Fishing Report: Muddy Run 4/27/2010

The boards have finally come and gone for the majority of us.  Thanks to my procrastination, I was left with only limited time to hit up our friendly Virginia waters.  Right after I finished taking the boards in Lynchburg, I hurried up to the Hidden Valley campground located on the Jackson River.  Last time I was there, it was with a bunch of the guys and unfortunately our first impression of the spot wasn't too spectacular.  In case you didn't know, I'm not a huge fan of chubs or of stocked waters, which was pretty much all that we found when we were at the Jackson's special regulations area last fall.  So I was a little pessimistic.  Upon arriving, I still had about an hour before sunset so I quickly went out to the river to see what the conditions were like.

My first impressions of the Jackson in the spring is that it's got some great insect life.  Stepping out into the section of water near the parking area, I was surrounded with a huge hatch of mayflies.  I have no idea what type they were, but they were definitely large.  Knowing that I only had a few short minutes before I'd have to get back to setting up camp, I quickly put on a size 12 parachute adams and went to work throwing to the great runs along both banks.  I saw a few rising fish and heard even more behind me which, by the time I turned around, had already assumed their hidden positions under the sun-glared surface.

Eventually my fly disappeared and the line went taught.  Quickly, however, my enthusiasm waned as I didn't feel the fight of a huge fish and did not witness any aerial jumps that one usually associates with a healthy rainbow trout.  Reeling in I found my disappointment was appropriate at the sight of a huge chub.  This guy has obviously been feeding well.  A few more casts later and BAM, another bite with yet another lackluster fight.  Chub number two.  It was pretty disappointing to be surrounded with such a beautiful landscape and a perfect evening mayfly hatch but head back to camp troutless.

Exhaustion took over quickly and my 5:30 a.m. wake-up routine resulted in me being the first fisherman the next morning to be on the long hike up to the special regulations area of the Jackson.  At the first bridge crossing, I became disoriented and continued straight instead of heading to the special regulation area.  This, however, was a supremely awesome mistake.  This unknowingly led me to the much smaller but much more amazing, Muddy Run.  I quickly found myself on a path that was very overgrown next to a beautiful stream that reminded me of the uppermost parts of the Rapidan yet with even better pools and runs.

I realized my mistake after about a half a mile more of hiking and was about to turn around.  But, I thought I should just make a few casts, just in case.  Having had such poor luck with the chubs the day before, I wasn't expecting anything too great.  Boy was I wrong.  First cast and WHOMP, next thing I knew I was holding a beautiful, healthy 'bow.  A couple casts into the same little pool later, a brookie with great colors and decent size.  For the next 5 or 6 hours pretty much consisted of the same experience; pulling from the same pools, wild brookies and rainbows that had acclimated to their environment, acting like wild fish by the time they saw my parachute adams or snowshoe humpy float by.  I lost count quickly.  I'd keep trying to describe it all but I think you get the point.  It was perfect.

Before I headed back to camp, I made a quick dash over to the special regulations area (after stopping to talk with the game wardens who were there checking licenses, I love it when I see them doing their job well) to see how the fishing was there.  I was unimpressed.  I saw a bunch of spincasters sitting right below the beginning of the area and there was someone throwing out line practically every 100 yards.  I found myself a quick spot on the river and fished for a few minutes and did have a few follows but I was unsure if they were trout or chubs.  Frankly, it paled in comparison so much to the rest of my day that I quickly stopped chasing these stocked fish and headed back to camp.

So my final opinion of the area:
Muddy Run - Rapidan brookies but + rainbows = 9/10
Jackson River - Stupid stocked rainbows and overcrowded waters = 2/10

If you're going to fish the Jackson, I'd recommend just sticking to below the dam, especially if you have a drift boat/canoe.

*Apologies if there are spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes.  I've decided that I'll be less worried about all of that stuff because I'm lazy and in case you didn't know... I don't speak english good.

Fishing Report: Rapidan Upper Section

After two weeks of exams and a quick three day roadtrip, I finally got to make it out on the water.  As we've been complaining about lately, the water levels have been low all across central Virginia.  Therefore, I wasn't expecting to make a trip out at all yesterday until I got on my computer and saw this:

Because of that wonderful spike in discharge levels, I knew there'd be a good chance I could see some flowing streams with hungry trout.  So I quickly brewed some more coffee, got on the road again, and headed up to the Rapidan.

I got there late in the afternoon but with enough light to get a solid two hours of fishing in.  Fortunately, it looked like the other fishermen were calling it quits so I had the river to myself.

