Thanksgiving Trout

This Thanksgiving I was fortunate enough to have an entire week without hospital responsibilities and great weather to boot. No better time to go fishing.

First I drove west from Charlottesville and met up with Pat & Taylor to fish the Jackson River about 15 miles north of The Homestead Resort. Taylor's dad had added around sixty big rainbows to their stretch of the river a few weeks before, so we spent the whole day catching them on various bugs. Though certainly not the purest form of fishing, it was still provided good practice in fighting and landing big fish. We were also surprised to catch some big 12" fall fish as well.

After settling back in to Georgia for a few days, Steven Pruitt and I finally made a day trip happen after many missed promises. Steven and I went to high school together and were roommates at the University of Georgia. While I worked briefly as a maid at Yellowstone National Park during the summer before medical school, Steven worked as a fly fishing guide at Turpin Meadow Ranch in Moran, Wyoming, which is just north of Jackson. In retrospect Steven probably had the better gig. Anyway, last Wednesday we fished the Toccoa River in the town of Blue Ridge, Georgia with our dads. The weather was not nearly as warm as we were anticipating, and on the way up there was some doubt about the point of even going. But we finally made it and started fishing not long after daybreak below the Blue Ridge Dam. We had the section of river to ourselves for the whole morning, which indicates how cool the weather was considering that the parking lot is often full of vehicles. Steven was fishing about 100 yards below me when I looked up to see him fighting a fish. He yelled upriver for me to come that way so I casually walked over to the river's edge. He again yelled and I then realized that he must have a big fish on and needs help landing it. Sure enough it was a big healthy rainbow that took a size 16 prince nymph from beneath a submerged log. It was a great fish and definitely worth fishing in the cold all morning. And to think that we had questioned making the trip.

After stopping by the local fly shop and filling up with some hot barbeque, we headed upstream to fish the Toccoa River above the dam. The water was relatively high but still very clear and the sun was finally pushing the temperature into the tolerable range. We fished various patterns for several hours with no hookups and finally called it quits in the early afternoon. Another fisherman pulled up just as were breaking down our rods. After correcting our strategy for this section of the river (he strongly favored fishing woolybuggers through the deep holes) he showed us the Oyster bamboo fly rod that he crafted as part of a rod-building class in Blue Ridge. The classes take you through every step of the rod-making process over the course of two weekends or one full week, and in the end you have built your own bamboo rod.

On Thanksgiving day my parents and I went back to fish the Toccoa above the dam, but this time we went several miles father upriver to fish a stretch near the Benton MacKaye Trail, which is named after the Harvard educated conservationist who originated the idea for the Appalachian Trail. Like the AT, the BMT begins at Springer Mountain and works its way north through gentle mountains of Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. It crosses over the Toccoa River via a 265 foot swinging bridge, the longest of its kind east of the Mississippi River. The area is beautiful, but the water produced only one 10" rainbow that took a caddis pattern. There are almost certainly more fish to be caught here, and it's worth the drive just to see the bridge.

I was driving back to Charlottesville on Friday afternoon, which ended up being the mildest day of the entire week. The sun was out and it looked like a perfect day to be on a body of water. Unfortunately I was stuck in my truck, driving up I-81 knowing that Mossy Creek must be covered up with bugs right now. Serial calculations on my phone showed that I could be in the parking lot by 4:00 PM, which would only give me one hour of fishable daylight at best. What the hell, I thought. It's better to fish for one hour and watch the sun set on a farm than to have it go down behind me while driving east on I-64. So I drove the extra 20 miles and watched the sun set and missed several fish rising to a BWO. Well worth it. The weather on Sunday was nice as well, and I couldn't resist going back to Mossy to make a more thorough attempt to catch fish. There were two guys in the parking lot getting ready to leave, and one of them introduced himself as James Garrison. In addition to religiously fishing Mossy and nearby streams, he also contributes to the blog Fly Curious. I caught a few small browns on BWOs but couldn't convince any larger fish to rise.

All in all it was a week of good weather and even better fishing.

Fishing Report: South Holston - Marion, VA

After spending some quality time with the family down in Charlotte, I stopped off on the way back to Charlottesville in Marion, VA to fish on what sounded like an awesome stretch of the South Holston.  From what I read about it, it is a pretty short 1/2 mile section of water that runs alongside one of the hatcheries in Marion.  Being catch & release only and with VDGIF employees constantly around, it sounded like the perfect place to catch some big fish unharmed by the put & take folk.

