like we used to do at Camp Rockmont back in the day. But when we got there, I was shocked at what I found.

THIS PLACE IS AWESOME. The cabin is by far the most decked out place I've ever had the pleasure of staying. This quintessential mancave has everything you need for the perfect weekend getaway. Heck, even a monthlong getaway. Walking in, the first thing I noticed was the state of the art fly tying table. Then I realized that I wasn't in a felt-covered shabby tent. Instead I was in a new, clean, air conditioned cabin with beautiful views of the Appalachians and all the amenities you'd ever need and then some. Two bedrooms with two queen sized beds in each; enough to fit your group of 4 comfortably. A kitchen stocked with everything you'd need to cook with. And as everyone knows, I'm a coffee addict/snob so I was probably most impressed with the supply of whole coffee beans and grinder. The place even had a flat screen tv and what looked like satellite, but we were having too much fun outside sitting around the fire, talking, listening to a mockingbird show off, and watching a thunderstorm come through to even consider turning on the television.

I'm seriously going back again the next chance I get. Reasons why:
1. It's a fantastic price
2. It's convenient if you are fishing the Rose River or practically any other stream in the eastern slope of the SNP
3. The yurts are so nice that they alone would be reason enough for a visit to get away from the city or for a romantic getaway (which would be difficult considering the gravitational pull of the trout streams in the vicinity...)
4. The cabins are only about 45 minutes away from Charlottesville and a little over an hour from D.C., I don't know of another place that close to either city that is even remotely as awesome.
5. The fly tying table. I have to go back and try it out.
6. I mentioned the proximity to trout streams right?

I'll stop here and show you some of the pictures I took (unfortunately we got there after sunset and my battery quickly died soon thereafter so I wasn't able to take enough pictures to do this place justice, to see better shots of the place, check out the RRF site)

For those of you who don't know about Rose River Farm yet, basically it's been the brainchild of Douglas Dear who has, in the past couple of years, turned it into not only a fantastic fishery, but also a handicap accessible stream that hosts events for Project Healing Waters.

Along those lines, Douglas Dear has been nominated for the L.L. Bean Outdoors Heroes Award for his work with PHW and is now a finalist! The man has been doing some great work, and although I haven't met him face to face yet, I can tell that he truly deserves this. So please go vote for him now at this website.

Note: You'll notice some of my photos up on the Rose River site but no worries, I am neither affiliated with the farm or received any benefits for writing this review. I just like the place a lot. Like a lot a lot.

Fishing Report: South Holston - Marion, VA

2011-06-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

After spending some quality time with the family down in Charlotte, I stopped off on the way back to Charlottesville in Marion, VA to fish on what sounded like an awesome stretch of the South Holston. From what I read about it, it is a pretty short 1/2 mile section of water that runs alongside one of the hatcheries in Marion. Being catch & release only and with VDGIF employees constantly around, it sounded like the perfect place to catch some big fish unharmed by the put & take folk.

When I pulled up, I ran into a guy, I'm sad to say I forgot his name, who had worked there for over 20 years. He told me that originally, the section of water was stocked by the employees for their own benefit and wouldn't let others to fish there. It wasn't until two fishermen refused to leave the water and the law got involved that they had to open the section to the public. Fortunately, they were able to keep it catch and release.

My first impression of the section was that it had great rock structure, good flow, and certainly plenty of fish. Only tough part is getting access to the lower half. If you want to fish it, you pretty much have to go to the lower entry and wade up the whole section as the banks are high and overgrown.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Fishing was good. It wasn't great, but that was probably because I was dying in the 90-something degree heat. Only caught rainbows but did see a larger brown in a pool near a bridge who wouldn't give any of my nymphs the light of day. As for what I was using, it was all over the place. Most were caught on nymphs but I was constantly switching to dry flies when I would find a trout honing in on surface insects. There wasn't a solid hatch all afternoon, with the humid weather and sunny skies, but there were some small flies (I'm assuming midges?) that were hovering around the slower pools.

Most interesting part of the day was when I was tossing a prince nymph into the ripples at the head of slow pool. Twice in a row my indicator was attacked by a nice looking trout. Frustrated that he wasn't noticing the beautiful nymph I tied just for him, I switched to the only pattern in my box that was big enough to mimic my indicator (I guess you could say I was trying to match the indicator hatch)... a size 6 hopper, big, pudgy, and neon yellow. Sure enough, just after I smacked that baby in the run, he went airborne for it.

Great section of water. It's a little far out there so ideally, it should be part of a weekend trip where you also hit up Whitetop Laurel, or if its summertime perhaps you can get some smallies out on the Clinch River or New River.

Susie Q Farm 6/1/11

2011-06-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

Dad came down on Tuesday night in preparation for a very early morning of fishing at Susie Q Farm. He suggested that we warm up for the trip with a little smallmouth action on the Rivanna that evening. Of course I decided to take him to one of my favorite spots, Riverview Park in Charlottesville. We got to stretch some line and hooked into a bunch of sunfish and smallies on kreelex. The river is coming down nicely; wading is still challenging in spots but it's definitely doable.

We set out for Susie Q at 0430 after a restless night of sleep fraught with anticipation of what the day might hold. This was our first time at Susie Q and as we pulled up to the stream, we were instantly impressed with the beauty of the creek and the surrounding country. After gearing up and debating what flies to start with we hit the water about 0615. There were small swells of rising fish scattered across the pool just upstream of the ford near the parking area. I decided to follow the advice from the guys at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing and tried out some trico duns. I was rewarded with a small chub for my efforts. The guys were definitely right on with the hatch, but the trout were not rising this particular day so we decided to try out some nymphs.

Almost as soon as we made the switch we got into some very nice 'bows. We found the first fish of the day in the deep channels with medium paced flows on the far bank across from the parking lot. At one point dad and I both had fish on simultaneously. Both of us hammering the same run didn't faze the fish at all and we each caught 'bows up to 18 inches there. Most of the fish we caught took our nymphs very lightly, barely moving the indicator. There is no telling how many we may have missed. As we worked our way upstream I was struck by the number and quality of deep runs with good structure for holding fish. There are some "aquarium" type flat sections, but they are more than made up for by very nice moving water. I also love the feel of this place. It's a working farm but the stream doesn't seem too manicured or artificial at all. Any stream improvements they have made are subtle, so you feel like you are in a pristine area.

We caught nice rainbows and a few small browns consistently as we made our way toward the top of the property on nymphs and copper/blue/gold kreelex. We stopped fishing about 1130 when the heat became a little too intense and the bite started to trickle off. During our break we stopped by the shop and learned that we left some really nice pools at the upstream and downstream ends of the property. After a good chat and strategy session with Jess (I think that was his name, please correct my if I'm wrong) we picked up new Mossy Creek passes at Verona, killed time running other errands, and started fishing again at 1630. By that time the wind had picked up, we had a little cloud cover, and the temp had cooled to a more comfortable 85 F.

We took Jess' advice and started at the pools downstream from the ford. Dad was rewarded with a nice 13 inch brookie landed on a nymph. He and a few other rainbows caught there were hanging out under the foam lines. We made our way up to the top of the property with a few select stops at our favorite pools from the morning and still had consistent action. I couldn't believe we didn't catch anything under the stump at the last big bend, but we did move a pretty rainbow under the last Sycamore leaning over the stream near the boundry.

This is a truly fantastic place to fish. It is well worth the $70 rod fee since you get the creek to yourself, it's beautiful, it's challenging, and it gives you the chance of catching big, quality fish. I had so much fun fishing with my dad in this awesome spot yesterday. I can't wait to come back and try to find some of the big browns in this creek. Hats off to the Mossy Creek shop for managing this place and keeping great trout water open.

Beaver Creek 4/9/2011

2011-04-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

With a much needed week off after our block 7 and an overload of recent studying, I used last weekend to visit Charlottesville, and catch up with Cameron for a few days on the river. He's already gloated about our incredible day on the Rapidan on Sunday, where spring brookie fishing is in full effect with hungry trout rising to an abundance of flies.

The previous day, however, Cameron was my guide to Beaver Creek. We woke up early to be sure we got the reservation for the day there, and were on the river at around 7:30am. For most of the day, the weather was gloomy and overcast, but we escaped any rain and were able to get in a suprisingly full day of fishing. We fished below the bridge during the morning hours without much luck. When we moved on to the meadow section above the bridge, we met a few visible trout in the first pool, but were unable to get them to look at anything we tossed their way. After several hours of frustration and changing fly patterns, I finally hooked into one in an open meadow pool on a Copper John. From there, our frustrations continued until after a late lunch where I returned to the same pool where I caught the first one. I put on a nymph rig that I had learned over the summer in Montana, which consisted of a caddis larva and a heavy beaded stonefly nymph dropper. With some more patience, I started getting into the action and landed several decent fish until finally hooking into the beast of the day, a healthy 20+inch Rainbow. He was quite the weight to pull in, but with Cam's assistance we finally got it to land. It has been quite awhile since I've caught anything that big, and my nerves were certainly going!

Needless to say, I must give Cameron full credit for putting me on the fish. Both of us continued to have better luck in the afternoon, each hooking into a few more fish before calling it a day. Overall, my first experience on Beaver Creek was very positive, and I have Cam to thank for introducing me to another good Virginia stream that I look forward to going back to and learning more about.

Fishing Report: Rapidan River

2011-04-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

Looks like we're going to have some pretty high rivers here for the next week thanks to that monsoon that can through central Virginia yesterday. The water levels in the upper portions of the Rapidan over the weekend definitely spiked, fortunately, however, it looks like we didn't quite hit flood levels. Not sure how long we'll have to wait until we have conditions as good as they were last week.

Speaking of last week, fishing was freaking fantastic. Scott, the proverbial master of small stream fly fishing, was able to take some time off from studying for his Step 1 to grace Rich and me with his presence. Of course, with the forecast calling for a sunny day and 80 degree weather last Sunday, we had to hit up the Rapidan.

We headed up to the section around Rapidan Camp to ensure we wouldn't have any company. Right from the start we could see brookies feeding on dry flies. Not just a few either. We split up and put on our respective favorites for the park, Scott with an elk hair caddis, Richie with something that probably was of the royal adams family (i'm guessing, correct me if i'm wrong), and me with a parachute adams. They all seemed to work great. Three hours later, we all were worn out and were plenty satisfied with the more than 50 fish we each caught. Seriously, it was probably the best day on the Rapidan I've had in several years. We got on the water right when two mayfly hatches, which looked like blue wing olives and something larger and brown like a quill gordon or march brown, were occurring. I switched to a BWO spinner and definitely started getting more strikes. These brookies were going absolutely nuts. I think I only hit up about eight pools in three hours but was able to put out at least ten brook trout, all in the 8-10 inch range, from each. By the end of our day (only around 4:00pm), the females were depositing their eggs and a decent number of spinners were on the water. At that point, the brookies started feeding even more aggressively. My last pool had about eight large trout in it who were all competing for the flies coming down the buffet line. It was amazing seeing them go airborne and slamming into each other as they fought for the fly. I had never seen such aggressiveness on the Rapidan. I managed to get a videoclip of one of them going airborne:

From rapidan river 4.10.11

Hopefully, once these high water levels settle out, we'll be able to hit up the park again for some more brookies. Let us know if you've had similar success!

Beaver 'Bows 4/4/2011

2011-04-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

I showed up at Peds Cardiology clinic today only to find that we did not have any patients. After being cut loose early, I decided to call the Ottobine Store and see if there were any passes left for Beaver Creek. It turns out I got the last one.

By the time I pulled up to the store it was almost 1600 and it looked like one of the fishermen from the morning was just putting his gear away. I paid for my pass and headed upstream to start fishing in the field across from the elementary school. Two factors made fishing difficult this afternoon. For one thing, the wind was blowing between 20-30 mph the whole time I was there. That made for some interesting line tricks to keep my fly on target. Secondly, I had never fished Beaver in the evening, and the shadows proved to be pretty wicked in the stretch I fished.

I only fished for about 2.5 hours and landed all three fish I hooked up with. It's nice to see that Beaver still holds the big fat 'bows I've come to expect there. The first fish I caught was by far the nicest and jumped four times. I was casting nymphs with my 5 wt with a small white bobbing indicator. I saw one nice fish roll on a dry fly, but that was the only top water action of the day. All in all it was an unexpectedly awesome day.

Mossy Creek 3/13/2011

2011-03-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

After seeing that we were looking an almost 70 degree day on Sunday, Kyle and I knew we had to stretch some line. I did the same post-call maneuver of scrambling to grab my gear after finishing rounds. We debated whether the park or the valley would have better water levels after the torrents we experienced the week before. After much hemming and hawing we decided to try Mossy.

I've had mostly a hate/hate relationship with Mossy over the years. It's a beautiful spot, but the challenges posed by wary trout, the prohibition of wading, and the foliage in the river have led to more than one skunked day for me. The saving grace was that I would be fishing with Kyle. He somehow knows exactly where to find the prehistoric browns for which Mossy is so famous.

As it turned out, the water levels were spectacular. The stream was slightly stained and the moss patties covered generously by water. This was a boon considering the bluebird sky we had and it kept us from hanging up too much fishing kreelex (copper/gold of course). We started fishing by the spillway downstream from the church. Kyle landed one on the second cast right under the car bridge. This piqued our interest for sure, but we were unable to turn any other heads in the channels along the spillway.

Things really picked up between 4:00 and 6:30. The browns turned on so much that any kreelex swung over the moss and into the channels made greedy fish give long, sustained chase. Many fish just nipped at our flies, but we were able to land 9 between the three of us. We even saw pairs of browns tailing along the undercuts and running upstream spawning. This is the most activity I've ever personally seen on the creek save last September when dad and I ran into a large group of browns steadily sipping bugs off the top. I'd say it was a very solid day for Mossy. My opinion might be veering more toward love than hate at this point.

Rose River SNP 3/5/2011

2011-03-19T04:05:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I had been talking about hitting up some new brook trout water for a week, so by Saturday morning I was itching to get up to the park. He knew that I had to round with my team that morning, so it would be touch-and-go about what time we'd head out. After presenting my newly admitted patients from call the night before, my chief resident told me to take off around 1100. Luckily I got the nod when I did, because if I hadn't called Kyle and Cameron then they might not have turned around to come pick me up. Thanks guys, you're the best.

The plan was to briefly check out the Rose as a test run before tackling the road over the mountain to the upper Rapidan. After 20 minutes on the Rose the word "Rapidan" was wiped from our vocabulary for the day. We spooked about 25 brookies that day wading the absolutely gorgeous pools and surprisingly deep runs. Still being early in the season with temps teetering in the upper 50s/low 60s the bite really only turned on for about 45 minutes in the late afternoon and only in the deep pools on heavy nymphs. I'm sure that this place will be on fire in another month or so given the number of fish we saw on a lukewarm day.

A few things make the Rose really stand out in my mind. First, I like that the river is far from the trail. No Toykyo Drift style neon green Honda Civics with huge spoilers bumping along the streamside road a la the Rapidan. You need to do a fair amount of bushwhacking to get to the stream which keeps the mood much more serene. Also, the section we fished is fairly wide with great structure provided by larger rocks in the middle of the stream bed. Couple that with the deeper than average runs, and dry fly season should be huge with fish likely ambushing your fly from many angles. I can't wait to come back to this place.

Back on the Water/Fishing Report: Conway River, Rapidan River (lower section), and Staunton River

2011-03-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

VAMFF took an unexpected break from updating the site there for while. Trust me when I say it wasn't intended. Third year of medical school turned out to be just as busy as we were told it would be. Throw in some issues with leaky waders, a broken rod tip, and a non-functioning reel, and it made it even more difficult to be on the water. It was as if the fishing gods wanted us to stop fishing for a while and actually tie surgeon's knots where they were originally intended to be.

All that being said, third year is quickly winding down, temperatures are rising, and hatches are happening so we have don't have any excuses not to fish. On Feb 27th, Rich and I took our first trip of 2011 up to the mountain streams to scout out some new locations.

First stop was the Conway at the section below the confluence with Devil's Ditch. Our initial impressions were that the river was beautiful, it had great pools, and it is far enough in on the fire roads that many weekend warriors will probably pass it up in favor of areas that have quicker access. That being said, we may have gotten there too early in the morning for a brisk February day because we literally did not see a fish the entire morning. Nothing hit on top or on bottom, not even a near miss or a flash. The only other fisherman we saw out there that day had similar luck. But given how nice the river is, this will definitely have to be a repeat location later on in the spring.

Conway River (Middle Section)

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Determined to not be blanked on our first day back fishing, we then headed to the lower section of the Rapidan near Graves Mill. There we saw fish. At first we saw some chubs in a beaver pond and we definitely felt the urge to throw a line in to ensure we at least caught something. But we fought the urge and got to the confluence of the Staunton and the Rapidan and started there.

On the Rapidan, the water levels were great and we could see some brookies slowly exploring the deeper sections. Eventually, around 2-3pm, a small hatch of black caddis started to emerge and with the temperature getting into the low 60s, we started seeing fish rising. Finally. We ended up only catching a few before they stopped rising but it was enough to make the trip worthwhile.

Staunton River

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We did fish up the Staunton for a little while as well. In fact, the Staunton was actually where I learned how to fly fish courtesy of Scott Rusteikas. Plenty of fish but really, unless you have a 2-3 wt and don't mind sidearm casts and getting caught in trees, you may want to look elsewhere.

