Mossy Creek 3/13/2011

After seeing that we were looking an almost 70 degree day on Sunday, Kyle and I knew we had to stretch some line. I did the same post-call maneuver of scrambling to grab my gear after finishing rounds. We debated whether the park or the valley would have better water levels after the torrents we experienced the week before. After much hemming and hawing we decided to try Mossy.

I've had mostly a hate/hate relationship with Mossy over the years. It's a beautiful spot, but the challenges posed by wary trout, the prohibition of wading, and the foliage in the river have led to more than one skunked day for me. The saving grace was that I would be fishing with Kyle. He somehow knows exactly where to find the prehistoric browns for which Mossy is so famous.

As it turned out, the water levels were spectacular. The stream was slightly stained and the moss patties covered generously by water. This was a boon considering the bluebird sky we had and it kept us from hanging up too much fishing kreelex (copper/gold of course). We started fishing by the spillway downstream from the church. Kyle landed one on the second cast right under the car bridge. This piqued our interest for sure, but we were unable to turn any other heads in the channels along the spillway.

Things really picked up between 4:00 and 6:30. The browns turned on so much that any kreelex swung over the moss and into the channels made greedy fish give long, sustained chase. Many fish just nipped at our flies, but we were able to land 9 between the three of us. We even saw pairs of browns tailing along the undercuts and running upstream spawning. This is the most activity I've ever personally seen on the creek save last September when dad and I ran into a large group of browns steadily sipping bugs off the top. I'd say it was a very solid day for Mossy. My opinion might be veering more toward love than hate at this point.

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: Moormans River TJTU 1/15/10

Kyle and I fished the TJTU section of Moormans River today. I did a recon yesterday to check out the ice situation and it didn't look good. Most of the big pools were covered by a thin sheet of ice and the fish were holding down deep and not interested much in the few streamers and nymphs I dragged past them. Fortunately, Kyle convinced me to go out again today.

We fished from about 2-5 PM and rode the wave of the 50 + degree weather. It was gorgeous. The river actually thawed a great deal this morning and we basically had the place to ourselves. We started off throwing streamers but ended up switching to pheasant tails. We caught three 'bows on pheasant tails fished upstream in about an hour. Things slowed down a bit as the sun set so we tried our luck again with silver/gold and copper/gold kreelex. Sure enough, we landed two more on streamers. I expect tomorrow (Saturday) to be good as well since temperatures should remain in the 50s.

I forgot to post this before, but here is a slideshow with the "best catch of 2009". Hopefully we'll do even better this year! Oh and Cameron, maybe if you make it out of the library you'll catch more than fish than me this year...

Fishing Report: Rivanna at Darden Towe & Riverview Park

I hope you all have been out fishing like Cameron and I have. It is beautiful out, there is plenty of water, and the fish are biting... in some places more than others. I went out on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours to Riverview Park in Charlottesville to wade the Rivanna. I actually got a good amount of action for the apparent lack of structure on the bottom of the river. Conventional wisdom is still correct with undercuts in the bank and any fallen trees being the best places to present your fly. I ended up pulling in some largemouth, bluegill and smallies that day. Harry Murray's Carolina Blue Poppers worked great, and silver/gold kreelex also did the trick. Unfortunately, I haven't bought a waterproof bag for my camera yet, so no pictures of smallmouth fishing for now.


View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Darden Towe Park, upstream about a mile or two from Riverview Park on the opposite bank, proved disappointing. Cam and I headed up there yesterday afternoon and were excited to find lots of underwater grass and rocks, which we surmised would hold lots of smallies. This was not the case. I caught a couple of bluegill on the CK Paradox spoon fly I just picked up from Albemarle Angler, but overall the fish that I saw were much smaller than downstream.


View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

I think the next stop on the Rivanna for me is Free Bridge. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes. Tight lines, y'all.

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".

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.

Kreelex Flies a.k.a. "trout crack"

Last Wednesday, Cameron and I took our neuroscience final, the last rite of passage in our first year of med school.  There were some late nights of studying and more than a few stressful times during first year, but I think we managed to keep our priorities straight.  That being said, it should be obvious how we decided to celebrate the end of our first year.  As soon as our exams were turned in, we hit the ground running and drove out to the Moormans River.  