When I pulled up, I ran into a guy, I'm sad to say I forgot his name, who had worked there for over 20 years.  He told me that originally, the section of water was stocked by the employees for their own benefit and wouldn't let others to fish there.  It wasn't until two fishermen refused to leave the water and the law got involved that they had to open the section to the public.  Fortunately, they were able to keep it catch and release.

My first impression of the section was that it had great rock structure, good flow, and certainly plenty of fish.  Only tough part is getting access to the lower half.  If you want to fish it, you pretty much have to go to the lower entry and wade up the whole section as the banks are high and overgrown.


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Fishing was good.  It wasn't great, but that was probably because I was dying in the 90-something degree heat.  Only caught rainbows but did see a larger brown in a pool near a bridge who wouldn't give any of my nymphs the light of day.  As for what I was using, it was all over the place.  Most were caught on nymphs but I was constantly switching to dry flies when I would find a trout honing in on surface insects.  There wasn't a solid hatch all afternoon, with the humid weather and sunny skies, but there were some small flies (I'm assuming midges?) that were hovering around the slower pools.

Most interesting part of the day was when I was tossing a prince nymph into the ripples at the head of slow pool.  Twice in a row my indicator was attacked by a nice looking trout.  Frustrated that he wasn't noticing the beautiful nymph I tied just for him, I switched to the only pattern in my box that was big enough to mimic my indicator (I guess you could say I was trying to match the indicator hatch)... a size 6 hopper, big, pudgy, and neon yellow.  Sure enough, just after I smacked that baby in the run, he went airborne for it.

Great section of water.  It's a little far out there so ideally, it should be part of a weekend trip where you also hit up Whitetop Laurel, or if its summertime perhaps you can get some smallies out on the Clinch River or New River.

Susie Q Farm 6/1/11

Dad came down on Tuesday night in preparation for a very early morning of fishing at Susie Q Farm. He suggested that we warm up for the trip with a little smallmouth action on the Rivanna that evening. Of course I decided to take him to one of my favorite spots, Riverview Park in Charlottesville. We got to stretch some line and hooked into a bunch of sunfish and smallies on kreelex. The river is coming down nicely; wading is still challenging in spots but it's definitely doable.

We set out for Susie Q at 0430 after a restless night of sleep fraught with anticipation of what the day might hold. This was our first time at Susie Q and as we pulled up to the stream, we were instantly impressed with the beauty of the creek and the surrounding country. After gearing up and debating what flies to start with we hit the water about 0615. There were small swells of rising fish scattered across the pool just upstream of the ford near the parking area. I decided to follow the advice from the guys at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing and tried out some trico duns. I was rewarded with a small chub for my efforts. The guys were definitely right on with the hatch, but the trout were not rising this particular day so we decided to try out some nymphs.

Almost as soon as we made the switch we got into some very nice 'bows. We found the first fish of the day in the deep channels with medium paced flows on the far bank across from the parking lot. At one point dad and I both had fish on simultaneously. Both of us hammering the same run didn't faze the fish at all and we each caught 'bows up to 18 inches there. Most of the fish we caught took our nymphs very lightly, barely moving the indicator. There is no telling how many we may have missed. As we worked our way upstream I was struck by the number and quality of deep runs with good structure for holding fish. There are some "aquarium" type flat sections, but they are more than made up for by very nice moving water. I also love the feel of this place. It's a working farm but the stream doesn't seem too manicured or artificial at all. Any stream improvements they have made are subtle, so you feel like you are in a pristine area.

We caught nice rainbows and a few small browns consistently as we made our way toward the top of the property on nymphs and copper/blue/gold kreelex. We stopped fishing about 1130 when the heat became a little too intense and the bite started to trickle off. During our break we stopped by the shop and learned that we left some really nice pools at the upstream and downstream ends of the property. After a good chat and strategy session with Jess (I think that was his name, please correct my if I'm wrong) we picked up new Mossy Creek passes at Verona, killed time running other errands, and started fishing again at 1630. By that time the wind had picked up, we had a little cloud cover, and the temp had cooled to a more comfortable 85 F.