I apologize for the lapse in writing. Hopefully we can pick things back up where we left off!

ps. Expect to see some renovations to the site in the coming months.

No Water, No Fish

2010-09-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

We've had a slow month here at VMFF. I wish I could say it's because we've been too busy studying, but really, it's because water levels are so low that our favorite spots are either dried up or almost there. Don't believe me? Here's the USGS water level readings for the Rapidan:

Here's to hoping we get some much needed rain here in the near future. Otherwise, you probably won't be hearing much from us!

Martinsville AIM rotation and the Smith River

2010-08-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, but believe me when I say it's because I've been too busy fishing.

Upon hearing that I was placed in Martinsville for my Ambulatory Internal Medicine rotation, I quickly went to google to find out about fishing opportunities in the area. I was dismayed when I saw no significant smallmouth waters in the area. I tried to convince myself that no fishing was a good thing as I'd be able to actually get some studying done for the Medicine shelf exam. I packed up and headed down, leaving my waders and fly tying kit at home.

Little did I know that Martinsville has a premier tailwater loaded with trout just 15 minutes away.

On my first day of clinic, I was fortunate enough to interview a patient who had a bass pro shop hat on, which meant I ended up spending most of the interview talking about good fishing locations (whoops!). He told me about the Smith River and stories he's heard about people pulling monster browns out of the river in the special regulation section (always a good sign if there's a special regulation section). He hadn't been up to the river in a while though and didn't want to promise me anything.

So after two days of researching the river I finally made a trip up.

Note: since it's a tailwater, the dam releases water for a certain amount of time each day which makes it unfishable. The past month it was usually running from around 1pm to 6-7pm each day. I'd recommend hitting up the water just when they turn off the generators. It seems like the insect life plans their hatches for right as the water starts to level off which means you can prepare for top feeding trout starting about 20-30 minutes after generating ends. To find out when they will be generating, call to hear the Army Corps of Engineer's recorded message at: (276) 629-2432. Also know that since it's a tailwater, the water will be cold all the time making fishing for trout possible in the late summers while it also keeps the water unfrozen in the winters so if you want to fish a midge hatch in January, you can.

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I first set out to the special regulation section at 7pm to see what was going on. Unfortunately, I almost died of shock when I got in the water without my left-at-home waders. The waters in the section just above the bridge at rt. 666 were high still as it would take a while for the levels to subside. So without even making any casts in the section, I shivered my way back to my car and headed up to Philpott Dam to see what was going on there.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map
What I found was quite possibly the best half mile of water I've fished in Virginia. Because of the difference in temperature between the humid air and the cold water, a thick 10 feet of fog sat over the water. Through the fog I could just barely see rising trout. And I could see them everywhere. They were mainly in the seams feeding regularly on a decent hatch of tiny insects which I assumed were tricos. Despite my lack of waders and a medical condition where I get paralyzed because of extremely cold temperatures, I wet waded in to try my luck. I put on a a size 16 parachute and immediately started getting hits. Most of the browns and rainbows were from 10-16 inches but I know I missed hooking on to at least two browns that were much bigger. Unfortunately, because the generating schedule ends so late, it only leaves about 2 hours for decent fishing before it gets too hard to see with the lighting and the fog. There are talks in the works though that will hopefully result in better scheduling.

I eventually made the trek home that weekend to retrieve the rest of my fly fishing equipment and spent about 2-3 days each week fishing the Philpott Dam section. In the end, Martinsville was a complete surprise and a great place to fish. I'd drive the 2 1/2 hour drive down from Charlottesville anytime to spend a weekend fishing the Smith. It's just that good.

Western Montana: Bitterroot River

2010-07-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

As I look out on the waters and the mountains and the big sky surrounding me in western Montana, the same ones so eloquently portrayed and described in Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, I can't help but feel something special is going on. Out here, human life is slowed down, and fishing life is sped up. To paint an example, I am writing from the small town of Melrose on the shores of the Big Hole River, a town consisting of one motel, one bar/restaurant, and two fly shops. Even the bartender I met tonight said he has been here for just six weeks, having up and moved here for the summer to fish, because last summer he met the owner of the bar during his own fishing trip and she gave him a job here this summer.

Anyways, I want to keep this excerpt about the Bitterroot River and our experience with the guides provided to us by Bill Abbot's service there. We flew into Missoula on Tuesday morning and got into the town of Hamilton where we stayed the first three nights by mid afternoon. Bill, who came highly recommended to us by our more experienced (some might say expert) fly fishing friends, Top Prusak and Jack Hess, picked us up from the airport and drove us an hour south to Hamilton. He showed us around town and took us down to the river for a quick view before dropping us off at our motel for the night. But with a few hours of daylight left, my dad and I made our way over to the river for a few hours before calling it a night, and while we both had out share of hits, he landed the only one of the evening, a nice 16 inch cutthroat.

The next morning, our guide Jeff picked us up at 8:30 and we drove about 30 minutes south to the put in of Appleberry on the West Fork of the Bitterroot. On our way, we saw our first creature of the trip, a black moose, hanging by the side of the dirt road a couple miles below our put-in spot. The stretch of river from Appleberry down to our take-out of Trapper's Creek Job Corp has a very scenic canyon-like personality. Cutthroats, a lot like brook trout, are not especially picky eaters, and the characteristics of this stretch of the river gave us a great opportunity to hook into a good share of fish on dry flies, almost exclusively on a pattern called the Purple Haze (which is basically an Adams tied with a purple body), although we caught a few on gold stimulators and caddis. Jeff took good care of us all day (it's amazing how all these guides can tie knots so quickly and change flies like it's no effort at all). Near the beginning of the float, Jeff pointed out a small dark eddy along a riffly bend and told me to make a cast there since I was in the front of the boat. Sure enough, after a good cast in there if I may say so, I hooked into a beautiful 16 inch Cut. From there, all the jokes about being in the front of the boat giving you a big advantage ensued. In all, we both caught close to 40-50 fish that day, working out to be a fantastic first day of fishing.

The following morning our guide Wes McCay picked us up and we floated the main stem of the Bitterroot. This section has a completely different personality, filled with bigger, deep pools and channels in an open valley, defined by panoramic vistas and white rock shores. As such, Wes suited us up with nymphing rigs to start the morning and for most of the day. However, we did catch a good few on dries as well. This section holds slightly bigger fish, and while neither of us caught the big ones I think Wes was hoping we'd catch, we did get a few in the net that pushed the 16 inch range. The most successful patterns for our rigs were a black stone paired with a red copper john dropper. Interestingly, while I was fishing an orange stimulator dry fly at one point, I caught a huge 20 inch Northern Pike Minnow, which is not the prettiest fish but is apparently fairly scarce and very carnivorous and eats just about anything it can. Again, we had another very good day of fishing.

On our third and last day on the Bitterroot, we again has Jeff as our guide. He took us up to the West Fork again, this time putting in at the place we took out two days prior. Saving the best for last, this was our best day on the Bitterroot. We literally caught fish all day long, especially during a torrid golden stonefly hatch that took off around noon and lasted for almost two hours. The hatch was so thick that as the bugs were crawling on my skin and down my shirt and into every crevice of my fanny pack, I tried to swipe a few off my neck and accidentally hit my sunglasses into the river, never to be found again. During this time you could cast big bushy imitations to rising fish literally 5 feet away and catch big cutthroats. The biggest one I caught was nearly 18 inches, which is great for a Cut, but we both caught several in the 15-16 inch range consistently. This stretch of the river also has a certain canyon-like feel to it, but it opens up a bit more and provided some great long riffle pools perfect for getting wading.

Our experience on the Bitterroot River, and with Bill Abbot's guide service, was nothing short of awesome. We caught a ton of fish and the scenery was something special to behold. Anyone planning to come to Montana to fish would do well to give the Bitterroot some serious consideration.

Fishing Report: Mossy Creek 7-9

2010-07-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've last posted. Fortunately it hasn't been because we're not fishing. We just have been too exhausted after trips to put up anything. Hopefully we'll be able to make relevant posts now despite being two or three weeks late.

I got today off from my internal medicine rotation because I'll be on call tomorrow effectively ruining my weekend. Since the last time we reported on Mossy, Kyle went back and actually caught another huge brown. Ridiculous. I'm pretty sure he's using dynamite. Because I was not in attendance for his successful trip, I had to make yet another trip in search of big browns.

To make it for the morning trico hatch, I got to the fog laden river around 5:30 and found fish sipping flies off the surface all over the place. It was obvious that they recently restocked the river because there was a swarm of something like fifty 6-10 inch fish in the pool just below the bridge. Water levels were low but manageable and a lot of the mud that was present last time I was there was no longer an issue. Essentially, it was a perfect day to fish.

I had a bunch of early misses that initially frustrated me as well as one hook up of a big guy on a hopper pattern that happened by accident while I was trying to untangle some line. By the time I realized I had a fish on, he had already made an epic leap that dislodged the hook. I'm kind of glad though; I would have been pretty disappointed about having my first huge brown caught by accident.

Starting at around 8:00, the stocked trout began to feed consistently on something small on the surface. I tried some trico spinners with no luck but found that a tiny, size 16, parachute adams seemed to draw plenty of hits. I was impressed by their eating habits. Usually these stocked fish snub their noses at anything that doesn't look like a pellet.

Eventually I hooked my first decently large brown. He had definitely been there a while and put up and awesome but muddy fight. By the time I had him in hand, I was literally covered in mud. But it was worth it. He took to a tiny parachute adams down underneath the lower bridge in a pool surrounded by stocked trout.

Then I found the money spot. I can't divulge where it is for fear of others taking to it and catching all the browns. But I can say that it's freaking awesome. I spent my final hour there honing my skills with a pheasant tail nymph pulling in fish after fish. In the end I think I pulled in about 20-30 fish (and I tried to document a decent number of them just so Rich and Kyle would know I wasn't lying when I told them).

On a side note, I met another fisherman out there today who was there for the first time. Got to talking to him and found out he was about fed up with the river considering he had had no luck and was tired of getting tangled up in the brush. I gave him a kreelex and promised him it'd get results. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, he pulled in a decent size fish. Not bad for his first day on the river having only just started fly fishing about a year ago. The kreelex showed off how awesome it is yet again.

Arkansas River in Colorado Part 3

2010-05-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Terry, Dad, and I spent our last day fishing the Ark down by the Wellsville bridge. This is located just upstream from the Ark Anglers' private lease where Stuart took us the day before. Aside from that lease, I have not found a sweeter spot on the Ark downstream from Buena Vista. There is an island in the middle of the river just upstream from the bridge with excellent holes and riffles on either side. We got there very early to stake a claim, which was essential. There was moderate pressure that day with a few other parties of anglers coming out later in the morning and throughout the afternoon. The other fishermen were exceptionally respectful of our beats, and we all shared this stretch easily.

I spent the morning experimenting with different streamers and nymph rigs. I was having some trouble drawing a bead on exactly what the fish wanted, but with some help from my dad (and his ever calming presence), I ended up catching some very nice fish on a prince nymph/baetis emerger combo. Experience truly won out that day as Terry and my dad nailed fish all day long. The key was using the 5x fluorocarbon tippet that Dad bought the day before. That stuff is worth the money. It sinks like a stone and is completely invisible to the trout. We found fish mostly holding in calm slants within the riffles as well as along the foam lines, making that Thursday a wonderful lesson in reading the water.

Once the afternoon came, things really clicked in for the three of us and we had pretty consistent luck. In fact, just before lunch dad hooked into a huge brown implementing the drop and count method into the foam (see 2nd Ark post for details) at the upstream end of the island. Terry and I watched him from the bank while we chowed-down on some sandwiches. He sprang up from prone with fly line ripping off his reel. Unfortunately for him, dad failed to remember the boy scout motto "be prepared" and had taken off his vest as he edged up to the foam-topped eddy. Without a net, he had no chance of landing the monster and after a good fight the fish was gone. Still, hats off to our instructor, Stuart, who taught us a very productive and sneaky maneuver to hook some giant trout!

This trip was the best thing a boy could ask for. I had an awesome time roaming the country with my dad, got to fish with him and another great pal, and even learned a thing or two about throwing dice in Central City. A long road trip was just what I needed after four months of boards studying. If you have the time, I highly recommend savoring the journey and not just the fishing part of a trip. Tight lines, and thanks to everyone in Colorado who helped make our trip a success.

Connections: Medicine and Fly Fishing

2010-05-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Richard Formato, one of the top fly fishermen in the country, the other day about his new project which coincidentally is just the kind of thing we're all about here at VMFF (ie. fly fishing and medicine).

In case you haven't watched the Outdoor, Versus, or ESPN Outdoors channels at all, you may not realize what fishing shows consist of. Most of what you can find out there consists of close up shots of huge fish hauled in using the "newest and most technologically advanced" lure the world has ever seen. In my opinion, fishing just hasn't translated to the big screen as well as other sports. Televised golf, for instance, has been able to capture some of what golf is about: slow panning shots of a fairway, the hushed voice of a sports commentator describing how smooth a back swing is, the close in views of a golfer as he intensely examines the subtle curves of a green, the quiet applause of spectators acknowledging a job well done. Fishing shows, on the other hand, have missed the point. Case and point: Bill Dance

Fortunately for the fishing community, I think Richard Formato may have a way to help turn things around. Richard has just recently begun putting together a show about what fishing is really about; trying to show how therapeutic it can be to be out on the river making long deliberate casts to captious trout. For example, in the trailer for the show, The Healing Stream (watch it here), Richard helps an Iraq veteran learn how to use fly fishing as a way to help in the healing process. They also pull in what looks to be like some pretty decent brookies. (On that note, I'll have to figure out where they were filming so I can plan some future excursions.)

Screenshot from The Healing Stream's trailer

Hopefully in the near future, we'll get to watch more of Richard's work and see more about how fly fishing can be an effective form of therapy. Keep on the look out for more about this and help spread the word!

Arkansas River in Colorado Part 2

2010-05-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

Day two on the Ark was pretty tough with much colder temps and high winds. It amazed me how much the weather could change in the mountains day to day with highs only in the 40s after 70s the day before. We caught fewer fish, but they were hard earned and still absolutely gorgeous. Sefan at Ark Angers saved the day by putting us on a public stretch not far from town for the afternoon that produced some nice browns. I have the spot marked on the fishing map.

After a tough day two, we decided to book a morning guided wade trip through the shop. I think they pulled out all the stops for us and called in a true ringer named Stuart Andrews. Stuart has been fishing for about 40 years and really knows his stuff. The wade trip was on a private lease starting below the Wellsville bridge that had a great mix of deep pools, short cliffs, and some shallow pocket water on the sides. We started out showing off our casting "prowess" for Stuart who fine tuned our strokes. I was amazed by how he could make small adjustments to my casting and cause huge improvements in minutes. Again, hiring a guide every once in a while is a GREAT idea and made our third and fourth days on the Arkansas truly memorable.

We fished nymph rigs with a small chartreuse Copper John dropper. That little thing was deadly! I had never seen chartreuse copper wire like that before, but it imitated the chartreuse caddis larvae we found teeming under the rocks. Here's another pearl, go ahead and spend the extra money for fluorocarbon monofilament for your nymph rigs. It's completely invisible to the fish and it sinks like a stone. Just another trick I learned from Stuart. This setup gave us a real edge and we caught some truly stunning browns and 'bows.

As for actual fishing techniques, I learned a few awesome tricks from Stuart. First and foremost if you don't know about fishing the foam lines, try it! Stuart reminded us that wild fish don't like to expend a lot of energy while they are feeding. No joke, but how does that help you? Well, look for the seams between faster water and more calm water. These are generally the places where foam bubbles will form and make streaks down the current, and they are perfect spots for trout to lay in wait for food being swept downstream in the faster water.

Stuart also taught us some secrets about finding big fish. If you are on a larger river with collections of foam in the deep eddies along the banks, get your nymphs in there! You'll see lots of spent flies lying in the white foam and maybe even some trout sipping there. Also, bigger fish feel secure because the foam forms a canopy protecting them from birds like ospreys. The trick here is to sneak up on your belly very slowly, and with just a little fly line out, drop your nymphs right into the foam. You may see a take on your indicator, but if not just count to five and blindly set. Repeat this maneuver and work around the foam until you hook a 20+ inch brown.

Not only is he among the best fishermen I've ever met, stuart is also an accomplished artist. His compositions capture the American West and the changes that we have made on the landscape as we have tried to tame it. He has some really beautiful works, and I hope to own a few of them whenever I pay off my student loans. Check out his gallery online, it is worth more then a few minutes of your time. Thanks for your expertise and teaching, Stuart. We hope to fish with you again sometime soon, hopefully on a high mountain lake trip for cutthroat.

Fishing Report: Muddy Run 4/27/2010

2010-05-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

The boards have finally come and gone for the majority of us. Thanks to my procrastination, I was left with only limited time to hit up our friendly Virginia waters. Right after I finished taking the boards in Lynchburg, I hurried up to the Hidden Valley campground located on the Jackson River. Last time I was there, it was with a bunch of the guys and unfortunately our first impression of the spot wasn't too spectacular. In case you didn't know, I'm not a huge fan of chubs or of stocked waters, which was pretty much all that we found when we were at the Jackson's special regulations area last fall. So I was a little pessimistic. Upon arriving, I still had about an hour before sunset so I quickly went out to the river to see what the conditions were like.

