Help Protect Access to the Jackson

Perhaps you've seen our reviews on the Jackson River, or perhaps not.  But if you didn't know, below the dam, things can get a little touch and go with the landowners if you're wading or even floating their sections of the river.    This has recently gotten back into the news and this time it sounds like the fishing community is putting up a fight. (For some background on King's Grant and the last serious dispute on the Jackson River, check out this)

I was contacted by Steve from Switchfisher.com last week about raising awareness.  Unfortunately, I was so swamped with my Urology acting internship that I wasn't able to post a message until now, so I'm a little late on getting the message out!  Here's the background for the most recent events per Steve's email:

"A developer is suing 3 anglers in Virginia for fishing a section of the Jackson River that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries considers public. If the court rules in favor of the developer, rivers throughout Virginia will be off limits for recreational use at the whim of the riverfront landowner in spite of a Virginia law that places the riverbed under the ownership of the State. These things have a way of spreading, so an unfavorable decision could ripple nationwide as a horrible precedent."

An organization has already been put together to try and help with this fight.  The Virginia River Defense Fund tried to get Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli involved in the case.  It appears as if he isn't going to get involved which is a shame.  There is still a way you can help however!  The fishermen involved are paying out of their pockets for their defense.  If you'd like to help protect our right to fish here in Virginia, you should consider donating.  I'm going to.

Visit their website to donate!  I'll post updates about the issue in the coming months.

Review: Rose River Farm Yurts

It's not everyday that you get to spend a night in a yurt.  And to be honest, I had to wikipedia the word 'yurt'  just to find out exactly what I was getting myself into (yes, I just used wikipedia as a verb).  The definition I found was a little unnerving... "a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure", especially since I was headed to Rose River Farm with a group of guys (groomsmen) for a classy get away to celebrate my best friend getting married.  Initially I imagined us sleeping in bunk beds in a cabin full of spiders like we used to do at Camp Rockmont back in the day.  But when we got there, I was shocked at what I found.


THIS PLACE IS AWESOME.  The cabin is by far the most decked out place I've ever had the pleasure of staying.  This quintessential mancave has everything you need for the perfect weekend getaway.  Heck, even a monthlong getaway.  Walking in, the first thing I noticed was the state of the art fly tying table.  Then I realized that I wasn't in a felt-covered shabby tent.  Instead I was in a new, clean, air conditioned cabin with beautiful views of the Appalachians and all the amenities you'd ever need and then some.  Two bedrooms with two queen sized beds in each; enough to fit your group of 4 comfortably.  A kitchen stocked with everything you'd need to cook with.  And as everyone knows, I'm a coffee addict/snob so I was probably most impressed with the supply of whole coffee beans and grinder.  The place even had a flat screen tv and what looked like satellite, but we were having too much fun outside sitting around the fire, talking, listening to a mockingbird show off, and watching a thunderstorm come through to even consider turning on the television.  


I'm seriously going back again the next chance I get.  Reasons why:
1. It's a fantastic price 
2. It's convenient if you are fishing the Rose River or practically any other stream in the eastern slope of the SNP
3. The yurts are so nice that they alone would be reason enough for a visit to get away from the city or for a romantic getaway (which would be difficult considering the gravitational pull of the trout streams in the vicinity...)
4. The cabins are only about 45 minutes away from Charlottesville and a little over an hour from D.C.,  I don't know of another place that close to either city that is even remotely as awesome.  
5. The fly tying table.  I have to go back and try it out.
6. I mentioned the proximity to trout streams right?


I'll stop here and show you some of the pictures I took (unfortunately we got there after sunset and my battery quickly died soon thereafter so I wasn't able to take enough pictures to do this place justice, to see better shots of the place, check out the RRF site)



For those of you who don't know about Rose River Farm yet, basically it's been the brainchild of Douglas Dear who has, in the past couple of years, turned it into not only a fantastic fishery, but also a handicap accessible stream that hosts events for Project Healing Waters.  


Along those lines, Douglas Dear has been nominated for the L.L. Bean Outdoors Heroes Award for his work with PHW and is now a finalist!  The man has been doing some great work, and although I haven't met him face to face yet, I can tell that he truly deserves this.  So please go vote for him now at this website.


Note: You'll notice some of my photos up on the Rose River site but no worries, I am neither affiliated with the farm or received any benefits for writing this review.  I just like the place a lot.  Like a lot a lot.  

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.


View Virginia Medical Fly Fishing in a larger map

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.

Fishing Report: Rapidan River

Looks like we're going to have some pretty high rivers here for the next week thanks to that monsoon that can through central Virginia yesterday.  The water levels in the upper portions of the Rapidan over the weekend definitely spiked, fortunately, however, it looks like we didn't quite hit flood levels.  Not sure how long we'll have to wait until we have conditions as good as they were last week. 

Speaking of last week, fishing was freaking fantastic.  Scott, the proverbial master of small stream fly fishing, was able to take some time off from studying for his Step 1 to grace Rich and me with his presence.  Of course, with the forecast calling for a sunny day and 80 degree weather last Sunday, we had to hit up the Rapidan. 

We headed up to the section around Rapidan Camp to ensure we wouldn't have any company.  Right from the start we could see brookies feeding on dry flies.  Not just a few either.  We split up and put on our respective favorites for the park, Scott with an elk hair caddis, Richie with something that probably was of the royal adams family (i'm guessing, correct me if i'm wrong), and me with a parachute adams.  They all seemed to work great.  Three hours later, we all were worn out and were plenty satisfied with the more than 50 fish we each caught.  Seriously, it was probably the best day on the Rapidan I've had in several years.  We got on the water right when two mayfly hatches, which looked like blue wing olives and something larger and brown like a quill gordon or march brown, were occurring.  I switched to a BWO spinner and definitely started getting more strikes.  These brookies were going absolutely nuts.  I think I only hit up about eight pools in three hours but was able to put out at least ten brook trout, all in the 8-10 inch range, from each.  By the end of our day (only around 4:00pm), the females were depositing their eggs and a decent number of spinners were on the water.  At that point, the brookies started feeding even more aggressively.  My last pool had about eight large trout in it who were all competing for the flies coming down the buffet line.  It was amazing seeing them go airborne and slamming into each other as they fought for the fly.  I had never seen such aggressiveness on the Rapidan.  I managed to get a videoclip of one of them going airborne:

From rapidan river 4.10.11

Hopefully, once these high water levels settle out, we'll be able to hit up the park again for some more brookies.  Let us know if you've had similar success!

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.