We took Jess' advice and started at the pools downstream from the ford. Dad was rewarded with a nice 13 inch brookie landed on a nymph. He and a few other rainbows caught there were hanging out under the foam lines. We made our way up to the top of the property with a few select stops at our favorite pools from the morning and still had consistent action. I couldn't believe we didn't catch anything under the stump at the last big bend, but we did move a pretty rainbow under the last Sycamore leaning over the stream near the boundry.

This is a truly fantastic place to fish. It is well worth the $70 rod fee since you get the creek to yourself, it's beautiful, it's challenging, and it gives you the chance of catching big, quality fish. I had so much fun fishing with my dad in this awesome spot yesterday. I can't wait to come back and try to find some of the big browns in this creek. Hats off to the Mossy Creek shop for managing this place and keeping great trout water open.

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.

Martinsville AIM rotation and the Smith River

It's been a while since I've posted, but believe me when I say it's because I've been too busy fishing.

Upon hearing that I was placed in Martinsville for my Ambulatory Internal Medicine rotation, I quickly went to google to find out about fishing opportunities in the area.  I was dismayed when I saw no significant smallmouth waters in the area.  I tried to convince myself that no fishing was a good thing as I'd be able to actually get some studying done for the Medicine shelf exam.  I packed up and headed down, leaving my waders and fly tying kit at home.

Little did I know that Martinsville has a premier tailwater loaded with trout just 15 minutes away.

On my first day of clinic, I was fortunate enough to interview a patient who had a bass pro shop hat on, which meant I ended up spending most of the interview talking about good fishing locations (whoops!).  He told me about the Smith River and stories he's heard about people pulling monster browns out of the river in the special regulation section (always a good sign if there's a special regulation section).  He hadn't been up to the river in a while though and didn't want to promise me anything.

So after two days of researching the river I finally made a trip up.

Note: since it's a tailwater, the dam releases water for a certain amount of time each day which makes it unfishable.  The past month it was usually running from around 1pm to 6-7pm each day.  I'd recommend hitting up the water just when they turn off the generators.  It seems like the insect life plans their hatches for right as the water starts to level off which means you can prepare for top feeding trout starting about 20-30 minutes after generating ends.  To find out when they will be generating, call to hear the Army Corps of Engineer's recorded message at: (276) 629-2432.  Also know that since it's a tailwater, the water will be cold all the time making fishing for trout possible in the late summers while it also keeps the water unfrozen in the winters so if you want to fish a midge hatch in January, you can.

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I first set out to the special regulation section at 7pm to see what was going on.  Unfortunately, I almost died of shock when I got in the water without my left-at-home waders.  The waters in the section just above the bridge at rt. 666 were high still as it would take a while for the levels to subside.  So without even making any casts in the section, I shivered my way back to my car and headed up to Philpott Dam to see what was going on there.

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What I found was quite possibly the best half mile of water I've fished in Virginia.  Because of the difference in temperature between the humid air and the cold water, a thick 10 feet of fog sat over the water.  Through the fog I could just barely see rising trout.  And I could see them everywhere.  They were mainly in the seams feeding regularly on a decent hatch of tiny insects which I assumed were tricos.  Despite my lack of waders and a medical condition where I get paralyzed because of extremely cold temperatures, I wet waded in to try my luck.  I put on a a size 16 parachute and immediately started getting hits.  Most of the browns and rainbows were from 10-16 inches but I know I missed hooking on to at least two browns that were much bigger.  Unfortunately, because the generating schedule ends so late, it only leaves about 2 hours for decent fishing before it gets too hard to see with the lighting and the fog.  There are talks in the works though that will hopefully result in better scheduling.

I eventually made the trek home that weekend to retrieve the rest of my fly fishing equipment and spent about 2-3 days each week fishing the Philpott Dam section.  In the end, Martinsville was a complete surprise and a great place to fish.  I'd drive the 2 1/2 hour drive down from Charlottesville anytime to spend a weekend fishing the Smith.  It's just that good.

Arkansas River in Colorado Part 2

Day two on the Ark was pretty tough with much colder temps and high winds. It amazed me how much the weather could change in the mountains day to day with highs only in the 40s after 70s the day before. We caught fewer fish, but they were hard earned and still absolutely gorgeous. Sefan at Ark Angers saved the day by putting us on a public stretch not far from town for the afternoon that produced some nice browns. I have the spot marked on the fishing map.