My first impressions of the Jackson in the spring is that it's got some great insect life. Stepping out into the section of water near the parking area, I was surrounded with a huge hatch of mayflies. I have no idea what type they were, but they were definitely large. Knowing that I only had a few short minutes before I'd have to get back to setting up camp, I quickly put on a size 12 parachute adams and went to work throwing to the great runs along both banks. I saw a few rising fish and heard even more behind me which, by the time I turned around, had already assumed their hidden positions under the sun-glared surface.

Eventually my fly disappeared and the line went taught. Quickly, however, my enthusiasm waned as I didn't feel the fight of a huge fish and did not witness any aerial jumps that one usually associates with a healthy rainbow trout. Reeling in I found my disappointment was appropriate at the sight of a huge chub. This guy has obviously been feeding well. A few more casts later and BAM, another bite with yet another lackluster fight. Chub number two. It was pretty disappointing to be surrounded with such a beautiful landscape and a perfect evening mayfly hatch but head back to camp troutless.

Exhaustion took over quickly and my 5:30 a.m. wake-up routine resulted in me being the first fisherman the next morning to be on the long hike up to the special regulations area of the Jackson. At the first bridge crossing, I became disoriented and continued straight instead of heading to the special regulation area. This, however, was a supremely awesome mistake. This unknowingly led me to the much smaller but much more amazing, Muddy Run. I quickly found myself on a path that was very overgrown next to a beautiful stream that reminded me of the uppermost parts of the Rapidan yet with even better pools and runs.

I realized my mistake after about a half a mile more of hiking and was about to turn around. But, I thought I should just make a few casts, just in case. Having had such poor luck with the chubs the day before, I wasn't expecting anything too great. Boy was I wrong. First cast and WHOMP, next thing I knew I was holding a beautiful, healthy 'bow. A couple casts into the same little pool later, a brookie with great colors and decent size. For the next 5 or 6 hours pretty much consisted of the same experience; pulling from the same pools, wild brookies and rainbows that had acclimated to their environment, acting like wild fish by the time they saw my parachute adams or snowshoe humpy float by. I lost count quickly. I'd keep trying to describe it all but I think you get the point. It was perfect.

Before I headed back to camp, I made a quick dash over to the special regulations area (after stopping to talk with the game wardens who were there checking licenses, I love it when I see them doing their job well) to see how the fishing was there. I was unimpressed. I saw a bunch of spincasters sitting right below the beginning of the area and there was someone throwing out line practically every 100 yards. I found myself a quick spot on the river and fished for a few minutes and did have a few follows but I was unsure if they were trout or chubs. Frankly, it paled in comparison so much to the rest of my day that I quickly stopped chasing these stocked fish and headed back to camp.

So my final opinion of the area:
Muddy Run - Rapidan brookies but + rainbows = 9/10
Jackson River - Stupid stocked rainbows and overcrowded waters = 2/10

If you're going to fish the Jackson, I'd recommend just sticking to below the dam, especially if you have a drift boat/canoe.

*Apologies if there are spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes. I've decided that I'll be less worried about all of that stuff because I'm lazy and in case you didn't know... I don't speak english good.

Little Stony (5.1.10)

2010-05-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Spring is in full force, and the brookies are hungry and active.

This morning I ventured over to Little Stony (a short 20 minute drive), next to the Cascades trail, with my classmate and friend Will. March Browns are hatching, but I didn't see too many flies. As it tends to be with Brookies, they will take any reasonable fly presented decently well, and I had some success with tan X-Caddis. I later changed to a size 16 March Brown to see if I could entice any of the local rainbows that the stream also harbors. For such a beautiful day, the action was surprisingly slow, and during the 3 or so hours we were on the river, I managed only to catch about a dozen. Many of the really 'fishy' spots and pools went without an acknowledgement of life, while the smaller pockets in between the larger pools seemed to produce more fish. In this way it felt like someone had already fished the section we chose. That's my excuse anyway... Luckily on my way back to the car to grab a bite to eat, I stopped in one of the good looking pools close to the trail and caught a beautiful fat 9 inch brookie that had possibly the reddest side stripe I have ever seen. I have a good bit to learn about this stream, and I think it will take some exploring both below and above the cascades to find out the best sections and what works well. Being a nice Saturday morning, the hikers were out in full, and I noticed that many areas of the trail get really close to the stream, so much so that I think that all the kids running around may actually put down a lot of fish in some of those better pools. Even Will pointed that out as we walked back to the car. It makes me wonder how the river fishes during the week, when less hikers are barraging the stream.

Little Stony is a great mountain freestone stream. True, it costs $3 to park at the head of the trail, but the river is very reminiscent of the Rapidan and Rose rivers (of better known reputation), and the trail is as well maintained as any I know of in the state. That said, it was another welcome day away from studying and a fun day on the river.

The South Holston and Watauga Rivers (4.24.10)

2010-04-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure why I didn’t know about this sooner.

For years now I have been making an annual trip to the Delaware River near Hancock, NY with Dad and our fishing buddies in search of big browns and rainbows. But, this weekend I found out that there are two rivers within only a two hour drive of my current home in Blacksburg, Va that share a lot of similarities to the Delaware: the South Holston and Watauga Rivers.

The similarities? Big river tailwaters, good hatches, and HARD TO CATCH big trout. After nine weeks of neuro block, time alone on any river was a welcome breath of fresh air. But the South Holston and Watauga Rivers are not just any river, and after this experience, I will undoubtedly be going back as soon as I can, and as often as I can. The drive from my place to Emmett, TN where the South Holston Fly Shop is located, is about a 2 hour drive, which makes for a very tempting day trip.

I started the day on the SoHo (as it’s called locally), which is literally 0.3 miles from the fly shop. I drove down the road a few miles, trying to find a secluded side-street entrance, and found a great spot with no other cars with relative ease. From where I parked, I followed a well-worn path 10 minutes to the awesome views you’ll find in some of the pictures. For the first 4 hours, I was the only one on the river, and during that whole time fish were rising everywhere. I was able to confuse and fool a few on Sulfur nymphs, emergers, and duns (size 16), as well as little black fly patterns (size 20-22). I only caught about 10 fish, with the biggest being about 15 inches, but to my surprise I caught one of each variety: brookies, browns, and rainbows. However, it was quickly obvious that the bigger fish, and the majority of the fish I was casting to, were not so easily tricked, and I spent a lot of my day making a few casts to sipping humpbacks, getting frustrated, tying on a new fly, making a few more casts, getting frustrated, trying a new pattern, and so on, repeating, etc. But like the Delaware, this is mostly an enticing challenge and part of the reason for the river’s awesome appeal. Around 1pm, one other fisherman found my claimed hole and introduced himself. When he told me he was from Florida and that he had been here on a fishing trip for 8 days, I knew I had found a big-time place to fish. He kindly gave me a few black fly patterns he had tied the last few nights and both of us proceeded to have a bit of luck for the next hour or so, but still I had a very difficult time hooking into many. At around 2:30, the dam opened up, and the water levels rose noticeably within a couple minutes, which killed the activity of the morning session.

Remembering that I hadn’t eaten or brought anything for lunch, I decided it was a good time to find some food and check out the Watauga River. It’s only about a 20 minute drive in between rivers, and on my way I passed the Bristol Motor Speedway, which was cool to see even though I’m not a huge Nascar fan. For the rest of the afternoon, rain came down in a light drizzle, but not enough to detract from the fishing. The difference between the Watauga, compared to the SoHo, is that for much of the immediate mileage below the dam, it is lined with housing properties and there are many big, slack, slow-moving deep pools and fewer riffles. This, I would think, may make it better fished on a float trip. Parked immediately below the dam, and was discouraged to find a few plunkers casting to rising fish in the riffles below. But the rain seemed to quickly scare them off, and I had the section to myself for the rest of the evening. Again, there were fish working all over the place, but in the few hours I was there, I managed only to catch two.

In all, my first experience on the South Holston and Watauga Rivers was great. I enjoyed the waters and seclusion of the SoHo more, but both are obviously very good rivers with lots and lots of trout. I will be going back again soon, when the Sulfur hatch starts to get serious in the late spring and summer months. Too bad this med school thing is getting in the way.

Arkansas River in Colorado Part 1

2010-04-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

After finishing Step 1 of the USMLE (the licensing exam to become a doc in the U.S.), I needed a big change after sitting in the library for 3 months. This was the perfect opportunity to take the road trip my dad and I had been talking about for years. Randy and Richie’s excellent adventure rolled out from Virginia on April 7th and returned April 20th. We saw incredible countryside, met interesting and very welcoming people, and experienced some of the wildest tourist traps this truly amazing country has to offer. I’ll limit these next few blog posts to the fishing highlights in Colorado, but as I hinted before, the journey was just as fun as the fishing.

Dad and I stopped in Oklahoma City to pick up our friend Terry Weber. Terry is a great fishing buddy and he took a bunch of the pics you’ll see in the next few posts, so hats off to him for adding to the blog. After picking up Terry, we drove through the panhandle of Texas and northwest New Mexico en route to Colorado. It was breathtaking standing on Mount Capulin in New Mexico and watching the Great Plains sweep up into the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rockies. If you can’t tell yet, I fell completely in love with the West on this trip.

After a drive full of gawking at the still snow capped peaks of the Rockies, we pulled into Salida, CO and met up with the staff at Ark Anglers. Stefan was our point man for the entire trip, and he did an amazing job of both putting us on the fish and getting us oriented in town. I highly recommend booking guided trips through the shop; they are first class outfitters and very friendly people. I want to make sure y’all make no mistake about pronunciation when you call the shop in Salida. I automatically went for the Spanish pronunciation, but I quickly discovered that the local folks call it “Suhl-eye-duh and town just up the road is called “Boona-vista” (Buena Vista). I guess that’s about the same as us calling Staunton here in Virginia “Stan-tin”, but these things never cease to amuse me.

On the morning of the 12th, Terry and I headed out with Will, a fellow Okie and our first guide from Ark Anglers, for a 14-mile float trip on the Arkansas River from Salida to the boat ramp at Rincon. I had never floated for trout before, and fishing with Terry and Will made for an awesome trip. We started out fishing right in town and had early success on some white articulated streamers that Will ties. I looked for some in shops during the rest of the trip, but was unable to find any like them. Will, if you’re out there reading, post me the name of those flies or please tell me where I can score some. They were money! One fish chased a Will-tied streamer for a solid 10 feet. Just as an aside for Chuck Kraft, the Kreelex also worked beautifully in Colorado throughout the trip, and we handed them out like candy at every fly shop we visited.

Will also taught us a new streamer fishing technique that definitely adds more life than simply stripping in line. You can really make a streamer dance by using the rod tip to jerk the fly erratically toward you, making it seem like a distressed and enticing meal for a trout. Another thing I didn’t expect was the success we had fishing our streamers just under the surface. The fish really went wild after using the rod-jerk technique to make the fly skip the surface a little. Terry and I both agree that the best part about having a guide is LEARNING. Being put on fish is obviously fun, but learning new techniques and about the way fish feed and what they eat really adds to your repertoire as an angler. Thank you again for an awesome float, Will.

We ended up catching about half browns and half rainbows that first day. Most of the rainbows came after we switched to a two fly nymph rig with an indicator. I am a new believer in using indicators after this trip. Waiting for that thing-a-ma-bobber stop dead in its tracks or jump a few feet really puts you on edge. It also doesn’t hurt when it results in a tail dance by a fat rainbow covered in spots and stripes. That reminds me, we didn’t catch a fish under 10 inches the entire trip, and an average brown in the Arkansas from what I can tell is probably 14 inches. Every single fish we caught had vibrant color and they were all much harder fighters than the fish back East. I think that’s about enough for now.

Check back soon to read about more adventures in Colorado and some other very helpful techniques I learned out West.

I Will Catch a Carp on the Fly This Year

2010-04-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

Just saw this awesome video over at one of my favorite local blogs, Mike's Catch Report. I don't know if it's the music, the ridiculously huge carp taking flies off of the surface, or the sick casts that this guy pulls off, but it has reinforced my determination to catch a carp this year on the fly. Fortunately for us here in Charlottesville, there are numerous places we can go to try and make it happen.

In other news, not much fishing going on for me these next two weeks as I still have a ways to go before I take my board exam. As for the others: Rich will soon be departing for a ridiculously awesome trip, Kyle truly is making the catch of a lifetime, and I suspect that Scott has a post coming up soon about his recent trip down in southwest Virginia.

If you are curious, the reports from around the area have been that the fishing is good and that the water levels are finally starting to calm down. With all of this beautiful weather we're having, I suspect there will be some perfect opportunities to see some great hatches going on.

Beaver Creek 3/25/2010

2010-03-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

Kyle, Cameron, and I rallied at 5:30 Thursday morning for the drive to Beaver Creek. As with all my trips to Beaver, the excitement made it hard to fall asleep the night before. I tossed and turned dreaming about a mix of 'bows, brookies, mission chips, and that savory cow smell that is so uniquely Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. The anticipation culminated with the 5:58, then 5:59, and then finally 6:00 am phone call that got us through to the Ottobine Country Store to reserve the day's rod passes.

We started just before sunrise at the wooden bridge near the elementary school. The water was running a little lower than I expected with all of the rain we've had recently; however, this didn't stop Kyle from getting a fish on after about his third cast of the day. That would prove to be the story of the day for all of us with plenty of rainbows, a nice brook trout, and a few chubs by the new master (Cameron) himself. Interestingly, we spotted what we are fairly certain was a 4-6 lb. largemouth bass in the long pool just upstream from the footbridge. If it is indeed a bass I don't know how it got there, but either way it's a huge fish. If anyone out there can confirm this bigfoot sighting, please give us a shout-out. I would love to hear if anyone has caught that fish.

Now for the latest on the ever enthralling kreelex color debate. I do have to admit that silver/gold did produce just as many fish and the coppers, but I want to point out that silvers did bring in all of the chubs caught on kreelex... I'll let you all decide for yourselves which you'd prefer to fish with. We did throw some nymphs, and even a BWO for awhile but all to no avail. The only other flies that gave us luck were a green wooley bugger and a cool vintage fly from Kyle's grandfather.

Aside from the awesome fishing at Beaver, I highly recommend spending some time at the Country Store. Per the proprietor's recommendation we ordered "big otter" sandwiches for lunch, and man were they awesome. The big otter consists of turkey and ham stacked a generous 2 inches high and is covered with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and banana peppers on a hot 8 inch sub roll. I had to catch my breath for a minute after eating it, but it definitely hit the spot after a hard morning of fishing.

Fishing Report: Rapidan River 3-21

2010-03-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Boards studying in now in full swing but it's been pretty easy to get stir-crazy still being in the library. Thus, with the threat of more rain coming our way, I decided to make a quick morning trip up to the Rapidan to see how the fishing was.

My initial impression was that the water levels were running a little too high. While I was able to fish most of the day with dry flies, it was extremely difficult to get any quality dead drifts. The first couple were caught on a 2-fly dropper setup with a parachute adams on top and a peasant tail nymph on bottom. A majority of them preferred the nymph, much to my chagrin. After a long winter I was going through a pretty serious dry fly withdrawal. Finally at about 11 am, the brook trout started honing in on some weak hatches that were going on. From what I could tell, there was a decent number of black caddis (or some kind of caddis, I'm not the most legit entomologist quite yet) and the usual midges.

All in all it was a great day to be out on the water despite the difficult water level. I will probably wait until things have settled down even more before I head out there again. But if you're a fan of throwing nymphs and your pack is full of humpies, then by all means take a chance out there. And of course, always be careful when wading in those high and fast conditions.

Mossy Creek 3/16/10

2010-03-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog posting ever. Actually, to be honest, other than this blog, I have never read any other blog before. But after a day like yesterday, I couldn't help myself but get on and post some pictures of the chunky browns from Mossy Creek. Cameron and I made the trek out to Mossy Creek yesterday and had a beautiful day to fish. The sun was in and out and the water was runnin a bit high and mirky. All in all it was a PERFECT day to fish. Sportin my faded plaid board shorts and knee high camo hunting boots, i felt a bit out of place as we ran into some more properly dressed fishermen, but realized it isn't necessarily the gear that will make you catch fish.

We fished a LOT of river from about 12:30 to 5:30 or so. We went upstream and down, throwing Kreelix and streamers of sorts, even the occasional hopper fly or dry fly. There was no action for a while, but the weather was beautiful and it couldn't have been a nicer day. Finally, later in the afternoon, as Cameron was busy nappin on the river bank, I was lazily tossing my Kreelix across the river. As I was stripping it back in to make another cast, I thought I saw a little flash behind my fly. I flipped the fly back out and let it swing back along the near bank downstream of me and started strippin the fly upstream. Sure enough, the fly got to the same spot and I saw a big brown emerge from underneath the bank and roll over the fly. I set the hook and had FISH ON! Finally, after about a good ten minute fight, I netted a beautiful big brown trout. After a few pictures, I moved a ways downstream and literally within 5 minutes, underneath an overhanging brush pile, I hooked up on another beautiful fish. Landing these two fish made what was already a great day on the water even better.

Spring is movin in, the weather is getting great, and its time to get back on the water and get bent on some big fish!

Moormans South Fork and TJTU 3/10/2010

2010-03-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

Kyle and I checked out the south fork of the Moormans above Sugar Hollow Reservoir and the TJTU section below on Wednesday. It was a beautiful day with temps nearing 70 F and we were expecting some brookies to rise for dry flies. Unfortunately, the warmer weather early last week must have caused some significant runoff from snow that is still persisting up in the mountains. South fork, much like the north fork doesn't have too many pools, so if the water is up at all, there aren't many places where fish are likely to hold and still try to feed. That said, we threw everything at them: various dry flies, nymphs, and even my magic copper/gold kreelex wouldn't cause the brookies to bite. That's a lie - we did have a few child-abuse-specials strike at humpies and caddis, but by a couple I mean two the whole afternoon.