Flow data for Moormans River courtesy of USGS

We have seen lots of rain recently, and the central Virginia rivers are up with fast, murky water.  Many rivers are between their 25-75 percentiles in water flow with some in the valley up above the 75 percent mark.  With so much water and little bug activity on the surface we chose the old standby, the copper and gold kreelex.  Between the two of us we easily caught between 10 and 15 rainbows out of the Moormans.  I attribute this bounty to the recent stocking by the folks at TU and to our dedication to what Cameron now calls "trout crack."  Yes, trout crack.  Seriously, can you think of a more fitting a name than that for a streamer that the fish literally seem addicted to?  Surprisingly, it almost seems not to matter where we throw a kreelex in the Moormans.  Throwing it in fast water, slow water, edge of the bank, or right down the main channel is likely to draw some serious attention out there.  Here's the proof:

Of all the fish we caught that day, I have to gloat and say the most exciting one was that last big rainbow I'm holding.  Cameron and I actually both had fish on at the same time and I had to convince him that "no really man, this IS a big one," to let his fish loose and come over to take some photos of this guy.  It took a good four minutes to land that fish after some tail dancing on the surface and fighting a pretty strong current.  I'd say a sore arm was definitely worth the effort.  Of course, catching a big fish and not letting your friend hear the end of it (even if it is good natured) is sure to come back to bite you, and that's exactly what happened the next day on Beaver Creek.

Beaver Creek is located in the Shenandoah Valley and runs through the town of Ottobine, about a 15 minute drive from Bridgewater, Virginia.  I got turned on to Beaver Creek by my dad who has been fishing there on a recommendation from the Trow brothers at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing.  Those guys let us in on a great thing.  Beaver Creek is stocked with big, beautiful rainbow trout and thanks to a limit of four rods per day, the creek doesn't get too much pressure from anglers.  My father is an avid fly fisherman too, and after hearing about the great day we had on the Moormans, he was eager to show us around Beaver Creek.

Beaver is unique in that it offers a lowland spring creek with a stone and silt bottom running through both pasture and woods.  It is also wadeable, making it easier to navigate than Mossy Creek and it doesn't have all of the underwater vegetation that Mossy harbors.  You can expect to hang up much less on the bottom at Beaver thanks to this.  Another awesome feature of Beaver Creek is the nearby Ottobine Country Store complete with a sandwich grille.

Upon arriving at the Ottobine Country Store, we paid for our three passes and met up with the fourth angler for the day, a former minister from Illinois.  This gentleman was on a fishing expedition across the U.S. and had been staying in a cabin near Afton Mountain while he sampled the waters here in Virginia.  He and my dad took a section across from the Ottobine elementary school and fished nymphs for the morning. To cover more water, Cameron and I started in a wooded section downstream and started with nymphs, but quickly switched to "trout crack."  Better stated, Cameron switched to silver and gold kreelex and caught a pretty rainbow in a hole I had just been fishing with a nymph.  Don't worry, I caught my fair share of fish too, it's just that they were slimy chubs.  I think Karma came back to bite and I ended up leaving the pretty fish to Cameron and my dad that day.  

Those two days on the water were an awesome start to my spring break.  Fortunately, I still have a whole week of fishing ahead of me.  

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.)

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.

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. 

Moormans Fly Fishing

Since Cam decided to take a little time away from studying (we have mid-terms approaching) I guess I can take a break to introduce myself.  My name is Richie, and I'm a pisces... just kidding.  I started going on fishing trips with my dad when I was five years old.  At first I probably played with rocks in the river, but eventually I graduated to slowly learning the intricacies of fly fishing the mountain streams of the Shenendoah National Park.  After that baptism by fire, I have been able to hold my own with the brookies and smallmouth in Virginia, the redfish in the coastal brackish waters of Louisiana, and the big water and big sky browns of Montana.  My fairly long fishing career has been off-and-on, however, so I still have plenty to learn and I am not too proud to ask Cameron (or anyone for that matter) for a hand.  Through this blog and the VMFF, I hope that we can provide a resource to compare notes, answer questions, and learn more ourselves about the art of fly fishing.

On that note, I'll share a little bit of my experience with the waters near Charlottesville.  Yesterday, Cameron and I fished the Moorman River, an easily accessible nearby trout stream.  It is only about a 25 minute drive from Charlottesville to the reservoir at Sugar Hollow and the "headwaters" of the Moorman, if you can call a concrete dam headwaters.  The Moorman is stocked throughout the year with rainbow trout, and you need a pass (available at Albemarle Angler) to fish there.  So far, the experience has been fairly positive.  

At the moment there are hundreds of fish mostly concentrated in the deeper pools.  They seem a little sluggish and maybe even disoriented right now, probably because they were just stocked last week.  We were most successful with egg patterns (yes, we did stoop that low) and copper/gold kreelex.  Correction, Cameron had luck with eggs and kreelex, I only caught one fish (you can see it above) on a kreelex.  

These rainbows learn pretty quickly what is food and what is not.  Eggs caught fish initially, but the fish soon ceased to even look as our eggs drifted down right in front of their noses.  Once we switched to kreelex we caught a few more fish and generated a lot more strikes.  We had the best luck on slow retrievals with small jerks on the line to give the fly some life.  The only real downside to fishing the Moorman is that you will find plenty of other fishers there on weekends, so try to make it out mid week if possible.  Oh yeah, and the $45 fee for the pass to fish there hurts the wallet of a med student on loans, but hey, if you live in Cville it makes sense to have access to such a close, fun fishery.