After a tough day two, we decided to book a morning guided wade trip through the shop. I think they pulled out all the stops for us and called in a true ringer named Stuart Andrews. Stuart has been fishing for about 40 years and really knows his stuff. The wade trip was on a private lease starting below the Wellsville bridge that had a great mix of deep pools, short cliffs, and some shallow pocket water on the sides. We started out showing off our casting "prowess" for Stuart who fine tuned our strokes. I was amazed by how he could make small adjustments to my casting and cause huge improvements in minutes. Again, hiring a guide every once in a while is a GREAT idea and made our third and fourth days on the Arkansas truly memorable.

We fished nymph rigs with a small chartreuse Copper John dropper. That little thing was deadly! I had never seen chartreuse copper wire like that before, but it imitated the chartreuse caddis larvae we found teeming under the rocks. Here's another pearl, go ahead and spend the extra money for fluorocarbon monofilament for your nymph rigs. It's completely invisible to the fish and it sinks like a stone. Just another trick I learned from Stuart. This setup gave us a real edge and we caught some truly stunning browns and 'bows.

As for actual fishing techniques, I learned a few awesome tricks from Stuart. First and foremost if you don't know about fishing the foam lines, try it! Stuart reminded us that wild fish don't like to expend a lot of energy while they are feeding. No joke, but how does that help you? Well, look for the seams between faster water and more calm water. These are generally the places where foam bubbles will form and make streaks down the current, and they are perfect spots for trout to lay in wait for food being swept downstream in the faster water.

Stuart also taught us some secrets about finding big fish. If you are on a larger river with collections of foam in the deep eddies along the banks, get your nymphs in there! You'll see lots of spent flies lying in the white foam and maybe even some trout sipping there. Also, bigger fish feel secure because the foam forms a canopy protecting them from birds like ospreys. The trick here is to sneak up on your belly very slowly, and with just a little fly line out, drop your nymphs right into the foam. You may see a take on your indicator, but if not just count to five and blindly set. Repeat this maneuver and work around the foam until you hook a 20+ inch brown.

Not only is he among the best fishermen I've ever met, stuart is also an accomplished artist. His compositions capture the American West and the changes that we have made on the landscape as we have tried to tame it. He has some really beautiful works, and I hope to own a few of them whenever I pay off my student loans. Check out his gallery online, it is worth more then a few minutes of your time. Thanks for your expertise and teaching, Stuart. We hope to fish with you again sometime soon, hopefully on a high mountain lake trip for cutthroat.

Arkansas River in Colorado Part 1

After finishing Step 1 of the USMLE (the licensing exam to become a doc in the U.S.), I needed a big change after sitting in the library for 3 months. This was the perfect opportunity to take the road trip my dad and I had been talking about for years. Randy and Richie’s excellent adventure rolled out from Virginia on April 7th and returned April 20th. We saw incredible countryside, met interesting and very welcoming people, and experienced some of the wildest tourist traps this truly amazing country has to offer. I’ll limit these next few blog posts to the fishing highlights in Colorado, but as I hinted before, the journey was just as fun as the fishing.

Dad and I stopped in Oklahoma City to pick up our friend Terry Weber. Terry is a great fishing buddy and he took a bunch of the pics you’ll see in the next few posts, so hats off to him for adding to the blog. After picking up Terry, we drove through the panhandle of Texas and northwest New Mexico en route to Colorado. It was breathtaking standing on Mount Capulin in New Mexico and watching the Great Plains sweep up into the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rockies. If you can’t tell yet, I fell completely in love with the West on this trip.

After a drive full of gawking at the still snow capped peaks of the Rockies, we pulled into Salida, CO and met up with the staff at Ark Anglers. Stefan was our point man for the entire trip, and he did an amazing job of both putting us on the fish and getting us oriented in town. I highly recommend booking guided trips through the shop; they are first class outfitters and very friendly people. I want to make sure y’all make no mistake about pronunciation when you call the shop in Salida. I automatically went for the Spanish pronunciation, but I quickly discovered that the local folks call it “Suhl-eye-duh and town just up the road is called “Boona-vista” (Buena Vista). I guess that’s about the same as us calling Staunton here in Virginia “Stan-tin”, but these things never cease to amuse me.