The TJTU section is almost completely fished out. The water level is amazing for that stretch right now, but unless they've stocked it since Wednesday I wouldn't waste my time going back. Kyle hooked up with one but broke him off using a light leader. Oh well, these things happen.

Bottom line: if you are going fishing anytime soon, make a point of checking the USGS water levels and know the river where you're going. If it's a small mountain stream, make sure it has some nice pools like the Rapidan so there might be some slightly slower water where fish will be likely to feed. Good luck out there.

Why Fishermen Can Be Excited About Snow Days Too

2010-02-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

I remember when snow days were looked forward to. As a kid they meant neighborhood-wide capture the flag, barricading plow truck access to Chivalry Road's epic sledding hill, and hot cocoa (not that instant stuff but the mom-made stuff). But as an adult apparently our perception of snow days is supposed to change into one full of bitterness, complaining about salt on your car, and hot packs to relieve sore backs from shoveling snow.

The view from my apartment during the last snow storm

For fishermen, however, I think there's always reason to enjoy the wintry weather. Why you ask? Because the slow melt of huge snowfalls does wonders for our water table. And high water tables equals greater reserves late in the fishing season. If you don't believe me, let's go ahead look at some graphs (if you haven't realized... I love graphs. Go ahead Rich you can say it, I'm a nerd.)

So here are the USGS water level stats for central Virginia since 2004.

This basically just shows how our water table usually rises throughout spring and then falls as things warm up. So while storms throughout the year provide us with changes in stream levels, these are just transient. Starting off the fishing season with a high water table will provide us with much better conditions than having to depend on sporadic storms.

So where are we now compared to last year? Take a gander at this:

At this time last year, our water table was sitting around 25.5 feet below land surface. Currently, we're (provisionally) around 19-20 feet. This was where we were at the peak of last year's season! And we've still got a ton of snow still sitting around Virginia. So unless we have a drought worse than the one we had in 2007, fishing should be golden. I fully expect to see the north fork of the Moorman's running at more than a trickle this year.

So yes, while salt on your car is annoying and shoveling snow is so miserable that it makes you want to purchase a blow torch to do the job instead, there are things about huge snowfalls that can make fishermen just as excited as a kid on a snow day. (Although it's impossible to beat mom-made hot cocoa.)

*still aching for more graphs? I've gotten you addicted haven't I. Feel free to search around the USGS Virgina site for more.

Fishing Report: Rose River Farm

2010-02-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

With finals looming and stress peaking, Cameron and I decided to treat ourselves to a study break at Rose River Farm yesterday. I kept hearing such great stories about the place from customers and staff at Albemarle Angler so I just had to check it out for myself. Admittedly, after hearing so many fantastic reviews I became just a little skeptical of just how great RRF could really be. After yesterday, however, my doubts were completely put to rest.

The farm is located near Syria, Va and the Graves Mountain Lodge so it only took us about 45 min to get there from Charlottesville. RRF is a fee for fish spot that must be booked in advance. That said, fishing at the farm is a perfect example of getting what you pay for. They do a good job of limiting the pressure by only allowing 4 rods per day so we all had plenty of room to spread out. Even with all of the snow we've had recently, the property is very well maintained with clear roads and tractor paths cut along most of the river. I could have easily made it there in my little Honda. I've always loved the scenery along the east slope of the Shenandoah National Park, and the views from RRF did not disappoint. In fact, had I not dropped my camera in the river like a fool I would have taken many more pictures (thank you for supplying us with the slideshow, Cam).

I'm sure that somewhere along the line an older/wiser person told you, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is." Well, I can sincerely tell you that when it comes to the fish at Rose River Farm IT'S ALL TRUE! I've never seen so many trout in my life. Cameron and I actually lost count of the fish we caught, but it could have only been a small fraction of the trout working out in the Rose. I say working out because these are like Arnold Schwarzenegger rainbows. There were some fish we had to fight for a few minutes before we could land them. We saw plenty of jumping and tail-dancing, and we had a few fish make runs that tested the drag on our reels. A couple of these bruisers were over 20 inches and all of fish had beautiful color and spots.

Many of these big guys are in long, beautiful pools that might well be called aquariums with easily 50-100 fish each. I can only imagine what those pools are like in April and May when the 'bows are all taking bugs off the top. Must be an awesome sight! It's not only about long pools at RRF either. There are a few deep, fast runs along under-cut banks with over hanging trees reminiscent of Beaver Creek. These are absolutely my favorite sections because of the technical casting in close tree cover and the heightened activity of the fish there. Cameron and I hooked fish after fish from one bend in the river where a jumping fish seemed not to spook the rest of the pool.

I should also take a minute to comment on the ongoing copper/gold silver/gold kreelex debate. Hands down, copper/gold kreelex took in more and bigger fish yesterday. That's not to say silver won't catch fish, but if you can tell a trout from a chub you would be crazy not to fish copper (*cough* Cameron). All kidding aside, kreelex, copper johns, and pheasant tails were the big producers for us yesterday. The other fishermen we spoke with also had great luck with yellow caddis, san juan worms, and an assortment of nymphs. I saw a few rising fish in the afternoon, but I could never draw a bead on what they were eating so I stuck to the sub-surface action.

Overall, fishing at Rose River Farm was awesome. If you are looking for big fish, beautiful scenery, and a pristine stream look no further. Another cool thing to note about the farm is their commitment to hosting Project Healing Waters events. Anyone who supports our wounded veterans in such a big way is tops in my book. That said, RRF is a first class operation and I hope to make it back sometime soon.

Another Connection Between Medicine and Fly Fishing

2010-02-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, connections between fly fishing and medicine don't happen that often. But when they do, man they are exciting (at least for a nerd like me.) Last time we reported on a connection, it was about the EPA study that found 7 pharmaceutical drugs in fish sampled. That was sort of stretch. It wasn't like they said in the study that fishermen should practice catch and release because of these drugs... although they should.

But this time, we actually have a video for you made by Dr. Szlyk from Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, VA. If you can't tell, I'm excited about this video. I mean, it's the proverbial hat trick with regards to our blog: 1.Fly Fishing 2.Medicine 3.Virginia. (in case you couldn't tell from our uncreative blog title.) I don't know who Dr. Szlyk is but I think I can safely assume that he's awesome at fly fishing...and at surgery using the da Vinci surgical robot.

This video also begs the question, when is Renzetti going to jump on this bandwagon? I mean, come on. Their MOST expensive fly tying vise is ONLY $939.85. Seriously. That pales in comparison to the $1.3 million price tag on a da Vinci robot "fly tying vise".

Finally, I need to give credit where credit is due. I didn't find this obsessively searching youtube for videos (despite what you may believe, I do study sometimes). Rather, I found it courtesy of Moldy Chum.

"Who dat" Waldner's Saints Spoon Fly

2010-02-07T13:13:00.002-08:00

You have heard me talk about my friend Rich Waldner and his awesome spoon flies before, but now there is a collectors "Who dat" New Orleans Saints version available from Uptown Angler. Just to reiterate what I've told you all before, if you are fishing for Redfish anywhere on the gulf coast the Waldner Spoon is absolutely essential gear for a couple of reasons. First off, it's as weedless as any fly gets. I've fished Rich's spoons through some very tough grasses and it does wonderfully. Secondly, it's a tough fly (all epoxy and wire) so it will last for a very long time. Thirdly, the action is unbelievable. The spoon wobbles like crazy and will make fish turn to bite it, but it will not spin and tangle your line. All said, this is one awesome saltwater fly. Now all you Saints fans out there can show your pride and bag some serious reds at once. Let's see them win the big one today! Geaux Saints!

Albemarle Angler Now Carries Kreinik Kreelex Material

2010-01-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

I walked in Albemarle Angler today to pick up more beadheads for nymphs and of course I perused the store to see if I could walk out buying more than I intended. (what else are student loans for anyway?)*

I was pleasantly surprised to see some of my favorite Kreinik flash material, which is what makes the Kreelex streamers have such great action, hanging up on the wall. They had copper, gold, and silver styles. And while there are other colors out there, these seem to be the best for catching trout.

Which brings up another topic...Rich and I have had a year long debate as to which color coordination is more successful. He swears by the copper/gold while I swear by the gold/silver. If you agree with me, please comment below. If you agree with Rich, ~~I hope you catch only chubs this year~~ comment elsewhere.

One of last year's victims of a copper/gold kreelex

So do yourself a favor and run by the store to pick up some of this elusive material if you live here in C'ville and check out the Trow brother's video instructions which can be found here. This doesn't pertain to those in the Harrisonburg area because the Mossy Creek Fly Fishing store has had kreelex materials in stock for a while now.

Also, if you're interested in fly tying (or as I usually call it "tie flying"... not on purpose mind you, just the dyslexia talking) sign up for email updates from Albemarle Angler as they've started having regular tying sessions at the store. Only problem for those beginners out there: you'll need your own set of equipment and materials. But if you're a member of the med school club then I can definitely let you borrow some materials (just not my rare collection of extinct tropical bird feathers.)**

*joke, obviously
**yet another joke... if that ornithological collection was truly wasted on flies then someone needs to set up a rehab center for fly fishermen.

Fishing Report: Moormans River TJTU 1/15/10

2010-01-15T16:26:00.000-08:00

Kyle and I fished the TJTU section of Moormans River today. I did a recon yesterday to check out the ice situation and it didn't look good. Most of the big pools were covered by a thin sheet of ice and the fish were holding down deep and not interested much in the few streamers and nymphs I dragged past them. Fortunately, Kyle convinced me to go out again today.

We fished from about 2-5 PM and rode the wave of the 50 + degree weather. It was gorgeous. The river actually thawed a great deal this morning and we basically had the place to ourselves. We started off throwing streamers but ended up switching to pheasant tails. We caught three 'bows on pheasant tails fished upstream in about an hour. Things slowed down a bit as the sun set so we tried our luck again with silver/gold and copper/gold kreelex. Sure enough, we landed two more on streamers. I expect tomorrow (Saturday) to be good as well since temperatures should remain in the 50s.

I forgot to post this before, but here is a slideshow with the "best catch of 2009". Hopefully we'll do even better this year! Oh and Cameron, maybe if you make it out of the library you'll catch more than fish than me this year...

New Year Resolutions

2010-01-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

Everyone is making resolutions; Ridiculous resolutions that inevitably fail by the time February comes around. So instead, I thought I'd make some that may actually have a fighting chance of coming to fruition (this, of course, all hinges on whether we'll have time to fish while busy on clinical rotations). Here are mine:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/captkodak/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

1. Catch another gar. After I reeled in one of these prehistoric monsters last summer, I became OBSESSED and went on numerous occasions out to the Rivanna with the only goal of pulling in another to ensure the first wasn't just a fluke. I even bought heavy duty gloves to make sure I wouldn't lose a finger or two while trying to get the hook out. Alas, I received some head turns but never a solid bite. So by far the top thing on my list is to snag one of these guys again.

Huge Mossy Creek brown caught by Shane from Mossy Creek Fly Fishing (photo courtesy of MCFF)

2. Catch more brown trout (big ones). This may sound picky but really it means a lot more than it seems. Practically the only place to find decent brown trout around here is Mossy Creek. From our past posts about Mossy, you'll know that it's always a challenge to fish out there and going home skunked is a very real possibility. So this year, how about we pull in some of those famous monsters that the guys over at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing seem to pull in regularly.

3. Float the Jackson. Hopefully when I'm stationed in Roanoke in August I'll have some time to hit up the nearby Jackson River. From what I could tell from our quick visit just below the dam, the river is loaded with healthy fish and ideal water temperatures to ensure good fishing year round. Let's just hope that if I do float it, that I don't meet any angry landowners with shotguns.

4. Successfully fish the Shad Run. Okay last year I went out and tried my best to fish the Shad Run down near Richmond. This year, I think I'll play it smart and wade the Rappahannock instead. Also I'll probably need to get a sinking line and some properly made shad darters. Hopefully this time my trip will be more like Gordon's from Albemarle Angler as seen in the video above.

5. Catch more fish than Rich. Hey, I at least had to have something realistic on here right? Rich, you just been SERVEDDDD.

Fishing Report: Cold Day in NOLA 12/26

2009-12-28T11:32:00.001-08:00

I just got back from visiting family in New Orleans for the Christmas holiday. After seeing my grandmother, aunts, and cousins, my dad and I had the added bonus of fishing for redfish with our friend Rich Waldner. I thought that we were doing great by escaping from two feet of snow in Virginia until we hit the bayou at a "cozy" 40 degrees. 40 doesn't sound bad to most people in Va, but let me assure you, when the humidity is up and you are the tallest thing for 10 miles in a 15 mph wind, it's cold out there.

If you can't tell already, I am going to blame the weather for our lack luster day. We fished from 8 until 4 and caught one redfish on a spinner no less. Not only was the temperature an issue, we had zero sunlight which makes sight fishing for reds nearly impossible. I sighted about 25 reds and a few black drum and sheepshead throughout the day, but we could only see them within about 10 feet from the boat. At that range, our looming shadows spooked most of the fish and the few that I could put a fly in front of were just too sluggish to bite.

While I am a little disappointed that we didn't have a better weather day, I still had an awesome time sighting fish with Rich and my dad. I can't think of two better fishing partners (sorry, Cam). We had plenty of catching up to do and we had a great time chasing after fish in very challenging conditions. I am psyched for my next trip to NOLA after seeing all of those reds in the water and not being quite able to hook one on the fly. I've landed nice ones before and hopefully after boards I can get back down to see Rich about some more redfish.

Gear Review: Fishpond Double Haul Chest/Backpack

2009-12-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

As central Va digs its way out of the blizzard of 2009 and prepares for Christmas, I thought I would tell you a bit about one of the latest additions to my gear. I bought the Fishpond Double Haul Chest/Backpack in late september, and it has made a huge improvement in the organization of my tackle. Overall, I've been impressed with the pack's size. It's not so big that I'm tempted to take my entire collection of flies and outerwear, but it will accommodate the essentials for a day's excursion. I can hold one or two fly boxes with extra leaders and tools in the chest pack, and the backpack has space for water, light raingear, and food. I even managed to pack a sweater in there with my rain jacket on one manic weather day.

Other features include a built in D-ring to attach a net, multiple daisy chains for accessory attachments, and the option to wear only the chest pack. I mentioned earlier that the chest pack has enough room for fly boxes, but if you are a true minimalist only fishing small dry flies and nymphs you could easily just use the built in zip-down platform fly box. This is definitely the coolest/most useful part about the Double Haul and it's the envy of everyone I fish with. The platform stays suspended by parachute cord attached to the inside of the pack when it is zipped down. It let's you peruse an assortment of approximately 50 flies hands-free while you tie one on. Also, the foam pad is attached with heavy duty velcro so it can be replaced when it eventually wears out. Great thinking, Fishpond!

The only downside to the pack that I have found is that it will tug a little bit on my shoulders when I attach my net. That makes for slightly sore shoulders at the end of the day, but I think the improved organization is worth just a little pain. The soreness might also be because I have to tighten the straps down all the way to fit my frame. Even when I crank the straps all the way down, the harness is still a little loose . I'm only 155 lbs. and with the amount of girth they allow in that harness it seems like this pack was designed for someone 190+.

I hate to add to the commercialization of Christmas, but if you are looking for an excellent gift for a fly fisher this year, this will do the trick. I hope that everyone out there is staying warm and safe out there right now. Let's hope the water comes down quickly after the run off so we can start fishing again!

Apparently we're not the ones obsessed with mayflies...

2009-12-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, as I was making my morning browse through the popular fishing blogs over a cup of Shenandoah Joe, I practically shot coffee out my nose when I read Singlebarbed's post about the EPA's decision to ask companies that strip mine in southwestern Virginia to show how they're going to protect the mayfly from the effects of their mining before they can receive renewed permits.

Did I read that right? The mayfly? The innocent little mayfly? The elegant and regal Ephemeroptera? So not only does this tiny insect have the ability to make men spend hundreds of dollars on overpriced colored fuzz, genetically superior rooster hackles, spools of 6x tippet, bamboo rods and and 4 wheel drive SUVs but apparently it also has the ability to move mountains.... or rather, to keep mountains from moving?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fauxto_dkp/ / CC BY 2.0

Whether you agree with the EPA's decision or not, the notion that the EPA would go after the strip mining companies because of mayflies is pretty awesome. (FYI, I'm not trying to make any political statements here, we just care about whether you debarb hooks and practice catch and release... okay that was a joke. but seriously, catch and release...)

The question is, would the EPA have tried to protect the mayfly if it wasn't for fly fishing fanatics like ourselves?

There are quite a lot of us out there nowadays so maybe we did have a role in the matter. According to the Regional Boating & Fishing Foundation's recent report, 17.2% of the American population actively participate in some form of fishing. Of course the percent that fly fish is much less, at 2.1% of the population, but that's still 5.9 million people!

This will be something that we'll be keeping an eye on. We'll keep you updated if anything interesting arises. Who knows, maybe that pollution could cause an evolutionary change in the mayflies creating super huge size 4 mayflies? I'd be okay with that if it meant that our brook trout also grew substantially.

