Beaver Creek 4/9/2011

With a much needed week off after our block 7 and an overload of recent studying, I used last weekend to visit Charlottesville, and catch up with Cameron for a few days on the river. He's already gloated about our incredible day on the Rapidan on Sunday, where spring brookie fishing is in full effect with hungry trout rising to an abundance of flies.

The previous day, however, Cameron was my guide to Beaver Creek. We woke up early to be sure we got the reservation for the day there, and were on the river at around 7:30am. For most of the day, the weather was gloomy and overcast, but we escaped any rain and were able to get in a suprisingly full day of fishing. We fished below the bridge during the morning hours without much luck. When we moved on to the meadow section above the bridge, we met a few visible trout in the first pool, but were unable to get them to look at anything we tossed their way. After several hours of frustration and changing fly patterns, I finally hooked into one in an open meadow pool on a Copper John. From there, our frustrations continued until after a late lunch where I returned to the same pool where I caught the first one. I put on a nymph rig that I had learned over the summer in Montana, which consisted of a caddis larva and a heavy beaded stonefly nymph dropper. With some more patience, I started getting into the action and landed several decent fish until finally hooking into the beast of the day, a healthy 20+inch Rainbow. He was quite the weight to pull in, but with Cam's assistance we finally got it to land. It has been quite awhile since I've caught anything that big, and my nerves were certainly going!

Needless to say, I must give Cameron full credit for putting me on the fish. Both of us continued to have better luck in the afternoon, each hooking into a few more fish before calling it a day. Overall, my first experience on Beaver Creek was very positive, and I have Cam to thank for introducing me to another good Virginia stream that I look forward to going back to and learning more about.

Beaver 'Bows 4/4/2011

I showed up at Peds Cardiology clinic today only to find that we did not have any patients. After being cut loose early, I decided to call the Ottobine Store and see if there were any passes left for Beaver Creek. It turns out I got the last one.

By the time I pulled up to the store it was almost 1600 and it looked like one of the fishermen from the morning was just putting his gear away. I paid for my pass and headed upstream to start fishing in the field across from the elementary school. Two factors made fishing difficult this afternoon. For one thing, the wind was blowing between 20-30 mph the whole time I was there. That made for some interesting line tricks to keep my fly on target. Secondly, I had never fished Beaver in the evening, and the shadows proved to be pretty wicked in the stretch I fished.

I only fished for about 2.5 hours and landed all three fish I hooked up with. It's nice to see that Beaver still holds the big fat 'bows I've come to expect there. The first fish I caught was by far the nicest and jumped four times. I was casting nymphs with my 5 wt with a small white bobbing indicator. I saw one nice fish roll on a dry fly, but that was the only top water action of the day. All in all it was an unexpectedly awesome day.

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: Beaver Creek/Skidmore Fork (11/24) , Upper Rapidan (11/25), and Moormans North Fork (11/29)

It's been far too long since we've added anything to the blog, so this is a make-up post. We were fortunate enough to have the whole week off for Thanksgiving and I was able to get on the water quite a bit. Here are some reports from the four rivers I fished.

Dad and I woke up before the crack of dawn last Tuesday and headed out to Beaver Creek in Ottobine. He had just come off a lack-luster trip to Colorado fraught with horrible weather and sluggish trout, so we were excited to get a chance at our favorite spring creek. We had perfect weather: cool and cloudy with no wind. I expected the creek to be a torrent after all the rain we've seen recently, but to my surprise the flow was full and strong but still clear. The 'bows were actually fairly picky that day. They only took pheasant tails and completely snubbed our serendipities, red fox squirrel nymphs, and silver/gold kreelexes. I ended up getting blanked, but Dad caught three nice rainbows. I'll chalk it up to my first experience fishing with nymphs.

After a half day at Beaver, we consulted the Trow brothers at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing for any quick afternoon action we could hit. Colby sent us to Skidmore Fork, which is located on Route 33 just before the West Virginia border. We caught a couple of nice looking Brookies there in the hour we spent there using pheasant tails. I think it could be a good place to investigate further, especially because Colby told us that Skidmore Fork holds water much more consistently than neighboring Dry River.

Since I don't get the opportunity to fish multiple days a week much anymore, I had to check the Rapidan with my friend Pat the next day. Rapidan was much more affected by the rains last week than Beaver Creek and we actually had a fairly tough time wading in certain spots. Fortunately the water was still very clear and we were able to see fish darting after our nymphs from time to time. The fish were all hunkered down trying to weather the heavy flow so it took plenty of split shot to get our nymphs deep enough. We had much better luck fishing the slower pockets just off the riffles. Pheasant tails did the trick again, and we ended up catching a half dozen brookies between the two of us.

Remember how I told you that I love fishing the Moormans? Well I do, but I just might think twice before I decide to head out there again on a Sunday at 1 o'clock. The joint was completely packed this Sunday from the TJTU section up to the North Fork above Sugar Hollow Reservoir. I got absolutely no action throwing pheasant tails, red squirrel nymphs, or dry flies. I think the high water and all of the hikers playing in the river threw off my mojo a bit. It's probably a better idea to stay away on weekends except for the early morning.

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".

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.