On the morning of the 12th, Terry and I headed out with Will, a fellow Okie and our first guide from Ark Anglers, for a 14-mile float trip on the Arkansas River from Salida to the boat ramp at Rincon. I had never floated for trout before, and fishing with Terry and Will made for an awesome trip. We started out fishing right in town and had early success on some white articulated streamers that Will ties. I looked for some in shops during the rest of the trip, but was unable to find any like them. Will, if you’re out there reading, post me the name of those flies or please tell me where I can score some. They were money! One fish chased a Will-tied streamer for a solid 10 feet. Just as an aside for Chuck Kraft, the Kreelex also worked beautifully in Colorado throughout the trip, and we handed them out like candy at every fly shop we visited.

Will also taught us a new streamer fishing technique that definitely adds more life than simply stripping in line. You can really make a streamer dance by using the rod tip to jerk the fly erratically toward you, making it seem like a distressed and enticing meal for a trout. Another thing I didn’t expect was the success we had fishing our streamers just under the surface. The fish really went wild after using the rod-jerk technique to make the fly skip the surface a little. Terry and I both agree that the best part about having a guide is LEARNING. Being put on fish is obviously fun, but learning new techniques and about the way fish feed and what they eat really adds to your repertoire as an angler. Thank you again for an awesome float, Will.

We ended up catching about half browns and half rainbows that first day. Most of the rainbows came after we switched to a two fly nymph rig with an indicator. I am a new believer in using indicators after this trip. Waiting for that thing-a-ma-bobber stop dead in its tracks or jump a few feet really puts you on edge. It also doesn’t hurt when it results in a tail dance by a fat rainbow covered in spots and stripes. That reminds me, we didn’t catch a fish under 10 inches the entire trip, and an average brown in the Arkansas from what I can tell is probably 14 inches. Every single fish we caught had vibrant color and they were all much harder fighters than the fish back East. I think that’s about enough for now.

Check back soon to read about more adventures in Colorado and some other very helpful techniques I learned out West.

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: 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.

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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.

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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: 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".

Two Flies, 6X Tippet

Not twenty-four hours after my two day stint in the Appalachians crouching underneath the new spring foliage making sidearm casts with a two-weight rod to fish no greater than my hand, I found myself in a quite different set of circumstances. No longer were backcasts being snagged by twigs and thornbushes. Casts of only a few feet were no longer adequate and to throw out line with a two-weight would quickly be looked upon as amateur and ridiculous. And to say I had previously been tortured by trying to match a hatch now just sounds silly.

I stood with one foot in New York and the other in Pennsylvania making casts with my new San Juan 5/6 weight rod from Fly Fishing Benefactors, with 9-10 feet of leader and tippet, trying to convince a trout, big enough to eat a small child, that my fly looked just like or hopefully more enticing than the other thousand that cruised through his feeding lane. I was on the West Branch of the Delaware and the fly fishing was awesome.


Three years ago, my friend, Scott, convinced me to follow him up into the Shenandoah Park to learn how to fly fish. This past week, he and his dad were kind enough to let me tag along on their yearly trip to where American fly fishing started. He told of tales of huge fish, expertly thrown casts and fly hatches that make the water surface look like a miniature regatta. I thought I understood. It was only when we started driving by the river did I realize what he meant. Through the bug splattered windows I could see the hoardes of flies and a river alive with trout gently sipping insects off the water's surface.


Within thirty minutes we were out on river staking claim to shallow pool of water with at least twenty trout feeding simultaneously. On the trip up from Virginia, I had been taught the Rusteikas West Branch of the Delaware mantra by Scott's dad: "Only two flies, 6X tippet." So when I was finally on the river, I resisted grabbing for my 4X and my kreelex streamers, and instead heeded their advice hoping it would bring me good fishing karma.



The two flies we used for the extent of the trip were a Hendrickson comparadun tied in several ways (with CDC wings, CDC loopwings, snowshoe rabbit's foot wings) and rusty spinners. Within minutes of being on the water, Scott was able to tell the majority of the fish were sipping on the duns. So we set to work trying to fool these leviathans into taking our imitations as apple caddis flies swarmed above us and the sun slowly started setting.


