Beaver Creek 3/25/2010

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: Mossy Creek 9/9/09

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

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 the South River

Yesterday I got tired of reviewing respiratory systems so I decided to do what I always do, go flyfishing.

I headed up to the South River, which is conveniently located in the heart of Waynesboro, VA which is just on the other side of Afton Mountain from Charlottesville.  Overall, it's only about a 30 minute drive from C'ville, making it one of the closest places to put a line in.  (Check out our Google map for the location)

The snowy view from my car just off of 64 up on Afton Mountain

The South River has its ups and downs.  The positives: it's easy to get to, they've done a great job making the river perfect for holding trout (good holes, and rock cover on the bottom), and with the warm run off from the factory upstream, the river is fishable even in the winter.  The negatives: since it is so easily accessible, it tends to get a ton of fishing pressure and there is a significant population of chubs in the river as well.  

A great little hole that was designed to hold trout

A view of the river and the 250 bridge from the riverside park

So I'm standing in knee-deep water as a thin layer of fog settles over the river and I stumble upon a dozen or so fish taking subsurface insects.  I start getting excited and nervous due to the sheer quantity of action occurring right in front of me.  I start by throwing size 18 comparaduns.  No luck.  Then I get them to ride just below the surface of the water, still no luck.  There are bites happening all around my fly but nothing hits.  I change to a Griffith's Gnat.  Nothing.  I switch to a hare's ear nymph and I dead drift it hoping for a bite as I start to take the nymph out of the water (this tends to be a good time for bites as it mimics the actual ascent the pupae as they head towards adulthood.)  Still nothing.  Getting frustrated, I put on a large silver-gold kreelex and start pounding the area.  Within 2 minutes, bam, a hit and I'm excited.  But the excitation ended quickly when I realized what I pulled in was a large chub.  I then realized I had been throwing flies at a school of chubs for the past 45 minutes.  

Still, a fish is a fish no matter how ugly it is.  At least I didn't get blanked.  

I decide then that I should try out my luck in the stocked region of the river located at Ridgeview Park.  Apparently I was not the only person who had heard they stocked it just the day before.  Despite the cold and the wet snow/rain mix, there were about ten Powerbaiters and worm plunkers out there waiting for the fish to bite. 

A Side Note: Back when I first started flyfishing, if there were spincasters or baiters around, I would shy away and find more private water.  This was because not only do flyfishermen look pretty ridiculous with our waders, vests with pockets full of flies, and long rods with green line, but also because I was worried they would assume I thought I was far superior to them in the realm of fishing.  It's a lot harder to throw a line out when you think you're getting loathful glances from every which way.  But after I had quite the successful day out on Beaver Creek Reservior last spring fishing for crappie, I've gotten over my fear of fishing side by side with reel and worm bunch.  (That's a story in itself, which I'll have to write a post about soon)  Nowadays, I kind of enjoy the occasional loathful glance I get.  Especially when I catch more fish than they do...

As far as I could tell, no one had any luck pulling any fish from the South River for the time I was there.  Except me...  Granted it was another chub.  But it's one more fish than anyone else caught out there.  It's always a great feeling to pull in a fish on a flyrod in front of guys sitting on upside-down buckets which they were hoping to have full of trout already.  There's a quick story here, which I thought was quite entertaining:

So I'm the only person fishing the far side of the river but I'm still within earshot of the other side and I hear a young kid's conversation with his dad.  It went something like this ... (I wasn't paying too much attention so this is by no means accurate)

Young powerbaiter: "Hey dad, what's that guy doing over thar?  an' why's he moving his rod back and forth like that?"

Old powerbaiter: "He's flyfishin'.  He has to move it like that to get his bait in the water."

Y: "Why don't he just throw'n?"

O: "Because... it's flyfishin" (I'm assuming he wasn't too sure why either)

Y: "Well he looks stupid.  I wonder if he kin git a fish thataway."

I eventually hooked up on that huge chub with another trusty kreelex.  The powerbaiters all then start throwing at the submerged tree I had just pulled the fish in from.  (Kind of reminded me of the part of this classic cartoon This is Fly posted about a while back, time 3:15 especially)

Even though it was just another chub, at least I was able to show some young fisherman that it is possible to catch a fish on a flyrod.  He later asked, "Hey what kinda worm you got on there?"  The answer I then gave him either thoroughly confused him or caused him to immediately lose interest because as I started explaining what a kreelex was and why I fished with it he left me midsentence to go put another worm on his hook.  At least he has a pretty good first impression of flyfishermen.  I hope.

All in all, it was a good day of fishing despite the cold and the leaky waders (which I have officially retired seeing as how nothing, not even duct tape, could fix them).  I got some Simms Freestone Stockingfoots at Albemarle Angler for 35% off.  Hopefully these will last longer than the last ones did.  

The retired Hodgeman's with their ineffective duct tape repairs

Let's hope all this rain we're getting will help the water levels here in central Virginia.  Here's to hoping the fishing will be perfect in two weeks...

Tight lines.