Fall Brook Trout, Upper Moorman's - October 13, 2012

         With residency applications finally sent out and fall setting in I had my sights on a Saturday of small stream fly fishing.  Friend and fellow 4^th year Brandon Dickinson had planned on joining but had to attend to his newborn baby girl so I went it alone.  I arrived at the parking lot just after sunrise and started up the trail as another car pulled in.  The water was low and I figured I would hike as far as I felt like and then fish back to the car.  I ended up hiking way too far, always thinking that around the next bend would be a nice stretch of consecutive pools.  I walked all the way up to the gate about 3 miles from the parking lot.

         After hiking back a ways I settled on a deep pool with several fishable runs; with no activity on the surface I tied on a bead head hare’s ear.  I quickly brought up a nice 4-5” brook, then another smaller brook.  Both had beautiful fall spawning color.  Hiking further down I found several more pools (with long walks in between) and tried my hare’s ear without luck.  I saw numerous spawning beds along the way, a reminder to be extra careful treading on the gravel beds female Brooks use to protect their eggs during October and November.  The trail up Moorman’s has two sections where the path rises much higher above the stream; these sections have poor access but held some of the best pools given the conditions.    

         On my way back to the car I stumbled upon a pool filled with one to two dozen brook trout, some of impressive size.  These fish didn’t appear to be feeding and I tried every wet and dry option in my flybox.  Whether this scene was a result of decreasing water levels corralling these fish together from neighboring runs or pools or was a behavior unique to spawning season I do not know.  I had seen fish behave this way before on the Jackson river, pooling together in large numbers during cold temps and without any indication of feeding.  The scenery made for a nice day despite the low water, but I couldn’t help but think about those big brookies I left behind.

Rappahannock Bass & Bluegill

09.20.2012

Another great fall afternoon was too much to pass up, so Ben and I decided to try our luck for more small river bass, this time joined by Brandon Dickinson. We headed north from Charlottesville on Highway 29 and through Ruckersville to fish the Rappahannock River where it crosses below the highway. There is great access...just pull to the right before crossing the overpass when headed north.


We stripped Kreelex patterns for most of the afternoon, pulling in abundant bluegill but only the occasional smallmouth. I was unaware that most of the fish I caught were actually rock bass, which can be identified by their prominent red eyes, dark spots, and size that is shorter & stockier than a smallmouth. While we initially fished the banks from the middle of the stream, Brandon made the observation that most of the bass were holding in the middle where the water was deeper with abundant grassy structure. He shared this secret after catching several fish.

Rock bass w/ silver & gold Kreelex

When not out-fishing Ben and myself, Brandon witnessed several explosive strikes on natural surface bugs, so there are definitely some larger fish here. I tried my luck with a yellow popper but only managed to entice some small panfish too small to take the hook. I have long assumed that these warm water fish are more opportunistic than the trout and will take most any fly, the lack of abundant strikes makes me wonder if there might be more strategy than I originally thought.

Smallies on the Shenandoah River

09.09.2012

Being too warm for trout, Ben and I decided to try our luck at smallmouth bass on the Shenandoah River, a stretch of water in the valley that is featured in Chris Santella's book Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die. The book contains spots like the Madison and Green, so this Virginia stream is in good company and worth adding to your list. The closest town to the North Fork of the river is Edinburg, home to the well-known Murray's Fly Shop. I called the shop to get some advice and was immediately put on the phone with Mr. Murray himself, who was friendly and helpful. He provided directions to good fishing spots and recommended reliable bugs, but unfortunately I did not write down the directions.

We headed to Edinburg on Sunday morning with no experience on the Shenandoah and no open fly shops to visit for advice. On the bright side, we were glad to be joined by a new fellow medical student and fisherman, Chris Winstead-Derlega. We made a quick stop by the home of a car restorer in Waynesboro who had recently finished putting a fresh paint job on Chris' vintage VW bus. The guy did a nice job and even managed to spray the same two-tone scheme on Chris' bike.

We started out fishing the North Fork of the river, which is just outside Edinburg. It is both smaller and slower moving than the South Fork, which is located on the eastern side of the Massanutten Mountain Range. The two forks flow northeast on either side of the range before joining to form the Shenandoah River in Front Royal, Virginia.