On a side note: Rich and I are almost done with exams and are almost 7/8 of the way done with the classroom portion of medical school. Hopefully after we take our board examinations in April, we'll be back on the water on a more regular basis. In the meantime, I fully expect Scott to make some reports out of Blacksburg seeing as he should have soooo much more time than us only being in his first year of school down there.

Also, look out for some new updates from another contributor, Dr. Strayer who has also had a lot of experience fly fishing in central Virginia.

And I'll leave you with a shot of the snowfall outside of the UVA health sciences library:

Fishing Report: Beaver Creek/Skidmore Fork (11/24) , Upper Rapidan (11/25), and Moormans North Fork (11/29)

2009-11-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

It's been far too long since we've added anything to the blog, so this is a make-up post. We were fortunate enough to have the whole week off for Thanksgiving and I was able to get on the water quite a bit. Here are some reports from the four rivers I fished.

Dad and I woke up before the crack of dawn last Tuesday and headed out to Beaver Creek in Ottobine. He had just come off a lack-luster trip to Colorado fraught with horrible weather and sluggish trout, so we were excited to get a chance at our favorite spring creek. We had perfect weather: cool and cloudy with no wind. I expected the creek to be a torrent after all the rain we've seen recently, but to my surprise the flow was full and strong but still clear. The 'bows were actually fairly picky that day. They only took pheasant tails and completely snubbed our serendipities, red fox squirrel nymphs, and silver/gold kreelexes. I ended up getting blanked, but Dad caught three nice rainbows. I'll chalk it up to my first experience fishing with nymphs.

After a half day at Beaver, we consulted the Trow brothers at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing for any quick afternoon action we could hit. Colby sent us to Skidmore Fork, which is located on Route 33 just before the West Virginia border. We caught a couple of nice looking Brookies there in the hour we spent there using pheasant tails. I think it could be a good place to investigate further, especially because Colby told us that Skidmore Fork holds water much more consistently than neighboring Dry River.

Since I don't get the opportunity to fish multiple days a week much anymore, I had to check the Rapidan with my friend Pat the next day. Rapidan was much more affected by the rains last week than Beaver Creek and we actually had a fairly tough time wading in certain spots. Fortunately the water was still very clear and we were able to see fish darting after our nymphs from time to time. The fish were all hunkered down trying to weather the heavy flow so it took plenty of split shot to get our nymphs deep enough. We had much better luck fishing the slower pockets just off the riffles. Pheasant tails did the trick again, and we ended up catching a half dozen brookies between the two of us.

Remember how I told you that I love fishing the Moormans? Well I do, but I just might think twice before I decide to head out there again on a Sunday at 1 o'clock. The joint was completely packed this Sunday from the TJTU section up to the North Fork above Sugar Hollow Reservoir. I got absolutely no action throwing pheasant tails, red squirrel nymphs, or dry flies. I think the high water and all of the hikers playing in the river threw off my mojo a bit. It's probably a better idea to stay away on weekends except for the early morning.

Fishing Report: Upper/TJTU Moormans River 10/28/09

2009-10-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

This first week of class has been awesome. I fished the Rapidan with my buddy John on Monday, and took the afternoon off today to fish a few sections of the Moormans. The drought has left the reservoir very low and as a result hardly any water is flowing over the dam to help the TJTU section. Even with the steady rain yesterday, things do not look like they have improved much. There are still some big fish from last year hunkered down in the deep pools, but it doesn't look like TU has been out to stock yet this fall.

Luckily, things were way better up above the reservoir. Yesterday's rain had a huge impact on the Upper Moormans increasing the water levels significantly. The brookies were aggressively attacking dry flies. I landed a bunch of little guys and one nice 6/7 incher on royal wulffs. I ended up missing two of the prettiest brookies I've ever seen. I watched each one rise slowly to sip my fly, but in my excitement I yanked it right out of their mouths; it broke my heart. Hopefully water levels will stay relatively high up there until the next rainfall.

Fishing Report: Rapidan Upper Section

2009-10-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of exams and a quick three day roadtrip, I finally got to make it out on the water. As we've been complaining about lately, the water levels have been low all across central Virginia. Therefore, I wasn't expecting to make a trip out at all yesterday until I got on my computer and saw this:

Because of that wonderful spike in discharge levels, I knew there'd be a good chance I could see some flowing streams with hungry trout. So I quickly brewed some more coffee, got on the road again, and headed up to the Rapidan.

I got there late in the afternoon but with enough light to get a solid two hours of fishing in. Fortunately, it looked like the other fishermen were calling it quits so I had the river to myself.

Initially I fished like I always do, hitting up every nook and cranny of the Rapidan but soon found out that despite the brief change in water levels the trout, for the most part, remained in the larger pools. So I fished quickly, hitting up all parts of the larger pools. I fished parachute adams and snowshoe rabbit caddis size 16 but had the most success with adams.

Overall, I caught plenty of beautiful brookies all of which were pretty decently sized. The newly flowing water caused somewhat of a feeding frenzy in which the larger trout didn't seem too concerned about going after a missed fly on the fourth or fifth attempt. Unfortunately, however, I spooked two large brookies that were hiding at the tail end of deep pools. Seriously, these guys were huge. I'm talking like 12 inches. I waited around to see if one of them would become "unspooked" but unfortunately it became clear he was way too smart for me. So if you head out, look to the tail end of the pools for the big guys.

Looks like we'll be getting a little bit more rain Tuesday and Wednesday so hopefully fishing with be good this weekend as well! Keep checking the USGS Water Levels.

Praying for rain and for VDOT to take a day off

2009-10-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Water levels are pretty low right now with the drought. Even so, I tried going fishing yesterday at Sugar Hollow Reservoir/Moormans River after finishing my last exam. It turned out to be the trip that never was, since VDOT was out working on the first bridge leading to the dam. I don't know how long construction will be going on, but as of yesterday Sugar Hollow and the TJTU section of the Moormans cannot be reached from Garth Road.

If I was worth my salt as a fisherman I would have enacted Plan B and headed over to Beaver Creek Reservoir for some bluegills and bass. Alas, I had my heart set on brookies and was disappointed... oh well.

Fishing Report: Upper Moormans River 10/3/09

2009-10-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

Cam and I decided to take a much needed study break this morning and fish the Upper Moormans above Sugar Hollow Reservoir. It was an absolutely perfect day. We hit the water at about 8:00 and fished until roughly 11:30. We had great cover from the sun because the ridge to the east blocks the sunrise over the river until around 11:00 at this time of year. This was crucial since the water is very low and clear making the fish are extremely spooky. There are some beautiful pools up there with fish huddled together waiting for higher water levels so they can spread out.

As is the case with all brook trout fishing, try each nook and cranny you think might just hold enough water; you will be pleasantly surprised. We caught five small guys between us, but we saw some very nice fish down deep in the few large pools left after this short drought. I will be sure to try my luck there again as soon as we A: get some good rain, and B: finish exams in about three weeks. That reminds me, I probably have a hundred plus drugs to memorize for Pharm. Love you second year...

What do you do when you have no time to fish?

2009-09-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Answer: Watch movies of other people fishing.

Unfortunately we don't have much anything to report. Water levels are still low here in Charlottesville and the temperatures haven't dropped enough to make fishing in the park worth it, leaving us with nothing to do other than study. It's times like these that make me wonder if fishing guides sit around in the winter complaining and wishing they were training to become doctors instead. For some reason, I doubt they do.

So instead of a fishing report this week, here's some of the videos that have helped me through the past week of playing catchup in pharmacology:

By far the best short flick on fly fishing out there on the web, Todd Moen's video, Alpine Bass. I stumbled upon it in Catch Magazine Issue #6. Enjoy.

Found this video of great foam fly action on the Simms website:

And finally, this video, "7 Minutes of Mayhem", shows off some amazing baby tarpon action off of the yucatan peninsula. Using a blunted hook, the fisherman hooks and unhooks (purposefully) numerous tarpon. Sick nasty.

Introduction and New River

2009-09-11T17:03:00.001-07:00

As a good college friend of Cameron's, I want to first thank him for the opportunity to have me as a new contributor to this great Virginia fishing resource. If it isn't already apparent by his far reaching knowledge of many of Virginia's finest rivers in only the few years he has been fly fishing, let me tell you that his obsession is, well, near endless. But I am more than impressed with his eagerness to explore new places and share what he has learned. (Secret holes excluded, of course). If I can, I'll give a few brief details about myself to back my credibility on fly fishing in general, and particularly fishing in Virginia. After that, I'll get into some more interesting 'fishing stuff' pertaining to my NEW favorite place to fish - the New River.

I grew up in Northern Virginia (Manassas) and went on my first canoe trip with my dad and his (our) good fishing friend Fran when I was about 4 years old, trodding down the Shenandoah River. Needless to say, my mother was rather shocked to find out that not only did I last an entire day sitting in a boat going down a river all day without complaining, but that I loved it! It wasn't long after that Dad put a fly rod in my hand (maybe 7 years old) and took me to the local pond to catch some blue gills. He tied on a tan caddis then dropped some bread crumbs in the water to get the fish warmed up, and I was catching my first fish on a fly rod in no time. From then on, it's been mostly a wild craze and definite passion for getting away and catching a few trout whenever I get the chance. I've been to Yellowstone to fish the famous waters of the Madison, Gallatin, Slough, and Soda Butte, among many others there. And for many years now, we've been going on an annual trip to fish for the notoriously challenging browns and rainbows of the West Branch of the Delaware River, near Hancock, NY.

But, my main knowledge centers on the wild brookie streams of Shenandoah National Park. Since I started fly fishing way back when, those are what you might call my home waters. We've done an annual spring trip there for a good ten years or more now, spending a few nights in a local cottage near Graves Mountain Lodge while fishing the Rapidan, Rose, Hughes, Staunton, Conway, and many other rivers by day. I've been going there for the better part of my life now, often just to get away from life's stresses, and I can say that these are some of my favorite streams to fish.

In addition to that, you could say I've pretty much fished all over Virginia, but it wasn't until I recently started medical school here at VCOM at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA that I was introduced to the wealth of great waters in southwest Virginia. Since I've been here, I've checked out Little Stony, which is a great little rainbow/brookie stream akin to the mountain streams of Shenandoah National Park. Cameron is right that if you go there, they will make sure that you pay the $3 to park at the lot there. It's certainly unfortunate to have to pay to use nature, but if you can manage the $3, it's well worth a look. You can start fishing right at the lot. The trail follows the stream closely all the way up to the Cascades, which is about a 45 minute hike. All along is great water filled with plenty of wild rainbow and brookies.

The best part about being here, though, is the New River. The closest access from Blacksburg is at Pepper's Ferry, for which there is a bridge and boat access named via Route 114. It's about a 20 minute straight shot. I am lucky to have already met several other guys in the program who also really enjoy a good evening out on the river, and I anticipate many good fish stories in the next few years. The area we've been fishing is another 10 minutes beyond the Pepper's Ferry Bridge near Fairlawn. There are several parking areas off the side of the road. The river, like so many other great smallmouth rivers in Virginia, is truly scenic. It is wider along this stretch than those of the James or Shenandoah Rivers, but it is easily wadeable the entire length across. The riffles are light here, but enough to provide lots of activity, and the rocky bottom offers plenty of ledges and hideouts for big smallmouth. Since we've been out, we've managed to get two over 18 inches among many other good sized fish. Most of the other guys have been fishing rubber worms with their spinning rods with great success, but a couple of us have stayed true to fly fishing and done well on Wooly Buggers and Poppers. Water levels and fishing right now are near perfect.

Until they stop biting...

Scott

Fishing Report: Mossy Creek 9/9/09

2009-09-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

Cam, Kyle, and I skipped town yesterday afternoon to check out Mossy Creek. We had classic Mossy Creek weather - dark and rainy with a few breaks for sun to peak through. The river was pretty low when we started out and the grass has grown quite a bit over the summer, but once the rain came, the river swelled a couple of inches before our eyes. Even though we had perfect conditions, we had some trouble landing trout. Kyle and Cameron each hooked up with a couple of nice browns on hoppers, but they all broke off. The browns were in all the usual places, undercuts in the bank, and popping out from under the moss in the channels. We did manage to land some chubs, however (Dad, you can still lovingly call me the "chub master" if you must).

Despite my history of marginal luck there, I still love fishing Mossy because the fishing is technical and it is one of the prettiest places around. Going fishing with my buds Cam and Kyle was perfect way to get back to fishing after a month on the sidelines.

Fishing Report: Jackson River

2009-08-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, a bunch of us took a trip up to the Jackson and stayed the night there just above the Hidden Valley campground. For some reason, our trip there took a little longer than we expected so we weren't able to hit up the water before it got dark. As we set up camp next to the water, we were able to check out the water and saw some fish rising so we expected there to be some good fishing the next morning.

Unfortunately, after a very early morning breakfast, we soon found out that the rising fish were just a bunch of chubs. There is nothing more unsatisfying than being in a perfect location with water that should hold some great native trout, only to discover that the chubs have taken over.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Since we had no intentions of fishing for chubs all day, we set off to the Hidden Valley "artificials only" section in hopes of finding some trout. After a beautiful 1.2 mile hike in to the section and an hour of fishing. We only pulled in more chubs. The section of the water was beautiful, however, I and suspect that during the spring months, the fishing is much better. We did, unfortunately, see several empty worm cans lying along the shoreline. Evidence that people either can't read signs or clearly have no respect for the law. Either way, seeing trash like that in such a beautiful area really spoils the moment.

After an awkward run in with a family that was skinny dipping in the shallow waters beneath the swing bridge, we headed back to the cars for one more trip father south to the tailwater section below the Gathright Dam.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

I wish we had fished this section the whole day. Wading into the water just below the dam, the water was noticeably colder and much more suited for trout. Within 10 minutes, I started to spot trout sipping flies off the surface so Scottie and I pulled out some size 16 parachute adams and immediately started having luck. The rainbow trout were in the 6-12 inch range and were extremely healthy. Having already worn ourselves out fishing for chubs the whole morning, we didn't stay long. But at least we now know where to fish on the Jackson.

Final line: The upper sections of the Jackson could be awesome in the springtime, but the summer months really cause the water temperatures to rise too much. The lower section beneath Gathright Dam, however, appears to be able to hold trout throughout the year. When you are there though, be cognizant of the fact that landowners in the area are very serious when they say no trespassing on their land.

Fishing Report: James River at Joshua Falls

2009-08-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

On my way home from visiting family in Charlotte, NC, I made a quick stop off on the James River just off of route 29. It was about 4 pm when I parked at the Joshua Falls access point and couldn't find a good path on which to walk upstream or downstream from the access point so I just hopped in right in front of the parking lot.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Right off the bat I started having luck with a white CK baitfish catching decent sized smallmouth near the shoreline. But then I started to notice the action that was going on throughout the rest of the river... There were smallies jumping literally everywhere! They were seriously jumping at least two feet out of the water as they chased after some large dragonflies. So I quickly changed my tactic and put on a large glitterbug and started wading out into the middle of the river. Thankfully, the water wasn't moving too fast and wasn't too high for me to do so.

Within the next hour, I pulled in about 20 smallmouth, most of which were significantly larger than the rest that I've caught all summer. Right after I'd return a big guy back safely into the water, I'd spot another one about 30 feet away jump. In the hour I was there, I caught plenty of fish and yet I didn't even move more than 20 yards downstream from the access point.

I don't know if I had gotten there at just the right time of the day/month/year, but I definitely think that this section of the James was the best piece of water for smallmouth I've seen all summer... and I've seen a lot of water.

Fishing Report: Beaver Creek Reservoir

2009-07-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

I spent the evening today fishing my local favorite lake, Beaver Creek Reservoir, with Arun and his son, Anand. I had been promising them that senkos and jitterbugs were the way to go when fishing for bass so I was certainly a little nervous that they wouldn't deliver like they usually do. Thankfully, the bass were biting. Pretty much immediately, Arun hauled in a nice sized bass caught on a senko before it jumped off at the last second. We then hit somewhat of a dry spell until sunset at which point the fishing really turned on.

Anand and I headed over to the dam to try our luck there (on a side note, there were others there yesterday fishing all around us, but I didn't see anyone else pulling in bass like we were... gotta be the senkos.) Anand's third cast out got him a sweet largemouth which we returned safely back into the lake. Interestingly enough, while I was helping him unhook the fish, a bass took to my senko as well so I soon thereafter pulled one in as well.

Anand with his good sized largemouth

It started getting darker so I pulled out my black jitterbug to show Arun and Anand how deadly they can be. If my memory serves me right, I think we pulled in three nice bass and had a couple near misses in a span of only thirty minutes. If we had had more jitterbugs to use, who knows how many we could have pulled in.

Yet again, Beaver Creek Reservoir delivered a great fishing experience. There were more people there than I've ever seen before, but it didn't seem to hurt the fishing one bit!

Great place, great company, great fishing.

Longnose Gar on the Fly: Rivanna River

2009-07-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Yet again the Rivanna proves how awesome it is. This past week I was fortunate enough to find a few huge longnose gar to throw flies at. I would equate it to flat fishing for reds (although I've yet to actually catch a red, thanks Rich for continuing to rub it in). I had several successful casts which put my flies right in front of these prehistoric fish but was unable to elicit and serious bites. A green CK baitfish allowed me my first bite but the fish didn't commit. Finally, after sifting through my whole bass fly box, I turned to a white streamer I made to mimic Harry Murray's streamer, the Murray Marauder. Turns out that white flies with tons of action do the trick. I had several follows and hits before finally getting a solid hook set. It was a big guy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40626436@N00/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Five minutes later, after a fight that reminded me of my trip to the Delaware river, I carefully landed the gar. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, I was camera-less this trip out so I'll have to make do with exaggerations about how big it was. The gar must have been about 30 inches. Perhaps longer. Unfortunately, that snout really makes it tough to estimate the fish's size accurately so I may be way off. Regardless, it was an awesome fight and a great fish to pull in with a flyrod. I highly recommend it.

