Fishing Report: Rappahannock River (Kelly's Ford)

Checked up to the Rappahannock River on my way up to D.C. this weekend. When I got there, I got sick to my stomach when I pulled up to the Kelly's Ford parking lots. Both were absolutely packed. I almost just drove away. But after having my fishing license was looked at by the local game warden, I headed down to the river and found that there was some sort of party/hangout going on just adjacent to the bypass which explained why the parking lots were full.

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As I hiked upstream, the poplars started showing off the silver underbellies of their leaves and thunder started rolling in the distance. I had a solid hour on the river before the afternoon shower hit my location which allowed me to pull in several smallmouthand a few bluegill using bass poppers. Unsure of how long the rain was going to last, I chilled out along the side of the river underneath a poplar which fortunately had a trove of blackberries underneath it. Having forgotten to eat lunch, I was certainly grateful for the lucky find. It was quite beautiful, looking out at the river, as the rain came through. Finally, after about 30 minutes, the sun came back out. Fifteen minutes later the bass were already biting again on the surface. I found several bass hiding out amongst the rock garden that predominates the section upstream of the bypass.

Although the fishing was good, I wouldn't say it was the best. Had I continued to hike further upstream, I'm pretty sure the fishing would have gotten even better.

Still had some trouble getting the hang of throwing Clawdad's out there. I just can't seem to break out of my streamer/popper mentality when it comes to smallmouth. If someone has any advice as to where to throw crawfish patterns and what kind of action to give them, that'd be awesome.

Even though this spot was a solid hour away from Charlottesville, I'd definitely hit it up again in the future. Yet another great smallmouth river to be explored here in Virginia.

Tight Lines.

Information About Kreelex Flies

Rich knows that I talk a lot about Kreelex flies.  Personally, I love fishing any of the flies invented by one of our very own Charlottesville locals, Chuck Kraft.  

If you try to find any information about Chuck online, you'll only come up with a few articles about him getting in some legal trouble because of some selfish landowners were trying to use obsolete British crown grants to prevent people from fishing on "their land" without paying fees.  But you'll also come up with several articles attesting to the fish-catching abilities of his flies (such as this one about his C.K. nymph).  Obviously, the man knows how to tie a mean fly.

I have yet to get my hands on a C.K. nymph or a C.K. baitfish.  But I have definitely seen the ability of his Kreelex flies and Claw-dads to catch fish.  In my opinion, the Kreelex and the Claw-dad are great for catching monster trout and bass.  When all else fails, a Kreelex will catch 'em.  Locally, the stores sell out of Kreelexs extremely quickly.  So if you head to the Albemarle Angler or Mossy Creek and they're available, load up on 'em while you can.  Or you can go ahead and hit up his website and purchase them online.  

If however, you are into fly tying like myself, you may want to try and throw together a Kreelex on your own.  The Trow brothers were kind enough to put together a Youtube video with great instructions... (just be sure to use Kreinex flash and not your typical flashabou... the Kreinex seems to have much better strength and looks a lot more lively in the water.)

As for how to fish a Kreelex, you can practically use any kind of streamer retrieve with them.  Personally, I'll fish it downstream and across with either a slow retrieve or a fast jerky retrieve to mimic a minnow trying to evade a predator.  Just from this past weekend, I was having more luck with the 'bows at the Moorman with a slow retrieve until I was able to catch a fish's attention, at which point I started to speed up my retrieve to entice them to bite.  It really is amazing to watch a predatory trout just go nuts over an escaping streamer.