Fishing Report: South Fork of the Rivanna

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.