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.


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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.