Initially I fished like I always do, hitting up every nook and cranny of the Rapidan but soon found out that despite the brief change in water levels the trout, for the most part, remained in the larger pools.  So I fished quickly, hitting up all parts of the larger pools.  I fished parachute adams and snowshoe rabbit caddis size 16 but had the most success with adams.

Overall, I caught plenty of beautiful brookies all of which were pretty decently sized.  The newly flowing water caused somewhat of a feeding frenzy in which the larger trout didn't seem too concerned about going after a missed fly on the fourth or fifth attempt.  Unfortunately, however, I spooked two large brookies that were hiding at the tail end of deep pools.  Seriously, these guys were huge.  I'm talking like 12 inches.  I waited around to see if one of them would become "unspooked" but unfortunately it became clear he was way too smart for me.  So if you head out, look to the tail end of the pools for the big guys.

Looks like we'll be getting a little bit more rain Tuesday and Wednesday so hopefully fishing with be good this weekend as well!  Keep checking the USGS Water Levels.

Fishing Report: Jackson River

Last weekend, a bunch of us took a trip up to the Jackson and stayed the night there just above the Hidden Valley campground. For some reason, our trip there took a little longer than we expected so we weren't able to hit up the water before it got dark. As we set up camp next to the water, we were able to check out the water and saw some fish rising so we expected there to be some good fishing the next morning.

Unfortunately, after a very early morning breakfast, we soon found out that the rising fish were just a bunch of chubs. There is nothing more unsatisfying than being in a perfect location with water that should hold some great native trout, only to discover that the chubs have taken over.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

Since we had no intentions of fishing for chubs all day, we set off to the Hidden Valley "artificials only" section in hopes of finding some trout. After a beautiful 1.2 mile hike in to the section and an hour of fishing. We only pulled in more chubs. The section of the water was beautiful, however, I and suspect that during the spring months, the fishing is much better. We did, unfortunately, see several empty worm cans lying along the shoreline. Evidence that people either can't read signs or clearly have no respect for the law. Either way, seeing trash like that in such a beautiful area really spoils the moment.

After an awkward run in with a family that was skinny dipping in the shallow waters beneath the swing bridge, we headed back to the cars for one more trip father south to the tailwater section below the Gathright Dam.

View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

I wish we had fished this section the whole day. Wading into the water just below the dam, the water was noticeably colder and much more suited for trout. Within 10 minutes, I started to spot trout sipping flies off the surface so Scottie and I pulled out some size 16 parachute adams and immediately started having luck. The rainbow trout were in the 6-12 inch range and were extremely healthy. Having already worn ourselves out fishing for chubs the whole morning, we didn't stay long. But at least we now know where to fish on the Jackson.

Final line: The upper sections of the Jackson could be awesome in the springtime, but the summer months really cause the water temperatures to rise too much. The lower section beneath Gathright Dam, however, appears to be able to hold trout throughout the year. When you are there though, be cognizant of the fact that landowners in the area are very serious when they say no trespassing on their land.

Fishing Report: Hughes River & Sharp Rock Vineyards

Today, Cameron and I went to one of my favorite mountain streams, the Hughes River.  My dad started taking me there to fly fish when I was probably about five or six years old.  As John Gierach would say, it's "my St. Vrain".  It's not the most glamorous river, nor does it have the best brook trout fishing around, but it's home.

We grounded our gear at 12:30 today, and I have to admit that I was a little worried about a midday slump and hot weather.  Neither happened.  It was one of those charmed days with good cloud cover, a slight breeze, and steady balmy temps.  We were fortunate to land quite a few brookies today.  None would make your eyes pop out of your head, but they were some very pretty fish.  Parachute adams and blue winged olives were hot today, but humpies or elk hair caddis would have probably done well too. 

After fishing the Hughes, make sure you stop by Sharp Rock Vineyards.  Sharp Rock is just outside Nethers, Va where you park for Old Rag Mountain and the Hughes.  They have great wine, an awesome B&B, and they are super friendly.  There is also the added bonus of some very friendly dogs on the farm to play with.  I've been going to festivals and tastings at the vineyard since college and it's always a great time.  In fact, there is a festival complete with BBQ and music coming up on July 11th.  It's sure to be a winner.

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: Rapidan River

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Rich and I have been decompressing from finals and starting our summer research projects.

This report is two weeks old, but should still be pertinent. On my way up to D.C. on Friday, June 12th, I made a quick stop off at my favorite stream, the Rapidan. Water levels were a little high but flowing well and the fish mainly stayed deep but still came up to take dry flies if they looked tasty enough.

As seen in the USGS discharge data, the levels are high for this time of year but remember that we usually start to see some decreases this time of year. Fortunately, due to all of the rain we've had, the levels have remained at ideal levels for the upper sections of park streams.