Fishing Report: James River at Scottsville

2009-07-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Took a nice 3 mile float trip down the James this weekend with some friends. I brought along some fly rods just in case the fish were biting. On a side note, be careful where you put your expensive fishing equipment because as I learned at our put-in site, people will gladly swipe someone else's stuff if it's left alone for more than a minute.

We put in where James River Runners is located at Hatton Ferry and floated downstream to the takeout at Scottsville.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Fishing for the first mile and a half was practically nonexistent. The second half of the trip, however, was much better. In fact, about a quarter of a mile from the take out in Scottsville, I pulled in my biggest smallie of the year with one of my glitterbugs. Overall, there was some awesome smallie fishing on the James in this section, you just have to know where to look. I'll definitely be heading back here in the near future.

Fly Tying Instructions: Glitterbug Bass Popper

2009-07-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

I got tired of buying bass poppers at the store for $4-5 only to have them get destroyed or lost within 24 hours... and by that I mean, I bought 2 of them and thought, "hey these can't be that hard to make". Since then, I've been making my own and my wallet thanks me.

I've found that online there are not many detailed descriptions of how to make your own bass poppers so I've put this together to hopefully help you figure out exactly how to go about making your own.

The Glitterbug (name courtesy of Rich), is a basic styrofoam bodied bass popper. To make it more durable than a painted popper, I've decided to epoxy the whole thing. This has allowed me to use the same popper over the course of several days of fishing while withstanding tons of abuse. So not only are they cheaper than store bought ones, they're also extremely tough.

The materials you'll need:

- closed cell white styrofoam (I got a 1 inch thick disk of it from Michael's for real cheap)

- any color glitter you want

- hackle colored to match the color of glitter used, I've been using hen hackle

- rubber legs (I prefer using white legs for all of my poppers but feel free to mix it up)

- hooks: I prefer using Eagle Claw plain shanks in size 4 (they're a lot cheaper than orvis hooks, but work just as well)

- 5 minute epoxy: I use Z-poxy

- pad of post-it notes

- bendable razor blades: I looked all over for these. I finally found them at Walmart in the shaving section. The brand I got was called Personna Double Edge

- toothpicks (to stir and apply the epoxy)

- heavy wire (I've been using old guitar strings) or large sewing needles

Instructions:

First cut out a piece of styrofoam that's rounded on top and flat on the bottom. I do this by taking the razor, bending it, and cutting out a piece off of a flat side of the styrofoam. I've found the best way to get it to be cut evenly and smoothly is to line up the razor where you want the cut and then pressing down on it with something else (I use my pad of post-it notes).

I then taper the front of the head and the back so that it looks like below:

Next I carefully push the head of the hook through the foam near the bottom. So that it ends up looking like so...

Next step is to epoxy the face and belly of the popper. To do this, put an equal amount of the z-

poxy hardener and resin on the post-it note pad and mix them together. For this part, I don't like to put any coloring because I'd like to think that it makes it look more like a frog without it. While doing this I make sure to put plenty of epoxy on the hook shank and shimmy the head forward. This ensures that, once the epoxy hardens, the head will remain stationary. I put enough on to successfully cover the belly and the face and then let the epoxy dry while keeping it moving (I don't have a rotating fly drier quite yet... I'll probably make one out of a microwave motor in the near future.) While this is drying, I'll usually start making others so that when it comes to epoxying the rest of the head, I'll have several ready.

Next step, I pour out more z-poxy onto a post-it note pad and mix it well before adding a decent amount of glitter. (Note: if you add too much it gets very clumped up and your fly will look like some kind of lumpy mutant. Play it safe and add a little at first, mix it in and see if you think the epoxy can hold more glitter.)

Then put this over the body of the popper making sure that it meets up with the edges of the clear epoxy from the belly and face. This takes a couple tries to get good at while making sure that the end result isn't uneven or ends up with too much epoxy.

Once it starts to dry up, you'll have to move quickly to put the legs in before the epoxy gets too hard to work with. Basically, once I can touch the epoxy and it doesn't stick to my fingers I can start putting the legs in. To do this I take a large needle or a tough wire (like an old guitar string and make a sharp bend in it). I then push this needle/bent wire through the side of the popper and out the other side. At this point it'll look like this:

Now all you need to do is thread a leg through the body as seen below:

Next, just repeat the same procedure to put in another set of legs (unless you're making a smaller one, in which case, only one set of legs should be enough).

Once the legs are in the right position, I'll usually put some head cement where they enter the epoxy to make sure they don't slip out. Trim the legs and then start a thread behind the head and bring it back down the curve of the hook a little ways. I like to build up a little bit of a ball of thread at the farthest back point because I think it helps to splay the hackle out better.

Take two tips of hackle (or only one if you're making smaller poppers) and tie them in on one side of the hook making sure the bend in them is away from the hook. Repeat the same thing on the other side of the hook with two more.

Finally, take one more hackle and tie in a decently long piece with the bend of the feather pointing towards the back of the hook. Like so:

Wrap the hackle forward with several turns and then tie off and trim the hackle down so that it is just a little longer than the space between the hook shank and point. Whip finish to tie off the thread and then just clean things up! Here's the final product:

I hope you find this helpful. It you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to contact us.

As for how to fish these, just throw then out near the stream shoreline where the water is from 1-3 feet deep preferably under some kind of tree cover. After about a 5 seconds, if you haven't had a bite yet, pull in about a solid foot of line giving the popper some action, making some sound and vibrations that will be sure to grab the attention of hungry bass.

Fishing Report: Rivanna at Darden Towe & Riverview Park

2009-07-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

I hope you all have been out fishing like Cameron and I have. It is beautiful out, there is plenty of water, and the fish are biting... in some places more than others. I went out on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours to Riverview Park in Charlottesville to wade the Rivanna. I actually got a good amount of action for the apparent lack of structure on the bottom of the river. Conventional wisdom is still correct with undercuts in the bank and any fallen trees being the best places to present your fly. I ended up pulling in some largemouth, bluegill and smallies that day. Harry Murray's Carolina Blue Poppers worked great, and silver/gold kreelex also did the trick. Unfortunately, I haven't bought a waterproof bag for my camera yet, so no pictures of smallmouth fishing for now.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Darden Towe Park, upstream about a mile or two from Riverview Park on the opposite bank, proved disappointing. Cam and I headed up there yesterday afternoon and were excited to find lots of underwater grass and rocks, which we surmised would hold lots of smallies. This was not the case. I caught a couple of bluegill on the CK Paradox spoon fly I just picked up from Albemarle Angler, but overall the fish that I saw were much smaller than downstream.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

I think the next stop on the Rivanna for me is Free Bridge. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes. Tight lines, y'all.

Fishing Report: Rappahannock River (Kelly's Ford)

2009-07-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Checked up to the Rappahannock River on my way up to D.C. this weekend. When I got there, I got sick to my stomach when I pulled up to the Kelly's Ford parking lots. Both were absolutely packed. I almost just drove away. But after having my fishing license was looked at by the local game warden, I headed down to the river and found that there was some sort of party/hangout going on just adjacent to the bypass which explained why the parking lots were full.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

As I hiked upstream, the poplars started showing off the silver underbellies of their leaves and thunder started rolling in the distance. I had a solid hour on the river before the afternoon shower hit my location which allowed me to pull in several smallmouthand a few bluegill using bass poppers. Unsure of how long the rain was going to last, I chilled out along the side of the river underneath a poplar which fortunately had a trove of blackberries underneath it. Having forgotten to eat lunch, I was certainly grateful for the lucky find. It was quite beautiful, looking out at the river, as the rain came through. Finally, after about 30 minutes, the sun came back out. Fifteen minutes later the bass were already biting again on the surface. I found several bass hiding out amongst the rock garden that predominates the section upstream of the bypass.

Although the fishing was good, I wouldn't say it was the best. Had I continued to hike further upstream, I'm pretty sure the fishing would have gotten even better.

Still had some trouble getting the hang of throwing Clawdad's out there. I just can't seem to break out of my streamer/popper mentality when it comes to smallmouth. If someone has any advice as to where to throw crawfish patterns and what kind of action to give them, that'd be awesome.

Even though this spot was a solid hour away from Charlottesville, I'd definitely hit it up again in the future. Yet another great smallmouth river to be explored here in Virginia.

Tight Lines.

Fishing Report: Rivanna River at North Milton Road

2009-07-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

I went to check out another place to wade the Rivanna for smallies. I parked at the boat ramp parking area off of North Milton Road, crossed the street and followed the well blazed path along the river. I found a nice put in and wet waded downstream. I initially was in a section with fast moving water in the middle and nice deep pools with overhanging trees along the shoreline. Several nice smallmouth and a ton of bluegill were taken with my styrofoam poppers (I'd give them a name if I thought no one had made them the way I make them...) and safely returned to continue to grow larger.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Farther down the water started slowing down and the river bottom became more silted and grassy. I caught a few more here on a white CK baitfish but the wading became difficult and I found myself pulling myself out of muddy banks hoping not to lose my crocs. (Yes, I wear crocs. They are God's gift to man.)

All in all, I'd say it's a great section. A lot less pressure than at the Darden Trowe Park section and better places to find big fish. If and when I go again, I'm definitely going to walk father upstream.

Fishing Report: Sugar Hollow Reservoir

2009-07-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 8th I took a quick late afternoon trip up to Sugar Hollow Reservoir with my buddy, David. The weather was perfect and the bass were definitely biting. Overall I think we hauled in about 6 bass, two of which were of pretty decent size.
We started at the dam and just walked along the shoreline fishing all of the good locations. David was using my go-to Yamamoto Senkos while I was fishing with my new favorite bass streamer, CK Baitfish. Yet another awesome fly by Chuck Kraft. I fish it just like I do a Senko. Just let it hit the water and fall slowly without twitching it. This usually will get a fish to bite immediately as it's got some great movement to it as it falls. Then I'll give it a 6 inch strip in every so often to bring it back up before letting it fall again.

David talks to fish, btw.

This lake is just teeming with fish. We barely walked 1/8 a mile around the shoreline. For the more adventuresome fishermen, I imagine the far shorelines hold some huge fish that haven't seen a lure/fly in a long time. (No boating allowed on the lake, fyi)

Fishing Report: Clinch River and Big Tumbling Creek

2009-07-07T07:10:00.001-07:00

Over the 4th of July weekend, I took a trip down to Southwest Virginia to see friends and to fish. I got a recommendation to first check out the fee fishing section of Big Tumbling Creek below Laurel Bed Lake. While the area was beautiful and the stream reminded me a lot of the other creeks in the area (Big Stony and Little Stony), the fishing was hardly respectable. I find it a shame that such a wonderful stretch of water was turned into a section used for the cheap thrills of catching stocked trout. Granted, the fish were much better than the usual stocked fish you find around Virginia.

One of the beautiful falls marred by the masses of worm cans and broken off fishing line.

I also got some funny looks from the locals as I fished in my waders and with my flyrod. Although they in return got some funny looks from me as I wondered what could possibly be exciting about sitting around a small pool with a worm on a hook or perhaps some powerbait. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against that form of fishing. In fact, I'll throw a worm out every once in a while but it doesn't make sense to do it in a would be an awesome brook stream.

The view looking out onto Laurel Bed Lake

So after I hooked a few browns and returned them safely back into the water for a few more days of life before someone else thinks they are worth removing (for bragging or eating?), I headed back down the mountain and went to check out the smallmouth population at the Clinch River. For the hour I was there at the Nash Ford, I caught quite a few smallies most of which were small but there was the occasional large one. All in all, I think it's a fantastic river. I wish I had had more time and my kayak with which to explore it. I apologize for not taking pictures, I was in a hurry and would rather catch fish then record them.

My styrofoam bass poppers delivered on this trip as they have on others. I'll have the instructions up soon.

Fishing Report: South Fork of the Rivanna

2009-06-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hit up the South Fork this past Saturday with some new bass poppers I made. I started out at the dam just off of route 29 and fished downstream. Had some great luck in the slower sections hauling in several largemouth and smallmouth. It was my first time using these new poppers and I must say they worked just as well as any of the 4-5 dollar ones I've bought in stores. I'll be posting instructions for how to make them and what materials you'll need sometime this week.

Here's a largemouth I caught as he was actively searching his grass bed for a meal. He put up a great fight and tried to lose me in the grass. Thank god I had on Ox tippet.
And my best smallie of the season so far. Also taken with one of my handmade poppers.

Fishing Report: Mossy Creek

2009-06-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, June 25th, I traveled over to Mossy Creek to check out how the browns were feeding. I was assured by Colby at the Mossy Creek Store that I'd see some sulfurs and tricos coming off of the water from about 7-9 pm. Sure enough, I started seeing flies on the water at around 6:30 but it was by no means a heavy hatch. Still, some fish were sipping so of course, I let the kreelex have the day off while I threw some size 16 sulfur patterns. Overall, I reeled in about 5 browns, only one of which was decent.
Probably not going to hit up the creek again until the fish start feeding on the june bugs. Look for that to happen in about two weeks.

Fishing Report: Hughes River & Sharp Rock Vineyards

2009-06-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Today, Cameron and I went to one of my favorite mountain streams, the Hughes River. My dad started taking me there to fly fish when I was probably about five or six years old. As John Gierach would say, it's "my St. Vrain". It's not the most glamorous river, nor does it have the best brook trout fishing around, but it's home.

We grounded our gear at 12:30 today, and I have to admit that I was a little worried about a midday slump and hot weather. Neither happened. It was one of those charmed days with good cloud cover, a slight breeze, and steady balmy temps. We were fortunate to land quite a few brookies today. None would make your eyes pop out of your head, but they were some very pretty fish. Parachute adams and blue winged olives were hot today, but humpies or elk hair caddis would have probably done well too.

After fishing the Hughes, make sure you stop by Sharp Rock Vineyards. Sharp Rock is just outside Nethers, Va where you park for Old Rag Mountain and the Hughes. They have great wine, an awesome B&B, and they are super friendly. There is also the added bonus of some very friendly dogs on the farm to play with. I've been going to festivals and tastings at the vineyard since college and it's always a great time. In fact, there is a festival complete with BBQ and music coming up on July 11th. It's sure to be a winner.

Weird Fish at Moormans River

2009-06-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Can anybody help me identify this fish? I've caught about five of these out of the Moormans River over the past few weeks and I can't figure out what they are. It looks like some kind of half largemouth/half bluegill. If you have any ideas post a comment.

Fishing Report: Beaver Creek in Ottobine, Va and Mossy Creek

2009-06-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the dearth of posts from me recently, but as Cameron said, we have been soaking up the good life since exams ended. Last Tuesday, in order to stop living in the library, my dad and I woke up early and headed for Beaver Creek in Ottobine, Va. We could not have asked for a more perfect day on a spring creek in the valley. It was overcast all morning with only slight clearing in the afternoon. In my experience at places like Beaver Creek and Mossy Creek, if it's a sunny day you should reconsider fishing there. The fish will be holed up and not taking much without tree/bank cover or clouds.

We started off the morning fishing with the old standard, kreelex. Silver and gold was the hot pattern, and we pulled in 6 beautiful rainbows before 10:30 with them. We caught most of our fish dead drifting kreelex from upstream into dense overhanging tree cover and then taking a few quick tugs on the line. I would recommend bringing a net with you to beaver, because unlike Dad I left mine at home and landing some of these fish proved quite a challenge.

After spending the morning fishing Beaver, Dad and I went on a recon mission to Elkhorn Lake on a tip of some good brook trout fishing there. Unfortunately, when we got there we saw that the road up to the lake was closed for maintenance until June 30th. During this detour we also decided to stop at Mossy Creek and try our luck. True to form, Mossy was a tough fish. We arrived right as the sun broke through the clouds, taking away our ceiling. I managed to catch a chub (Dad took to calling me the "Chub Master" since it was so big), and he caught a small brown trout.

At this point the afternoon was growing late and I decided to head back to Cville, while my Dad (more intelligently) returned to Beaver Creek to fish the evening. Dad, being a more experienced angler decided to diversify his fly selection at this point. He caught a few more 'bows and a brook trout on flies ranging from kreelex to parachute adams and bead head red squirrel tail nymphs. This is how he managed to catch all three species of trout in Virginia in one day. I call that "fishing the cycle".

Pollak Vineyards

2009-06-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my parents came up to Charlottesville to visit and go winetasting. We made the fortunate decision to visit the relatively new, Pollak Vineyards. By far, they had the best wines I've ever tasted that have come out of Virginia. We got to taste 9 wines all of which were solid. Even their Rosé tasted decent, and I HATE all Rosé. After the amazing wine tasting, we asked if we could throw a line in their pond and were granted permission. In my opinion, some of the best bass fishing can be done on private ponds and their pond didn't disappoint.

