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: Rapidan River 3-21

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

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

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.