I caught most of my brookies on parachute adams and my snowshoe humpy in sizes 12 and 14.

I also caught one on a golden retriever (a version of the classic woolly bugger that I've had a lot of success with for everything from crappie to trout) in the tan color on a size 10. I was hoping to pull in a brookie larger than 10 inches but no luck this time.

All in all, it was a great trip. The Rapidan never fails to deliver.

Rapidan Camp

Last week I decided to spend two days out on the Rapidan in the upper portions just past the Rapidan Camp. The Rapidan Camp was where the senior members of Hoover's staff stayed while Hoover and his family resided in the main cabin during summer trips. Today, the Rapidan Camp is a cooperative campground while Hoover's main cabin is a tourist attraction in the park.

Back in the day, I was researching the history of Rapidan Camp and came across some awesome footage of President Hoover fishing the Rapidan. He allowed a bunch of reporters to come and videotape him. Impressingly, he was still able to catch fish. Of course, I wouldn't say his one-handed technique is the best i've ever seen.

Pretty amazing footage. This video comes courtesy of C-SPAN's Presidential Libraries. To check out more videos of him fishing and hanging out around Camp Rapidan, check out the C-SPAN site.

Now on to the fishing report. Temperatures were high. During the afternoon, the air temperatures soared to around 95 degrees. This really pushed the brookies deep. But once the heat broke in the late afternoon, fishing really picked up. Each hole started producing 4-5 brookies of average size with a couple 10 inchers feeding in the back eddys. By the end of the first day, I'd probably pulled in over 30 fish.

The next morning, due to poor sleeping conditions (it was too hot for a sleeping bag) I woke up and started fishing around 6 a.m. I now intend on getting out to the river that early on my future trips as the fishing was on fire. The upper portions of the river above Rapidan Camp held many more fish than the lower sections in my opinion. The fish were all about 7-9 inches but I didn't see any of the lunkers (a relative term) like the ones you can find in the lower sections. They were all actively feeding on top and quickly took to my improved parachute adams (I started using a two-toned parapost on my parachute adams to help make then even more visible).

The particular highlight of the morning was one pool where I remained sitting on a boulder at the back end of the pool and from there I pulled in 5 9" brookies quickly from each of the feeding lanes that were present.

Great trip overall. I highly recommend you camp in the upper regions in order to get an early start on the fishing.

Of course, for now, the Rapidan is highly unfishable. All of this rain we've been getting (and will continue to get the rest of this week) have pushed the water levels dangerously high for fishing. Check out this USGS map of Virginia:

As you can see (the purple, blue, and light blue represent high, 90th percentile, and over 75th percentile respectively) the water levels in much of the state are extremely high. The Rapidan is running around 350 CFS, which is way over the 80th percentile.

So it's time to hold off on the fishing for a while. Perhaps studying pathology and pharmacology would be more worthwhile.

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.

First VAMFF Trip to Rapidan River in '09

Sunday, Rich, Kyle, and I hit up the Rapidan for our first day up in the Shenandoah National Park of the season.  Thanks to the three days of warm weather and the slightly increased water levels, the conditions were perfect.  Central Virginia has been going through quite a drought lately.  If you check out the USGS data from the area, you'll see that the mean daily discharge is for a river like the Rapidan is at least 600 cfs, but lately we've been seeing discharges of about 200 cfs.  Regardless, the warm weather led to several hatches occurring while we were out on the river.

From what I could tell, I tried to take pictures of the flies to post on here, it looked like we had some black caddis and blue wing olive flies hatching Sunday.  Here's some great footage of this fly in all of its forms (I apologize for the absolutely terrible narration):

For more information about the caddis, be sure to check out Rich's post, The (mighty) Caddis, from a little while ago.  As for the BWOs, I only saw a few so it was by no means a heavy hatch.  Still we seemed to all have more luck throwing out BWO patterns, quill gordons, and Mr. Rapidan parachute adams than we did with elk hair caddis flies.  

Rich fishing a slow moving pool

I won't start spouting off numbers here, but we caught plenty of fish to make the day perfect (it would have been a great day even without the fish as any day out on the river is better than a day in the library studying).  Here's a couple more shots taken with my iphone of the trip.  I really need to get a good camera for these trips...

Largest brookie of the day, pretty long but not too fat, obviously was hungry

Kyle's first brookie ever from the Rapidan (who cares if it's small, he got it literally on his second cast out.  Either that's some great beginner's luck or the guy's got skills)

Check out the beautiful spots on this guy!

Again, this was still a really early trip into the Park.  I expect the fishing to heat up even more by mid-April.  If any other VAMFF members want to hit it up in the near future, let Rich and I know, as we'll gladly take y'all up there again.