I hooked my dad up with my favorite bass rig for a spinning rod: a size 2 Gamakatzu EWG with a green pumpkin or watermelon Gary Yamamoto worm. Pretty much immediately he caught a largemouth. Thirty minutes later he had caught six bass, most of which were fairly big. I chose to try a Gulley Worm, something I had just picked up from Albemarle Angler. I'm not going to lie, I thought there was little chance a worm made of chenille would be as successful as a plastic bait in catching bass but it did the trick! I pulled one bass in on it and then lost the worm to what felt like a HUGE bass that broke me off at my Ox leader. I think I'll have to start tying more of these gulley worms. I'll post directions on how to do so in the near future.

I highly recommend everyone take a trip to Pollak. It's going to be the best vineyard in Virginia once people catch wind of how great it is. For now the prices for wine are still low, lower than what you'd find at other wineries. Hopefully, they'll continue to let people fish in their pond too... just be sure to ask nicely.

Fishing Report: Moormans TJTU Section

2009-06-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

Rich and I made a quick trip to the Moormans on Monday, June 15th, to see if we could pull in any of the left over rainbow trout that had survived the terrible poaching that occurs there.

We saw only one rainbow in the upper hole just below the dam but couldn't get him to pay attention to anything, not even the always successful kreelex. We did, however, have a fun time reeling in tons of sunfish, chubs (so gross), and small bass.

I actually stopped by the river again this past weekend with my parents to show them around. Dad threw in with his favorite black woolly bugger hoping to catch a few bass/bluegill and actually hooked up with one of the remaining rainbows only to have it unhook just as he was getting to the riverbank. I'm amazed that any of the trout have survived the poaching. Hopefully, they'll continue to outwit those who are stealing fish.

Fishing Report: Rapidan River

2009-06-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Rich and I have been decompressing from finals and starting our summer research projects.

This report is two weeks old, but should still be pertinent. On my way up to D.C. on Friday, June 12th, I made a quick stop off at my favorite stream, the Rapidan. Water levels were a little high but flowing well and the fish mainly stayed deep but still came up to take dry flies if they looked tasty enough.

As seen in the USGS discharge data, the levels are high for this time of year but remember that we usually start to see some decreases this time of year. Fortunately, due to all of the rain we've had, the levels have remained at ideal levels for the upper sections of park streams.

I caught most of my brookies on parachute adams and my snowshoe humpy in sizes 12 and 14.

I also caught one on a golden retriever (a version of the classic woolly bugger that I've had a lot of success with for everything from crappie to trout) in the tan color on a size 10. I was hoping to pull in a brookie larger than 10 inches but no luck this time.

All in all, it was a great trip. The Rapidan never fails to deliver.

Late Night TV Host Conan O'Brian's Attempt at Brownlining

2009-06-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

As I was fervently avoiding studying for the Pathology final, I tuned in to Conan last night and was delighted to see that he and his buddy, Andy Richter, decided to take a trip to the Los Angeles River. As you will see in the clip below, they attempted (a very generous use of the word) to fly fish.

Not one of his best gigs, but I enjoyed the fact that they even thought to include a second or two of them trying to throw lines.

Reminded me that I also saw some Hollywood fly fishing a while ago on the new show, Kings. Never actually see the actor throw out a cast but whatever river he's "fishing" looks phenomenal.

Beaver Creek Reservoir Revisited

2009-05-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

Nick caught a delicious bass

Here's a quick update on some of the official VMFF trips over the past few weekends. We've seen some new faces out at Beaver Creek Reservoir lately, all of them members of SMD12 (that's fancy talk for UVa Med School's class of 2012). We've been catching the usual bass and TONS of bluegill, but we've missed the crappie lately. In fact, I haven't seen a crappie at the reservoir since March when Kyle and I had our fish fry. Hopefully we didn't eat all of them...

Anyway, on to uplifting fish stories. I took Jon, a fishing virgin from New Jersey, along with Lee and Benji to the reservoir a few weeks ago. It was a blasting hot day, but we did manage to land some pretty fish. Benji, Lee, and Jon all picked up fly fishing very quickly, but it was Jon who became hero of the day by catching the first fish of his life. Unfortunately, I think I scared him by telling him about the spines on a bluegill's dorsal fin, so it took Lee a couple tries to convince him to just go for it and grab the thing.

Having learned my lesson in the afternoon heat the week before, Cameron, Kyle, Angie, and I went back to the lake early this past Saturday morning. We could not have asked for a more perfect day. The weather stayed a bit cooler and the fish responded by chowing down on Kyle's favorite spider/water bug immitation, and silver rapalas. The fish weren't even the most interesting part of the day. Angie managed to attract some attention from a reporter from The Hook, a weekly Charlottesville publication. He just started taking pictures of her while she fly fished from a boat dock, and only later introduced himself to ask for her name for the story he was writing. Creepy much? Actually, it turns out that he does work for The Hook and wrote a story about Western Albemarle High School's new boat house for their crew team. You can see the story here (be sure to check out the slide show link for Angie's 15 minutes of fame).

Aside from paparazzi excitement, Kyle and Cameron figured they would try on their Jeff Corwin shoes and went on the hunt for some water snakes. After multiple near misses, they succeeded in capturing one and getting some cool pictures with it.

Apparently Sperm Whales Enjoy Fishing As Well

2009-05-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

Just saw this video from Nat Geo and thought it was amazing. Researchers found that sperm whales, in order to get an easy meal, will approach cod fishing lines and shake them to release the hooked fish.

I guess I'm thankful I'm not fishing in deep oceans. I'd be furious to lose a fish because a whale outsmarted me.

Fishing Report: Smith Mountain Lake

2009-05-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone got to go out and fish a little this past Memorial Day weekend since the weather (at least here in Virginia) was perfect. Water levels had calmed down significantly allowing for some killer action all over the state.

For my three day weekend, I headed down to Smith Mountain Lake to fish/relax with my frat brothers. We stayed in an awesome condo courtesy of Matherne. Early in the morning on Saturday before a trip to Bojangles for some artery clogging breakfast, Matherne and I hit up the lake in search of striper and largemouth. Without a fishfinder, it became pretty clear that we'd have a hard time finding the striper unless they started actively feeding on the surface. We then resorted to throwing plastic worms (my favorites being the Gary Yamamoto 5 inch worms in green pumpkin, watermelon, and pumpkin). That morning we ended up hooking two good sized bass and losing one of them. I'd guess that they were about 3 lbs each.

After about 9 a.m., the action pretty much died off as the speedboats and jetskis hit the water.

At about 6 p.m., however, the fishing got better. The bass, as far as I could tell were still in their spawning beds close to shore so I headed out on my kayak and caught several more decent bass.

Probably some of the best fishing was done at night off of the dock. The first night, Dylan and I caught a couple bass and brim (I was using bass poppers and my fly rod). The second night Dylan showed up everyone and caught a huge largemouth. Finally, the last night, after Dylan caught a large crappie using a senko, we decided to catch some of the huge carp that pooled up around the dock lights. Using just some plain old hooks, bobbers, and balls of bread, we caught 6 of these mammoths. I'm not going to lie, they are some pretty gross fish but they sure do fight hard and long.

Overall, SML is a great place to fish. It's got a very healthy variety of fish and plenty of space for them to grow large. Thanks again to Matherne for letting us stay at his place.

Fly Tying Instructions: CK Nymph

2009-05-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

Chuck Kraft, the Charlottesville local who invented my personal favorite fly, the Kreelex, has also made a very successful nymph pattern, the C.K. nymph. This fly is extremely easy to make. I t can be made in several ways and with different materials. It seems to imitate multiple types of insect life (and perhaps even some minnows). I haven't found many good explanations for how to tie this fly online, so I thought I'd help everyone out and make a tutorial for it.

Materials

Thread: I usually use just a black 70 denier thread, but feel free to mix it up

Tail: Any kind of feather. I tend to use whatever left over feathers I have laying around

Body: Whatever you choose. Microchenille, heavy dubbing, and my favorite, several strands of peacock herl will work just fine

Hackle: The is the only part of the fly that I don't think should change very much. I use grizzly saddle or cape hackle, but it doesn't matter how big the gauge is on them as you can trim them down to size afterwards

Instructions

I recommend using streamer hooks in sizes 8-12.

Add some weight to the hook. I prefer to use 0.025 round lead wire.

Start your thread and tied the lead wire securely down. Be sure to cover the lead wire with thread well so that the color of the fly won't be changed by any oxidation of the lead. Bring the thread to the back of the hook.

Collect a bunch of barbs from the sides of a feather such as this one. I prefer to use the sides of the feather.

Tie in the feather. It doesn't have to have too much length to it. Try and get it to be a little shorter than the hook shank.

Attach the grizzly hackle to the rear of the fly

Tie in the body material and then bring the thread to the eye of the hook. Here i'm adding black microchenille. I'll show farther down examples of putting in dubbed bodies and peacock herl bodies.

Wrap the body material forward creating a fairly even body. Tie off with the thread and remove any excess material.

Wrap the grizzly hackle forward. Don't make it too tight together. Tie off the grizzly hackle and then trim the hackles so that they are about even with the width of the hook bend.

Form a fairly large head with the thread and then wrap finish to tie off.

Alternate Versions

Peacock CK nymph

Everything is the same for this version of the CK nymph except that instead of microchenille, you can add about 10 strands of peacock herl. When wrapping the body, be sure to twist the herls to keep them together.

Here's the finished fly. It's hard to tell the difference, but with the peacock herl, you can definitely tell there is more of a iridescent shine to the fly.

Dubbed CK nymph

For this version, I add a lot of dubbing to the fly instead of chenille. I prefer to dub my thread by make a dubbing loop and then moving my thread to the eye of the hook.

Here is the finished dubbed version. I prefer dubbing with yellow or red.

Fly Tying Instructions: Snowshoe Humpy

2009-05-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

So lately, I've been a huge fan of using snowshoe rabbit's foot fur (SSRF) in my flies. It is a tough material. I've caught a ton of fish conseculatively with SSRF flies and they continue to withstand the rough treatment. It also is EXTREMELY hydrophobic material. Personally, I prefer to not have to continually be drying off flies or switching up flies because they get waterlogged. SSRF continues to by water resistant fish after fish. Also, compared to other materials (CDC for one) it's ability to float isn't hampered by any mucous from the inside of a fish's mouth. One more thing about it is that despite being tough, it's still very delicate and light. So, while I love using the classic humpy flies tied with elk hair, my version of the fly with SSRF seems to land softer than the somewhat heavier elk hair humpy.

So I've decided to put together a very short tutorial on how to tie this fly.

First, I prefer tying it on size 12 to 16 dry fly hooks.

Start the thread and bring it to the back of the hook shank.

Cut out a good clump of SSRF. For those of you unfamiliar with SSRF, I think the best way to get at the best hair is to split the foot in half first. The best hairs are the ones that are in the middle of the foot. Cut out a clump about the same size as you would use to put in any wing on a fly. Remove any shorter hairs and don't worry about stacking the hair, just be sure that the hair is relatively even.

Tie in the SSRF with the tips as the tail of the fly. I don't make a very long tail, probably a little shorter than the length of the hook shank. Give it a few good wraps to ensure the hair is well secured on the top of the hook.

Bring the thread forward of where the tail was tied in. Add a good amount of dubbing to the thread and form a pretty fat body to the fly that starts from the tie in point for the tail and ends at the 1/3 point of the shank from the eye of the hook.

Pull the SSRF hair forward over the belly formed. Pull it together tightly and then wrap several wraps to secure the hair down. Leave the rest of the SSRF hair intact for now.

Secure a hackle to the fly where the SSRF was just tied down. Then bring the thread forward to the eye of the hook. On the way forward, I like to make a bunch of wraps just in front of the SSRF to push the wing up from the hook.

Make several turns behind and in front of the wing with the hackle. Tied down the hackle at the hook eye and then whip finish.

Clean up the fly a little bit. I usually trim the extra SSRF of the wing so that it's about the same height as the hackle. I also usually trim the hackle on the bottom of the fly to make it even with the width of the hook curve.

Here's the finished fly:

I'll tie this fly in practically any pattern. My favorites right now are one that matches a sulphur mayfly: medium dun SSRF, grizzly hackle, and sulphur yellow dubbing, and a caddis: tan SSRF, brown hackle, and olive dubbing. Feel free to experiment of course.

This fly is ideal for fishing in fast rough water, like that seen in some of the Rapidan's pools. I don't think the fly needs to match the body color or shape of a specific fly necessarily when the water is moving so fast. Instead, I think it's important that your fly remains floating and visible. This fly will definitely remain both floating and visible. Good luck. I hope it helps you catch more fish.

Two Flies, 6X Tippet

2009-05-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Not twenty-four hours after my two day stint in the Appalachians crouching underneath the new spring foliage making sidearm casts with a two-weight rod to fish no greater than my hand, I found myself in a quite different set of circumstances. No longer were backcasts being snagged by twigs and thornbushes. Casts of only a few feet were no longer adequate and to throw out line with a two-weight would quickly be looked upon as amateur and ridiculous. And to say I had previously been tortured by trying to match a hatch now just sounds silly.

I stood with one foot in New York and the other in Pennsylvania making casts with my new San Juan 5/6 weight rod from Fly Fishing Benefactors, with 9-10 feet of leader and tippet, trying to convince a trout, big enough to eat a small child, that my fly looked just like or hopefully more enticing than the other thousand that cruised through his feeding lane. I was on the West Branch of the Delaware and the fly fishing was awesome.

Three years ago, my friend, Scott, convinced me to follow him up into the Shenandoah Park to learn how to fly fish. This past week, he and his dad were kind enough to let me tag along on their yearly trip to where American fly fishing started. He told of tales of huge fish, expertly thrown casts and fly hatches that make the water surface look like a miniature regatta. I thought I understood. It was only when we started driving by the river did I realize what he meant. Through the bug splattered windows I could see the hoardes of flies and a river alive with trout gently sipping insects off the water's surface.

Within thirty minutes we were out on river staking claim to shallow pool of water with at least twenty trout feeding simultaneously. On the trip up from Virginia, I had been taught the Rusteikas West Branch of the Delaware mantra by Scott's dad: "Only two flies, 6X tippet." So when I was finally on the river, I resisted grabbing for my 4X and my kreelex streamers, and instead heeded their advice hoping it would bring me good fishing karma.

The two flies we used for the extent of the trip were a Hendrickson comparadun tied in several ways (with CDC wings, CDC loopwings, snowshoe rabbit's foot wings) and rusty spinners. Within minutes of being on the water, Scott was able to tell the majority of the fish were sipping on the duns. So we set to work trying to fool these leviathans into taking our imitations as apple caddis flies swarmed above us and the sun slowly started setting.

It couldn't have been more than thirty minutes before the master had a healthy 18 inch brown
trout in hand to show the apprentice that he knew what he was talking about. "Two flies, 6X tippet." "It's all about presentation." "He has to see your fly first, not your line."

Still, it was hard for me to break some bad habits. A fish started sipping bugs just upstream from me and the temptation was too great. A few casts later, my flies gently disappeared. I set the hook and *snap*. The hook was set, but the wrist action that would have sent a Rapidan brookie flying straight out of the water didn't have quite the same effect on this fish. A fly was lost but a lesson was learned.

Two more lost flies due to snapped tippet later, I hooked a large brown but hardly even knew it happened. With the sun starting to hang low over the Catskill Mountains, our artificials became lost the masses of other flies as the spent Hendricksons finally laid their eggs and died. So when my fly was taken amidst the others, my only indication was a flash of the trout's belly and a sudden whirring of my drag. I successfully stifled a yelp of excitement and tried to act like I had fought a fish of this magnitude before. Five minutes later, however, when Scott took the picture of me with my first brown trout on the Delaware, it was quite difficult to hide my excitement and surprise. See below:

Later in the evening, the dead flies started to finally clear from the surface of the water and in the dim light, Scott caught another trout, this time a fat rainbow.

Obsessed, we continued to throw line out as we walked slowly back to the car through the ever-darkening evening. Silhouettes of trout could still be seen rising, disturbing the water in the slow stretches of water. But eventually it became impossible to see where you were casting or what you were casting to. At the car we found out that Mr. Rusteikas had caught two trout on rusty spinners right near where we parked the car.

The forecast for the next two days looked ominous. Sure enough, the next day brought with it clouds and a blustery wind that swept upstream at over 15 mph and a chill that kept the fish down and prevented any significant hatch of flies. The river seemed completely different than the lively river we had fished the day before. It was hard to imagine there were scores of huge fish waiting patiently for the next batch of flies to hatch.

Thankfully, the third day's forecast turned out to be quite inaccurate. After a few light showers in the morning, the clouds broke up and the wind died down just in time to allow for a heavy hatch of caddis and Hendricksons. Having held off on lunch until the hunger pains were too great, Scott and I decided to leave our favorite hole to grab a bite to eat around 3 p.m. only to return to find out that the Hendrickson hatch had picked up just after we left allowing Mr. Rusteikas to pull three good sized trout out of our section of river. The day continued to be successful with the occasional fish breaking off the fragile 6X tippet. I tricked a big brown into taking my dun in the slow shallow waters that left me with a sore forearm after he was set free. Scott also hooked a big brown in the evening on the first cast into the fish's feeding lane.

The final day was perhaps the best. The weather had settled down and the hatch was heavy. As the apple caddis started to come off the water, Scott started stalking a fish in the upper parts of our section of river. Mr. Rusteikas and I sat on the shore humored by the intensity with which Scott was inspecting the water planning his attack. We hadn't seen any fish actively feeding yet as it was still early. Less than a minute after a sarcastic remark from me about how ridiculous Scott looked trying to catch a nonexistent fish, suddenly his line became taut and a healthy rainbow started jumping. Eating my words, Scott continued to pull in six fish the rest of the day. I, on the other hand, continued to stalk the large browns sipping spinners in the shallows and had a successful day pulling in four brown trout.