The North Fork is indeed smaller in every way, from the size of the water to the size of the fish. We started out catching bluegill on poppers of various design and eventually managed to pull in a few smallmouth that were maybe eight inches in length. We would move around in the river and find pockets containing many small smallmouth, but no one caught a fish with much size to it. On the other hand, the scenery really was great, earning it a spot in Santella's book in that category.

In the afternoon we drove over the mountain to fish the South Fork just below Bixler's Bridge, which is considered section #1. This is a wide river that moves a lot of water, which is quite different from its counterpart over the mountain. While still wadeable, it is much deeper on the whole and is undoubtedly best fished by boat. This stretch of river is known to produce larger fish, but I caught only one unimpressive smallmouth while there. All total, the three of us only pulled in two fish in the afternoon.

This river is located in a beautiful part of Virginia and is worth checking out, even when it's not too hot for trout to be eating. In summary, we had a great day on the water and caught a lot of small smallmouth and some bluegill on the North Fork but had little luck on the larger South Fork. We ended the day by following Chris over Afton Mountain in his freshly painted VW bus.

Rapidan, Camp hoover section, 4.15.12

I was fortunate enough to steal some more time for trout fishing in celebration of the unofficial end of my third year of medical school! After a relaxing morning in Charlottesville my wife and I made the drive up to the rapidan WMA for a night of car camping. Much to her chagrin I had to break out the rod mere moments after we'd set up camp to try out the water near our campsite below the second bridge.

It was overcast, without any clear hatch, and pretty crowded that afternoon. Without much to go on I tied on a #16 Mr. Rapidan and almost immediately hooked into a small brook trout. I hooked into another one in the next pool, but he threw the hook right as I was bringing him ashore (I really need that net). Moving upstream I ran into another fisherman and a big group camping at the second bridge who had pretty well spooked everything in the area. Not being able to leave well enough alone I came back right before sunset and caught another fish in the same pool on the same set-up. It was great to be able to dash back and forth from our campsite, but I was pretty fortunate to find fish in this heavily pressured section.

The next morning we packed up our campsite and wandered to the less pressured section above the second bridge. We ran into a great pool just 20 yards above the bridge where I had gotten some good bites the night before. I settled in again with my trusty Mr. Rapidan with my wife on camera duty and enjoying the great spring weather with a good book. She didn't have long to wait before I had another great dry fly take. It was another small fish, but she took the best picture of any of my trips to make up for it. We landed the last of the day in the next pool up, but unfortunately in the process of releasing it my tippet broke and it took my best fly away. We didn't have any more luck on different dry-dropper rigs and packed it in early.

This was by far my best trip to the rapidan and even though the fish don't pull like the rainbows at beaver creek the scenery and camping make it one of my favorite places.

Beaver Creek - 3/31

After a long time away from Charlottesville I finally had the chance to get back out on

the water during my free weekend on surgery. My roommate, David, and I were determined to finally hook into a good sized trout after chasing brookies all last fall. We took to the road at 0500 with some high octane gas station coffee to make absolutely sure we got the much coveted Beaver Creek passes. We made it to the store just as it opened and were

at the water as the sun was coming up.

We crossed the bridge and took a right to the first calm, deep pool. We split our strategies initially with me trying a dry dropper rig and David working a small streamer. We weren't having much luck, but as the sun came up we started seeing more fish rising. David made the wise choice to switch to a #14 Adams and immediately hooked into one of the fat rainbows that beaver is known for. Right after releasing the first he caught another beauty on the next cast. I'd seen enough of David catching fish and quickly tied on the same pattern and after a few casts close to the cut bank I caught the biggest fish of the day. It was my third trip to beaver and my first time landing one of these beauties who seem to have a knack for throwing hooks.

After a successful morning we grabbed some sandwiches at the Ottobine Country store and quickly got back on the water. David and I roped in one more each, but the winds picked up in the afternoon and we were hooking more shrubs than fish. I switched to a wooly bugger and false-hooked one more good sized rainbow. He really didn't enjoy the hook in his side which made for a great fight on 6x tippet. We tried a few more spots before

the wind drove us out.

All in all it was an incredible day to start back into spring fishing. We didn't see anything hatching, but this was my first day of real dry fly fishing. Who cares if they're stocked fish if you can have this much fun for this cheap.

Thanksgiving Trout

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.