Mossy Creek Finally Delivers

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

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

Beaver Creek Reservoir Trip

Yesterday, I went fishing with Cam and his friend Lena at the Beaver Creek Reservoir (Check out our google map for directions).  Not only did I get to explore a new fishing spot, I made a new friend in the law school (hopefully this will help with the inevitable malpractice suits), and I got to try out Cam's fancy Hobie Cat mirage drive kayak.  This boat is awesome.  It allows you to fish while driving the boat using foot pedals and a rudder whose controls are within easy reach.  I need to get one of these... and maybe a car with a roof rack for it too...

Beaver Creek Reservoir is a pretty popular spot near cville for picnics, boating and spin casting.  We decided to try out some fly fishing and actually met with greater success than the power-baiter we saw there (fly fishing WIN!).  White woolly buggers did the trick.  Woollies are a classic wet fly used for trout, bass, and panfish that imitate all sorts of sub-surface food.  They are best suited for lakes and deep streams, and they can be fished many different ways.  You can do simple fast/slow retrieves, short jerks, allow the fly to sink and then retrieve, or try fast retrieves followed by periods of rest.

As for numbers, you could call yesterday a slow day, but we definitely did not leave empty handed.  I caught a nice panfish down deep in the middle of the lake while Cam hooked one in the shallows near the shore by some great underwater structure.  Overall, the lake is beautiful and full of fish, so definitely check this place out.  You may want to try it during the week when you should find less company.

 

Cameron and I also had the pleasure of showing Lena how to fly fish at the lake.  She is an experienced spin caster, and she found her rhythm very quickly with the fly rod.  She even admitted to liking fly fishing more than spin casting (another fly fishing WIN!).  Hopefully we'll see more of Lena out on the water; look out fish...

Central Virginia Water Levels Rising

With the consistent rain/wet conditions over the past week, water levels have started to climb throughout Virginia. A majority of the streams and rivers that are monitored by the USGS are now reporting streamflow conditions within the 25th - 74th percentile. With the rain this evening and next weekend, hopefully conditions will improve even more for rivers such as the Rapidan, which is still experiencing daily discharges below the 20th percentile. But as you can see from this USGS graph, the rain has helped increase the discharge from around 200 cubic feet per second to over 300 (well short of the 78 year average of about 500).

Still, look forward to this weekend as water levels will be up and central Virginia will be experiencing some wonderful 60 degree sunny days. Expect some hatches to start occurring, especially in the afternoons.

Ian Rutter over at R and R Fly Fishing has been reporting quill gordon hatches up in the Smoky Mountains. Hopefully this weekend we'll be fortunate enough to get some good hatches of our own.

Tuesday afternoon I hit up the Moorman River for a quick hour and a half and caught three extremely healthy 'bows in the lowest pool on a size 18 parachute adams. Once I caught all three, the trout quit sipping flies off the water's surface so I headed home early.

Before I left, however, I found three lines with worms on hooks sitting in the middle pool. I obviously removed them from the water and cut away the atrocities. Help keep poaching to a minimum out there! If you see anything like these unattended lines or individuals out there with anything short of a flyrod, be sure to do something about it/say something. If these people want to fish, they can pay the 45 dollars it costs to fish the section or they can walk 500 feet to the Sugar Hollow Reservoir to throw in there for some trout, bluegill, and crappie. Honestly, I find it so sad that there are people who don't respect the regulations out there. If someone is so short on money that they can't afford to fish out there legally or needs the trout for food, how about some of the funds raised from the passes goes to paying one of these individuals to patrole the area for violators. They can then go buy some trout from the local kroger with their pay.

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.

The River Why

So I just finished reading The River Why and thought it was fantastic.  It's no wonder that it is considered the second greatest book about fly fishing after A River Runs Through It.  Rich and I have gotten into a debate about whether or not having a spouse who fishes is a good thing.  Personally, I think it would be a good thing.  Then they'd understand why you love heading off to the river every weekend (even though you'd have to occasionally have them tag along with you). 

But if the significant other is anything like the actress, Amber Heard, who plays the role of Eddy in the cinematic version of The River Why, then I think that only helps to support my opinion.  

That's right.  Another great flyfishing book is being turned into a movie.  It's already in the post-production stage, so hopefully it'll be out by this fall.  And with Gus being played by that kid from the tv show, "Friday Night Lights", and H2O being played by William Hurt, it sounds like the cast is pretty dead on what I'd expect the characters to be like.  

Let's just hope they don't butcher it and that these actors have been taught how to properly mend the line and roll cast. 

