Central Virginia Water Levels Rising

With the consistent rain/wet conditions over the past week, water levels have started to climb throughout Virginia. A majority of the streams and rivers that are monitored by the USGS are now reporting streamflow conditions within the 25th - 74th percentile. With the rain this evening and next weekend, hopefully conditions will improve even more for rivers such as the Rapidan, which is still experiencing daily discharges below the 20th percentile. But as you can see from this USGS graph, the rain has helped increase the discharge from around 200 cubic feet per second to over 300 (well short of the 78 year average of about 500).

Still, look forward to this weekend as water levels will be up and central Virginia will be experiencing some wonderful 60 degree sunny days. Expect some hatches to start occurring, especially in the afternoons.

Ian Rutter over at R and R Fly Fishing has been reporting quill gordon hatches up in the Smoky Mountains. Hopefully this weekend we'll be fortunate enough to get some good hatches of our own.

Tuesday afternoon I hit up the Moorman River for a quick hour and a half and caught three extremely healthy 'bows in the lowest pool on a size 18 parachute adams. Once I caught all three, the trout quit sipping flies off the water's surface so I headed home early.

Before I left, however, I found three lines with worms on hooks sitting in the middle pool. I obviously removed them from the water and cut away the atrocities. Help keep poaching to a minimum out there! If you see anything like these unattended lines or individuals out there with anything short of a flyrod, be sure to do something about it/say something. If these people want to fish, they can pay the 45 dollars it costs to fish the section or they can walk 500 feet to the Sugar Hollow Reservoir to throw in there for some trout, bluegill, and crappie. Honestly, I find it so sad that there are people who don't respect the regulations out there. If someone is so short on money that they can't afford to fish out there legally or needs the trout for food, how about some of the funds raised from the passes goes to paying one of these individuals to patrole the area for violators. They can then go buy some trout from the local kroger with their pay.

Epic Week of Fishing

Instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on a trip to some exotic island or college spring break hot spot, Rich and I decided to spend our spring breaks fishing.  Tuesday we hit up the Moorman again only to find that a majority of the fly fishing section was iced over.  That, however, did not prevent us from having a great day out on the river.  We had a couple 'bows take to our size 20 comparaduns which was good to see.  The fish looked remarkably healthy as well; they were finally feeding on midges, and were no longer the fat and lazy farm raised fish we'd been throwing egg patterns at in the past couple weeks.  

We also got the opportunity to meet some of the guys involved in Project Healing Waters as they were hitting up the Moorman that day as well.  It looked like they too had a great day out on the river despite the ice.  

Wednesday, Rich and I set out on a tour of the northwestern part of Virginia.  We first met up with Harry Murray at his shop in Edinburg, VA.  He hooked us up with some fly tying supplies and crucial advice on float trips and fly fishing for smallies.  The man knows everything there is to know about Virginia fly fishing.  If you ever have any questions, ask him.  He'll know the answer.

Rich's tight casts below the overhanging tree were getting disrupted by an unexpected visitor...

We then met up with the Trow Brothers at their Mossy Creek store in Harrisonburg and purchased some kreinex for making kreelexs and just talked about how to best fish Mossy.  Great guys and also obviously know a lot about fly fishing.  It was really interesting to see the differences between the older generation of flyfisherman (Harry) and the newest generation (the Trows).  I wonder who would win in a fish-off between the two generations?

After that we hit up Mossy Creek with Richie's dad but we left empty handed.  I blame it on the dozens of muskrats, otters, and other wildlife that were active on the water that day.  It couldn't have been our fishing technique...

Thursday I then departed for southwest Virginia...Radford to be exact.  Friday, I spent the day out on Big Stony Creek and Little Stony Creek but with the torrential downpour and the cold weather, the trout were not too excited to chase the nymphs I was throwing past their heads.  Despite the lack of fish, it was great to finally check out these two rivers.  Hopefully when it warms up and the hatches start in April, I'll get a chance to return to them.  (And hopefully I'll have waders that actually prevent water from leaking into them)

I then set out with a fishing expert buddy of mine, Andrew; his wonderful dog, Taylor; and his three friends, Drew, Mike, and Danny, on a two day float trip down the New River.  It rained/snowed the whole time.  But thankfully, that meant it was perfect weather for muskies.  Overall, after all of the dip, whiskey, fish, wildlife, rapids, and campfire smoke, it was quite possibly the best all-american day i've ever had.  To top it all off, I caught my first muskie (not on a flyrod thank god).  

Me and my first muskie

When it was all said and done, it was quite the eventful week of fishing.  Good memories, good experiences, and a great chance to relax before the second half of the semester starts up.  

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely looking forward to the warmer weather and the caddis hatches in the Park.

Tight lines.