Back on the Water/Fishing Report: Conway River, Rapidan River (lower section), and Staunton River

VAMFF took an unexpected break from updating the site there for while.  Trust me when I say it wasn't intended.  Third year of medical school turned out to be just as busy as we were told it would be.  Throw in some issues with leaky waders, a broken rod tip, and a non-functioning reel, and it made it even more difficult to be on the water.  It was as if the fishing gods wanted us to stop fishing for a while and actually tie surgeon's knots where they were originally intended to be.

All that being said, third year is quickly winding down, temperatures are rising, and hatches are happening so we have don't have any excuses not to fish.  On Feb 27th, Rich and I took our first trip of 2011 up to the mountain streams to scout out some new locations.



First stop was the Conway at the section below the confluence with Devil's Ditch.  Our initial impressions were that the river was beautiful, it had great pools, and it is far enough in on the fire roads that many weekend warriors will probably pass it up in favor of areas that have quicker access.  That being said, we may have gotten there too early in the morning for a brisk February day because we literally did not see a fish the entire morning.  Nothing hit on top or on bottom, not even a near miss or a flash.  The only other fisherman we saw out there that day had similar luck.  But given how nice the river is, this will definitely have to be a repeat location later on in the spring.

Conway River (Middle Section)

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Determined to not be blanked on our first day back fishing, we then headed to the lower section of the Rapidan near Graves Mill.  There we saw fish.  At first we saw some chubs in a beaver pond and we definitely felt the urge to throw a line in to ensure we at least caught something.  But we fought the urge and got to the confluence of the Staunton and the Rapidan and started there.

On the Rapidan, the water levels were great and we could see some brookies slowly exploring the deeper sections.  Eventually, around 2-3pm,  a small hatch of black caddis started to emerge and with the temperature getting into the low 60s, we started seeing fish rising.  Finally.  We ended up only catching a few before they stopped rising but it was enough to make the trip worthwhile.

Staunton River

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We did fish up the Staunton for a little while as well.  In fact, the Staunton was actually where I learned how to fly fish courtesy of Scott Rusteikas.  Plenty of fish but really, unless you have a 2-3 wt and don't mind sidearm casts and getting caught in trees, you may want to look elsewhere.

I apologize for the lapse in writing.  Hopefully we can pick things back up where we left off!

ps. Expect to see some renovations to the site in the coming months.

Fishing Report: Rapidan River 3-21

Boards studying in now in full swing but it's been pretty easy to get stir-crazy still being in the library. Thus, with the threat of more rain coming our way, I decided to make a quick morning trip up to the Rapidan to see how the fishing was.

My initial impression was that the water levels were running a little too high. While I was able to fish most of the day with dry flies, it was extremely difficult to get any quality dead drifts. The first couple were caught on a 2-fly dropper setup with a parachute adams on top and a peasant tail nymph on bottom. A majority of them preferred the nymph, much to my chagrin. After a long winter I was going through a pretty serious dry fly withdrawal. Finally at about 11 am, the brook trout started honing in on some weak hatches that were going on. From what I could tell, there was a decent number of black caddis (or some kind of caddis, I'm not the most legit entomologist quite yet) and the usual midges.

All in all it was a great day to be out on the water despite the difficult water level. I will probably wait until things have settled down even more before I head out there again. But if you're a fan of throwing nymphs and your pack is full of humpies, then by all means take a chance out there. And of course, always be careful when wading in those high and fast conditions.

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.

Mr. Rapidan Himself

Rich has successfully caused me to spend hours this week thinking about fly fishing instead of physiology and neurology. Okay, actually it's probably my fault.

More importantly, however, is that he keeps mentioning some great flies. First the Kreelex and now another favorite of mine, the Mr. Rapidan. And just how the Kreelex was designed by a local fly fishing star so was the Mr. Rapidan.