To check out photos from the movie and production information, check out the movie's website, http://www.theriverwhy.com/.

photos via the river why

First VAMFF Trip to Rapidan River in '09

Sunday, Rich, Kyle, and I hit up the Rapidan for our first day up in the Shenandoah National Park of the season.  Thanks to the three days of warm weather and the slightly increased water levels, the conditions were perfect.  Central Virginia has been going through quite a drought lately.  If you check out the USGS data from the area, you'll see that the mean daily discharge is for a river like the Rapidan is at least 600 cfs, but lately we've been seeing discharges of about 200 cfs.  Regardless, the warm weather led to several hatches occurring while we were out on the river.

From what I could tell, I tried to take pictures of the flies to post on here, it looked like we had some black caddis and blue wing olive flies hatching Sunday.  Here's some great footage of this fly in all of its forms (I apologize for the absolutely terrible narration):

For more information about the caddis, be sure to check out Rich's post, The (mighty) Caddis, from a little while ago.  As for the BWOs, I only saw a few so it was by no means a heavy hatch.  Still we seemed to all have more luck throwing out BWO patterns, quill gordons, and Mr. Rapidan parachute adams than we did with elk hair caddis flies.  

Rich fishing a slow moving pool

I won't start spouting off numbers here, but we caught plenty of fish to make the day perfect (it would have been a great day even without the fish as any day out on the river is better than a day in the library studying).  Here's a couple more shots taken with my iphone of the trip.  I really need to get a good camera for these trips...

Largest brookie of the day, pretty long but not too fat, obviously was hungry

Kyle's first brookie ever from the Rapidan (who cares if it's small, he got it literally on his second cast out.  Either that's some great beginner's luck or the guy's got skills)

Check out the beautiful spots on this guy!

Again, this was still a really early trip into the Park.  I expect the fishing to heat up even more by mid-April.  If any other VAMFF members want to hit it up in the near future, let Rich and I know, as we'll gladly take y'all up there again.  

Epic Week of Fishing

Instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on a trip to some exotic island or college spring break hot spot, Rich and I decided to spend our spring breaks fishing.  Tuesday we hit up the Moorman again only to find that a majority of the fly fishing section was iced over.  That, however, did not prevent us from having a great day out on the river.  We had a couple 'bows take to our size 20 comparaduns which was good to see.  The fish looked remarkably healthy as well; they were finally feeding on midges, and were no longer the fat and lazy farm raised fish we'd been throwing egg patterns at in the past couple weeks.  

We also got the opportunity to meet some of the guys involved in Project Healing Waters as they were hitting up the Moorman that day as well.  It looked like they too had a great day out on the river despite the ice.  

Wednesday, Rich and I set out on a tour of the northwestern part of Virginia.  We first met up with Harry Murray at his shop in Edinburg, VA.  He hooked us up with some fly tying supplies and crucial advice on float trips and fly fishing for smallies.  The man knows everything there is to know about Virginia fly fishing.  If you ever have any questions, ask him.  He'll know the answer.

Rich's tight casts below the overhanging tree were getting disrupted by an unexpected visitor...

We then met up with the Trow Brothers at their Mossy Creek store in Harrisonburg and purchased some kreinex for making kreelexs and just talked about how to best fish Mossy.  Great guys and also obviously know a lot about fly fishing.  It was really interesting to see the differences between the older generation of flyfisherman (Harry) and the newest generation (the Trows).  I wonder who would win in a fish-off between the two generations?

After that we hit up Mossy Creek with Richie's dad but we left empty handed.  I blame it on the dozens of muskrats, otters, and other wildlife that were active on the water that day.  It couldn't have been our fishing technique...

Thursday I then departed for southwest Virginia...Radford to be exact.  Friday, I spent the day out on Big Stony Creek and Little Stony Creek but with the torrential downpour and the cold weather, the trout were not too excited to chase the nymphs I was throwing past their heads.  Despite the lack of fish, it was great to finally check out these two rivers.  Hopefully when it warms up and the hatches start in April, I'll get a chance to return to them.  (And hopefully I'll have waders that actually prevent water from leaking into them)

I then set out with a fishing expert buddy of mine, Andrew; his wonderful dog, Taylor; and his three friends, Drew, Mike, and Danny, on a two day float trip down the New River.  It rained/snowed the whole time.  But thankfully, that meant it was perfect weather for muskies.  Overall, after all of the dip, whiskey, fish, wildlife, rapids, and campfire smoke, it was quite possibly the best all-american day i've ever had.  To top it all off, I caught my first muskie (not on a flyrod thank god).  

Me and my first muskie

When it was all said and done, it was quite the eventful week of fishing.  Good memories, good experiences, and a great chance to relax before the second half of the semester starts up.  

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely looking forward to the warmer weather and the caddis hatches in the Park.

Tight lines.