Later in the day, as I'm casting to a fish on the far bank, I hear distant conversation between Scott and his dad about a fish Scott had just landed whose mouth had not one but three flies in it. After inspection and debate, it became clear that Mr. Rusteikas had in fact hooked the same fish the day before and had lost his now found (and still in good condition) CDC comparadun to the fish. Seeing as it was quite the fish tale, I have no doubt that it will continue to be told in the future, except perhap the size of the fish will continue to increase as will the number of flies in his mouth...

Overall, it was an amazing trip. Unfortunately, Scott and his dad have gotten me hooked on fishing for large trout now. I'm going to have to restrain myself from trying to head back to the Delaware for the sulfur and green drake hatches and instead fish Mossy Creek in the hopes of pulling a big brown of the waters there.

Thanks again to Scott and his dad for taking me on the trip!

Tight lines.

Rapidan Camp

2009-05-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Last week I decided to spend two days out on the Rapidan in the upper portions just past the Rapidan Camp. The Rapidan Camp was where the senior members of Hoover's staff stayed while Hoover and his family resided in the main cabin during summer trips. Today, the Rapidan Camp is a cooperative campground while Hoover's main cabin is a tourist attraction in the park.

Back in the day, I was researching the history of Rapidan Camp and came across some awesome footage of President Hoover fishing the Rapidan. He allowed a bunch of reporters to come and videotape him. Impressingly, he was still able to catch fish. Of course, I wouldn't say his one-handed technique is the best i've ever seen.

Pretty amazing footage. This video comes courtesy of C-SPAN's Presidential Libraries. To check out more videos of him fishing and hanging out around Camp Rapidan, check out the C-SPAN site.

Now on to the fishing report. Temperatures were high. During the afternoon, the air temperatures soared to around 95 degrees. This really pushed the brookies deep. But once the heat broke in the late afternoon, fishing really picked up. Each hole started producing 4-5 brookies of average size with a couple 10 inchers feeding in the back eddys. By the end of the first day, I'd probably pulled in over 30 fish.

The next morning, due to poor sleeping conditions (it was too hot for a sleeping bag) I woke up and started fishing around 6 a.m. I now intend on getting out to the river that early on my future trips as the fishing was on fire. The upper portions of the river above Rapidan Camp held many more fish than the lower sections in my opinion. The fish were all about 7-9 inches but I didn't see any of the lunkers (a relative term) like the ones you can find in the lower sections. They were all actively feeding on top and quickly took to my improved parachute adams (I started using a two-toned parapost on my parachute adams to help make then even more visible).

The particular highlight of the morning was one pool where I remained sitting on a boulder at the back end of the pool and from there I pulled in 5 9" brookies quickly from each of the feeding lanes that were present.

Great trip overall. I highly recommend you camp in the upper regions in order to get an early start on the fishing.

Of course, for now, the Rapidan is highly unfishable. All of this rain we've been getting (and will continue to get the rest of this week) have pushed the water levels dangerously high for fishing. Check out this USGS map of Virginia:

As you can see (the purple, blue, and light blue represent high, 90th percentile, and over 75th percentile respectively) the water levels in much of the state are extremely high. The Rapidan is running around 350 CFS, which is way over the 80th percentile.

So it's time to hold off on the fishing for a while. Perhaps studying pathology and pharmacology would be more worthwhile.

Kreelex Flies a.k.a. "trout crack"

2009-04-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, Cameron and I took our neuroscience final, the last rite of passage in our first year of med school. There were some late nights of studying and more than a few stressful times during first year, but I think we managed to keep our priorities straight. That being said, it should be obvious how we decided to celebrate the end of our first year. As soon as our exams were turned in, we hit the ground running and drove out to the Moormans River.

Flow data for Moormans River courtesy of USGS

We have seen lots of rain recently, and the central Virginia rivers are up with fast, murky water. Many rivers are between their 25-75 percentiles in water flow with some in the valley up above the 75 percent mark. With so much water and little bug activity on the surface we chose the old standby, the copper and gold kreelex. Between the two of us we easily caught between 10 and 15 rainbows out of the Moormans. I attribute this bounty to the recent stocking by the folks at TU and to our dedication to what Cameron now calls "trout crack." Yes, trout crack. Seriously, can you think of a more fitting a name than that for a streamer that the fish literally seem addicted to? Surprisingly, it almost seems not to matter where we throw a kreelex in the Moormans. Throwing it in fast water, slow water, edge of the bank, or right down the main channel is likely to draw some serious attention out there. Here's the proof:

Of all the fish we caught that day, I have to gloat and say the most exciting one was that last big rainbow I'm holding. Cameron and I actually both had fish on at the same time and I had to convince him that "no really man, this IS a big one," to let his fish loose and come over to take some photos of this guy. It took a good four minutes to land that fish after some tail dancing on the surface and fighting a pretty strong current. I'd say a sore arm was definitely worth the effort. Of course, catching a big fish and not letting your friend hear the end of it (even if it is good natured) is sure to come back to bite you, and that's exactly what happened the next day on Beaver Creek.

Beaver Creek is located in the Shenandoah Valley and runs through the town of Ottobine, about a 15 minute drive from Bridgewater, Virginia. I got turned on to Beaver Creek by my dad who has been fishing there on a recommendation from the Trow brothers at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing. Those guys let us in on a great thing. Beaver Creek is stocked with big, beautiful rainbow trout and thanks to a limit of four rods per day, the creek doesn't get too much pressure from anglers. My father is an avid fly fisherman too, and after hearing about the great day we had on the Moormans, he was eager to show us around Beaver Creek.

Beaver is unique in that it offers a lowland spring creek with a stone and silt bottom running through both pasture and woods. It is also wadeable, making it easier to navigate than Mossy Creek and it doesn't have all of the underwater vegetation that Mossy harbors. You can expect to hang up much less on the bottom at Beaver thanks to this. Another awesome feature of Beaver Creek is the nearby Ottobine Country Store complete with a sandwich grille.

Upon arriving at the Ottobine Country Store, we paid for our three passes and met up with the fourth angler for the day, a former minister from Illinois. This gentleman was on a fishing expedition across the U.S. and had been staying in a cabin near Afton Mountain while he sampled the waters here in Virginia. He and my dad took a section across from the Ottobine elementary school and fished nymphs for the morning. To cover more water, Cameron and I started in a wooded section downstream and started with nymphs, but quickly switched to "trout crack." Better stated, Cameron switched to silver and gold kreelex and caught a pretty rainbow in a hole I had just been fishing with a nymph. Don't worry, I caught my fair share of fish too, it's just that they were slimy chubs. I think Karma came back to bite and I ended up leaving the pretty fish to Cameron and my dad that day.

Those two days on the water were an awesome start to my spring break. Fortunately, I still have a whole week of fishing ahead of me.

Virginia Fly Fishing Festival This Weekend

2009-04-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

I know that if I were a sane person, after the physiology test on Saturday morning I would head straight back to the library to start cramming for the human behavior exam on Monday. Instead, I'll be heading to the VA Fly Fishing Festival over in Waynesboro (it'll be located where the South River tag is on our Google Map). For anyone else crazy enough, it should be a great chance to meet others who are interested in fly fishing. I know that the guys from Albemarle Angler will be there as will the Trow Brothers from Mossy Creek.

I'm particularly interested in listening to what Capt. Cory Routh has to say about flyfishing from your kayak which will happen around 1 pm on Saturday. Cory is the author of the book, Kayak Fishing: The Complete Guide, which is a book I definitely have wanted to get my hands on now for a while. That reminds me... I still need to figure out how to put my fishfinder on my kayak.

I'm also interested in checking out the flyrods and reels from the local company, Fly Fishing Benefactors. From what I've read, such as this great review of the San Juan rod from Steve over at Switch Fisher, it sounds like they make great stuff for amazing prices. If what I've read is true, I'll most likely be leaving with a new rod just in time to get used to it before my trip to the Catskill Mountains in two weeks.

Weather forecast for Saturday is perfect. Hopefully I'll see some of you out there.

Rivanna/Shad Run/Rapidan Update

2009-04-10T14:37:00.001-07:00

I'm going to try and make this as short as possible but a lot has happened in the past two weeks.

Two Mondays ago, after a productive day of studying at Shenandoah Joe (best coffee ever, if you haven't gone... go and get the Smoky Mountain Roast) the perfect weather forced me to go out and fish for a little while. I headed down to the Rivanna to see if the smallies were out feeding yet (had no luck), but I did happen to find out that with the muddy water being a little higher than normal... it gets hard to see where you're wading. Basically, I stepped into a huge pool and started getting pulled downriver with water seeping into my waders. I pulled my iphone out of my pocket quickly, fast enough to keep it from getting waterlogged, and found my way to the far shore. Pretty terrifying experience as anyone who has felt their waders filling up knows.

Drenched, mad, and fishless I starting trying to figure out how I was going to get back to the car, and with no clear path on the side of the river, I decided to hike up to railroad track and see where to go from there. On the tracks, I had two choices, I could 1. cross the bridge to get back to the path I had taken to get section of the river or 2. not be an idiot and go the other direction which may take longer but wouldn't cause me to play chicken with a train. (Below is were I was when this all happened, you can see the river, the train tracks and the bridge which I was considering crossing)

View Larger Map

Of course, thank god I chose the direction I did because just as I was stepping off the tracks towards the sketchy broken-down graffitti-laden C&O building, a coal train cruised by. The train scene from Stand By Me kept coming to mind...

I then spent the next week trying to get my Iphone fixed. It was pretty much functional. It just wouldn't recognize my SIM card. Basically, after heading to richmond, the ATT store in Cville, and having the "smart people" at IresQ.com tell me that they couldn't fix it for less than $438, I was able to fix it myself... for free. Apparently none of these geniuses thought to try a different SIM card holder.

The only good thing that came out of this whole phone fiasco was that I got to talk to the guys at the Richmond Orvis store about the shad run. Every year during the months of April and May, the hickory and american shad run up the James River to spawn. This allows fishermen to, if they get there when the conditions are best, to catch tons of fish. (I've added the location of the public access boat ramp in Richmond to our google map, if you're interested in going on your own.)

Unfortunately, my first attempt that next weekend at catching shad didn't turn out so well.

Problem 1: The water levels were still up from all the storms we've been having lately which made it feel more like being out on the bay than out on the river.

Problem 2: My fly line is a floating line. This made it extremely tough to get my flies down deep enough to reach the shad which tend to hold about 10 feet down. Practically no amount of line mending could get my fly to where they were.

Since I couldn't find a store that had the shooting heads or sink tips for a 5 wt. rod (shooting heads are heavy sinking lines that help in situations such as these and sink tips are cheaper weighted line that you can add to your existing line, Orvis makes some for a pretty good price... Check this out), I decided to make my own version of a sink tip. With some 12 lb monofilament and flytying lead wire, I constructed a fairly sturdy, heavy, and yet flexible section of line in hopes that it would do the trick.

Unfortunately, while it did work somewhat well considering how ridiculous it looked, it still didn't get my fly down deep enough and it had some trouble turning over my fly on the really long casts (which are harder in a kayak).

I did end up catching one hickory shad on a orange colored mr. twister curly tail grub. That's right, when I couldn't catch them fly fishing, I resorted to spincasting. The guys next to me had some deep diving green and orange tackle (which I saw and therefore was trying to copy with my set up) which brought in about 8 shad for them. Not many others out there had any luck though. I definitely need to go back another day when water levels are lower and with a sinking line.

Since I didn't have a camera with me (or a working Iphone), here's what a hickory shad looks like:

And here's a video that our local store owner, Gordon from Albemarle Angler, put up from his trip to the James (notice how calm the water was... I wish it was like that when I went)

Finally, this past Thursday as I was preparing to head to the library, my friend Lena just had to mention how perfect the weather was outside. This caused me to completely change plans and instinctively head out to the Rapidan.

It was a perfect day for fishing. There were several hatches going on. From what I could tell, there were still BWOs coming off the water, some midges, and Hendricksons. Best of all, the fish were sipping flies off the surface all over the place. Since there were so many different types of flies hatching, I had a difficult time figuring out what I was going to throw at them. My new darkdun and tan snowshoe caddis patterns caught a few fish each. Parachute adams did as well. But I had the most luck with some red-bellied humpies. This was mainly because the water levels were just a little higher than normal and the section I was fishing had particularly rough water (which apparently hid a greater number of large fish). For those of you who don't know, humpies are extremely good at floating and will do a better job of staying on the surface than practically any other dry fly.

In water levels like this, it's definitely harder to fish with dry flies. In retrospect, I should have stuck to nymphs, but hell, it's springtime and it's hard not to want to see a fish soar out of the depths to attack your size 18 fly.

One of my most exciting hook ups occurred as I was standing above a deep pool trying to mend my line over a small waterfall. On my second drift, as the fly got near the waterfall, I saw the big guy attack my fly but missed, most likely because of the rough water conditions. Excited I tried several more times, but with no take. On my last attempt, I started raising my line up and literally had my fly a couple inches above the water when I saw the brookie take flight after my humpy. I had never experienced something like that before. I set the hook and for a second feared that I had mishooked him in the side or something during his acrobatic show of hunger and determination. Fortunately, once I pulled him in, I found my fly set in his mouth (and pretty deep in there as well... I had to use my hemostats to get it unhooked). All in all, probably one of the coolest experiences I've had fly fishing.

Here's the brookie before I returned him back into his pool:

Overall, it's been an interesting two weeks. I'm definitely looking forward to the second spring break session after finals. VAMFFers, look forward to a couple trips during the earlier part of the week before I head to the Delaware River on the 29th.

Mossy Creek Finally Delivers

2009-03-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

After about 5 trips out to Mossy Creek with only meager results, I finally was able to pull in some decent sized brown trout. Perhaps it was the rainy weather, or the change in my retrieve, but whatever it was, it finally made for good fishing.

Yesterday I went out by myself as the folks over at the VDGIF were unable to send out the passes to the other VAMFF guys who were planning on coming along. While this was unfortunate, it did give me a chance to try out new flies and explore the creek a little more.

I parked at the church and headed upstream fishing extremely fast. I only hit the water with streamers where there was a decent hole for fish to hold in next to the far shore. (In my opinion, fishing the middle of the stream is a waste of time. Only extremely active/stupid fish will chance being out in the middle. The larger wiser trout have found overhanging ledges and fallen debris next to the banks to keep them safe.) So I headed upstream in this fashion until I literally got to the end of the road. The public section of the stream ends in a nice little convergence where the "mossyness" of the creek is quite apparent.

The whole trip upstream I was dead drifting kreelexes (including some of my own versions of the fly). On the trip upstream I had only one trout take but he got off before I even had a chance to see how big he was. For what it was worth, he felt big...

I also saw a large trout way upstream practically near the end of the public section that was sipping flies off the top. I unfortunately couldn't get him to take. From what I could tell he was sipping on subsurface flies that were extremely small. Unfortunately, my griffith's gnats and my comparaduns weren't tricking him.

After a disappointing first 2 hours, I headed back to the stretch of water near the parking lot. At that point I decided to mix things up. I started using a quick retrieve in which I let the fly dead drift downstream a little ways to get some depth to it and then started retrieving about 8 inches of line as fast as I could as the streamer swung out across the pools. On my second try of this I hooked a good sized brown trout which somehow popped off my kreelex before I could get the net in the water. I first chalked the change in success up to the new retrieve but then noticed the rain had finally started to come down so perhaps it was just the change in the weather....

I then kept fishing downstream for about 30 minutes and hauled in two nice sized browns pretty much one after the other. It was awesome to finally pull in some trout of this creek with some size to them. Beautiful fish that looked extremely healthy. I would have kept fishing but I started getting sloppy on my cast and the rain wasn't making things too pleasant either. All in all though, it was an awesome day out there. It solidified, yet again, my thoughts that the kreelex is the best streamer out there for fishing in Virginia. Thank you Chuck Kraft.

Here's another pictures of one of the browns: (I realize that I have too many pictures of me holding my fish awkwardly, I'm going to have to mix up how I do this without keeping the trout out of the water for too long.)

Finally a Connection Between Medicine and Fish

2009-03-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure we raised a couple eyebrows at the Mulholland Society meeting in which the fate of our proposed medical fly fishing club was to be determined. I can just imagine the issues brought up... "What does this have to do with medicine?" "How will this help them get into competitive residencies?" "Who has time to fish when the USMLE 1 is only a year away?"

Thankfully they approved us, either out of pity or confused intrigue. But now, it appears we finally have some solid connections between medicine and flyfishing.

According to Scientific American, a recent study by the EPA and Baylor University researchers has found the presence of 7 pharmaceutical drugs in fish taken from rivers in Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, West Chester, and Orlando. The drugs include norfluoxetine, diltiazem, and carbamazepine. So if you're feeling depressed, having seizures, and have high blood pressure... and you can't afford to hit up the pharmacy, why not go fishing?

I, on the other hand, am feeling pretty healthy so I'll just stick to the catch-and-release with barbless hooks. Unless it's crappie. For some reason, I have no qualms catching and keeping crappie. Perhaps it's the name.

Pic courtesy of UpNorth Memories - Donald Harrison