Harry Murray, owner of Murray's Fly Shop in Edinburg, Virginia has created several versions of this successful attractor pattern (meaning that it is a general pattern and doesn't necessarily match a specific hatch). Also, Harry's quite the expert on smallmouth bass fishing. In fact, I read his book, Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass, from cover to cover several times before I realized that he was also the creator of the Mr. Rapidan. The man has invented so many successful bass flies and trout flies that I'm pretty sure he's already reserved himself a spot up in fly fishing hall of fame next to Norman Maclean and Izaak Walton. So if you want to talk to a real expert (I've yet to meet him, though I plan to stop by his shop next week so I can ask him a couple questions about floating the Shenandoah for smallies) feel free to head over to his shop, check out his blog, or even some of his Youtube videos...

So why is the Mr. Rapidan such a popular fly for use up in the mountain streams of the Shenandoah National park? I think the reason is because it can cover several different types of hatches. The wild brookies in the park are, in my opinion (Rich may disagree), enterprising in their eating habits. I think this is mainly due to their living situations. With briskly moving water pushing through small pools, these fish don't get the luxury of being picky eaters (like those damn cats who eat fancy feast...god, I hate cats.) Granted, there is some selection going on. To be successful, your flies need to be at least the same size as the other flies that flow past these fish and ideally look vaguely like them (meaning they have all of the appropriate vital signs... a wing, hackle that imitates legs, tail, etc.). But everything other than that is pretty much fair game for these brookies.

Last year I even experimented with using differently colored wings and body dubbing (absurd colors like bright blue and pink) and was still able to catch fish. But still, in my opinion, I've been way more successful with the Mr. Rapidans and my number one favorite, the Elk Hair Caddis. So be sure to stock up on the successful dry flies that Rich mentioned in his post and also, in my opinion bring some Adams, Parachute Adams, and Royal Wulffs. And of course we'll be posting more details on these flies as we find time to.

Finally, for those of you who enjoy tying your own, get your hands on some yellow calf tail and check out these fairly straightforward instructions.

photo courtesy of Rob O'Reilly via Hipwader

Welcome to the Virginia Medical Fly Fishing Site

I probably shouldn't start another blog for fear of wasting even more time but I feel like there is a definite need for better information about fly fishing in Virginia.  Don't get me wrong, there are some great sites like that of the Trow brothers over at the Mossy Creek fly fishing store and the Albemarle Angler has started doing a better job updating their posts to their website.  But there are several things that I thought were missing.  How does one get to the Rapidan's upper reaches by car?  Where should I go that is near to Charlottesville so that I can throw a line out during my lunch break?  What techniques work the best at each river and when?  

Thus, my co-founder, Richie, and I started the Virginia Medical Fly Fishing Club (yes we're med students).  And to help with information organization, I've decided that this would be a helpful site to make.  So I thought I'd start by explaining how I got to this point.  (Hopefully if Rich is down with blogging, he'll explain how he got here too)

A good size brookie pulled out of the Rapidan River

First, let me say that I'm not an expert in the field of fly fishing.  I'm constantly learning and I think that the best thing about fly fishing is that you have to be constantly learning.  If you're not learning, you're just catching fish, not fishing.  So anyway, here's some background on my experience thus far...

I started fly fishing about two years ago when a good friend of mine convinced me to tag along with him to the lower reaches of the Rapidan River.  I'm sort of a leech for information and therefore I love to start new things/hobbies/passions due to what I pick up from others.  (My poor parents have had to see me through several changes in musical pursuits throughout the years... not an inexpensive habit)  But I digress.  After watching my friend, Scottie, deftly hook about 20 brookies in the first two hours out there, I decided I wanted to be as proficient as he was.  

So after that, I started researching fly fishing.  I went to local stores and asked stupid naive questions until I was able to figure out how to tie on tippet to a leader and distinguish some of the most famous dry flies patterns.  I went out to the rivers in the area (with a cheap pair of rubber hip waders I got from Dick's Sporting Goods and a 5 wt. my dad lent me).  In those first months, I think I caught at least one hundred tree branches and zero fish.  But that made me want to fish even more.  I can't stand not being good at something.  Finally, after about 6 months, I started catching brookies at the Rapidan.  I thought I had mastered fly fishing because I was able to catch fish consistently on one of Virginia's most famous rivers... Boy, was I wrong.

That's enough for today, I'll finish explaining in my next post.  Again welcome to the site.