It couldn't have been more than thirty minutes before the master had a healthy 18 inch brown
trout in hand to show the apprentice that he knew what he was talking about. "Two flies, 6X tippet." "It's all about presentation." "He has to see your fly first, not your line."


Still, it was hard for me to break some bad habits. A fish started sipping bugs just upstream from me and the temptation was too great. A few casts later, my flies gently disappeared. I set the hook and *snap*. The hook was set, but the wrist action that would have sent a Rapidan brookie flying straight out of the water didn't have quite the same effect on this fish. A fly was lost but a lesson was learned.


Two more lost flies due to snapped tippet later, I hooked a large brown but hardly even knew it happened. With the sun starting to hang low over the Catskill Mountains, our artificials became lost the masses of other flies as the spent Hendricksons finally laid their eggs and died. So when my fly was taken amidst the others, my only indication was a flash of the trout's belly and a sudden whirring of my drag. I successfully stifled a yelp of excitement and tried to act like I had fought a fish of this magnitude before. Five minutes later, however, when Scott took the picture of me with my first brown trout on the Delaware, it was quite difficult to hide my excitement and surprise. See below:



Later in the evening, the dead flies started to finally clear from the surface of the water and in the dim light, Scott caught another trout, this time a fat rainbow.


Obsessed, we continued to throw line out as we walked slowly back to the car through the ever-darkening evening. Silhouettes of trout could still be seen rising, disturbing the water in the slow stretches of water. But eventually it became impossible to see where you were casting or what you were casting to. At the car we found out that Mr. Rusteikas had caught two trout on rusty spinners right near where we parked the car.


The forecast for the next two days looked ominous. Sure enough, the next day brought with it clouds and a blustery wind that swept upstream at over 15 mph and a chill that kept the fish down and prevented any significant hatch of flies. The river seemed completely different than the lively river we had fished the day before. It was hard to imagine there were scores of huge fish waiting patiently for the next batch of flies to hatch.


Thankfully, the third day's forecast turned out to be quite inaccurate. After a few light showers in the morning, the clouds broke up and the wind died down just in time to allow for a heavy hatch of caddis and Hendricksons. Having held off on lunch until the hunger pains were too great, Scott and I decided to leave our favorite hole to grab a bite to eat around 3 p.m. only to return to find out that the Hendrickson hatch had picked up just after we left allowing Mr. Rusteikas to pull three good sized trout out of our section of river. The day continued to be successful with the occasional fish breaking off the fragile 6X tippet. I tricked a big brown into taking my dun in the slow shallow waters that left me with a sore forearm after he was set free. Scott also hooked a big brown in the evening on the first cast into the fish's feeding lane.

The final day was perhaps the best. The weather had settled down and the hatch was heavy. As the apple caddis started to come off the water, Scott started stalking a fish in the upper parts of our section of river. Mr. Rusteikas and I sat on the shore humored by the intensity with which Scott was inspecting the water planning his attack. We hadn't seen any fish actively feeding yet as it was still early. Less than a minute after a sarcastic remark from me about how ridiculous Scott looked trying to catch a nonexistent fish, suddenly his line became taut and a healthy rainbow started jumping. Eating my words, Scott continued to pull in six fish the rest of the day. I, on the other hand, continued to stalk the large browns sipping spinners in the shallows and had a successful day pulling in four brown trout.



Later in the day, as I'm casting to a fish on the far bank, I hear distant conversation between Scott and his dad about a fish Scott had just landed whose mouth had not one but three flies in it. After inspection and debate, it became clear that Mr. Rusteikas had in fact hooked the same fish the day before and had lost his now found (and still in good condition) CDC comparadun to the fish. Seeing as it was quite the fish tale, I have no doubt that it will continue to be told in the future, except perhap the size of the fish will continue to increase as will the number of flies in his mouth...



Overall, it was an amazing trip. Unfortunately, Scott and his dad have gotten me hooked on fishing for large trout now. I'm going to have to restrain myself from trying to head back to the Delaware for the sulfur and green drake hatches and instead fish Mossy Creek in the hopes of pulling a big brown of the waters there.


Thanks again to Scott and his dad for taking me on the trip!


Tight lines.

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.  

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.