Skidmore Fork, George Washington National Forest, VA, 1-20-14

My friend Chris and I took the day to fish the Skidmore Fork in the George Washington National Forest in northwestern VA. Snow lingered in the shady spots and chunks of ice floated downstream below the bottom-release dam, but the sun warmed the day up into the 50s and it was very pleasant. The brookies didn't seem to be too picky and responded well to brassies of various colors, bead-head pheasant tail nymphs, and other assorted nymphs. It was a fun day!
 
Skidmore Fork, George Washington National Forest, VA, 1-20-14 from Coastal Explorer on Vimeo.

The Switzer Dam (bottom release) flows into the Skidmore Fork




Photo of the pool just below the dam...

Spawned out fish - long and thin…

Chris nymphing in a pretty run...

Underwater shots by Chris Burbage...

I broke off a lunker in this pool in the spring...

Lingering ice...

Another beautiful run…

What we came for…spectacular!

Trash left in the parking lot...

 

Bill Wills Wins TU Distinguished Service Award

With the financial assistance of the VA Council and many members, Bill Wills and I recently travelled to Wisconsin so that he could accept the national TU Distinguished Service Award.

Friday, we had to catch a flight at 6:30 am so I picked up Bill at 4:30 am to catch the early flight to Chicago.

After getting to Chicago, we rented a car and drove approximately 3 hours to Middleton Wisconsin.  Thanks to a generous donation from Bill Campbell, we checked into the Middleton Marriott.  Also we had arranged with Bill's nephew Jimmy (from Cortlandt NY) to meet us at the hotel as a surprise!  Boy, was he ever!

We were a little surprised that there were not any booths or vendors at the national meeting, but there was this one raffle for a James Prosek print if you could guess how many Swedish Fish were in the picture frame.  

After catching up with nephew Jimmy, we cleaned up, dressed up, and headed to the award banquet at the Death's Door distillery in Middleton.

The fish fry dinner was very nice and it was great to hear about all the awards for the great work TU volunteers are doing all across the country.  In addition to Bill's award for Distinguished Service, best newsletter was won by a TU Chapter in Winchester VA!  I have some copies of the newsletter I will email out to local TU members...

Here's Bill and Jimmy at Death's Door...

Bill gave a great speech followed by rousing applause.  Of course he said he didn't know why he would be singled out for any award - such is Bill's humble way.

Bill and his award...

At the after-hours mixer hosted by the local WI TU chapters, Bill was quite the celebrity and everyone was congratulating him and telling him how inspirational he was.

For some reason, Bill was especially popular with the ladies.... 

We had a nice breakfast listening to a panel discussion by the national council about branding issues, membership, projects, and fundraising.  I can tell you, even attending the annual meeting for 1 of the 3 days made me psyched to be a member of TU and made me committed to doing more.

If you're not already a member of TU, please join.  If you are a member, please renew.  TU is a great organization full of dedicated and passionate volunteers that make our environment and our fishing experiences better.

Peace!

Ramsey's Draft Wilderness, GWNF, May 15, 2013

Day two of my Plan B instead of fishing in NY's Catskills.

The night before I met up with fellow Bill Wills Southeastern VA Chapter of TU member John Crosby and his lovely wife Karen.  We had a nice long breakfast, solved a few world problems, and then got our act together to fish.

First we stopped at the South River Fly shop in Waynesboro to get the skinny.  Owner Kevin Little is a very nice guy and I highly recommend if you're in the area that you stop in for a good deal on 3wt. Echo rods, some key flies (restocked my stimulator arsenal) and the best intel.  After consulting with the experts, and discussing the sad state of high water conditions, we decided to go back to the George Washington National Forest, and fish the Ramsey's Draft Wilderness Area.  David Nash (MyLeakyWaders.blogspot.com)   had fished that stream the week before and had done well so we were off!

We dinked around so we didn't get to the stream until afternoon.  



We agreed to follow the same strategy of moving upstream for a distance in the hopes of finding less-pressured water.  We walked for about 45 minutes, got off the trail somehow (following the steam bank) and started our fishing moving upstream as we went.  The first section we fished looked like this.

 John nymphing.

I spied this blowdown and decided to try my luck casting up and underneath the downed trees.  

Perseverance was rewarded with what turned out to be the biggest brookie of the day.  He took the stimulator.

Casting to the head of this pool from the upstream side, I landed an errant cast into the debris, so as I scootched out the log to retrieve my fly, I spotted a snake (water snake?) slithering up and along the upper log.  I quickly retrieved the fly, and then got a 6th sense feeling and looked to my left to spot another sibling.  Yikes!  I made hast to amscraa!

 On another errant cast, I was retrieving the fly from a snag-bush and noticed this casing.  What monster hatched out of this inch and a half shell!

I lost track of John, but on I went upstream fishing riffle and pool until my heart's content.  Scenes like this drew me ever upward.

There were small black caddis flies flitting around so I tied on a size 14, but I couldn't even see the damned thing.  Old eyes suck!  The wind was blowing in gusts, so, not being an expert in terrestrial flies or fishing, I decided to put on an ant, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see the black ants either, so I put on a beetle with a poof of chartreuse on it.  No hits, so I went back to the black ant.  I still couldn't see it but set the hook on any surface activity and got a few small brookies this way.     

 

 Not having seen John in a while, I started back down the trail at 6 pm.  This time it was easy to follow and, calling his name all the way, made my way downstream taking pictures along the way. 

 

 I found this interesting rack wall with water dripping down its face.  The leaky faucet gave it a cool covering of mosses and plants.

   

 More snakes on the path.  This one a harmless garter snake.

May apples in bloom along the trail....

Wild geraniums aka "cranesbill".  In this frame, a little bit of pleasure and pain!

The trail was flanked with flowers everywhere you looked!

When I got back to the parking lot, thankfully, I found John - fishing while he waited for me.  Here he is plying one last run.

We steered the car west and made our way around the traffic piling up at the Blue Ridge intersection on Rt. 64.  John's backroad knowledge beats Siri or GPS any day!

I threw my stuff in the back of the car and left Charlottesville at about 8:30 pm.  I hit road construction about every 10 miles heading east on route 64, but at least the traffic was moving late on a weekday night.  Got home to my loved ones just after midnight and hit the pillow like a rock, but couldn't help dream of VA's terrific trout streams, the hospitality of good friends, and the blessings of the day.   

Skidmore Fork, George Washington National Forest, VA - May 14, 2013

I was supposed to head off to NY for the Bill Wills Southeastern VA Chapter of TU annual trip, but many unfortunate forces conspired to scuttle the trip and since I had the time off, I decided on a pretty good Plan B.

I would trout fish in VA for a couple of days, spend a day in the salt, and then cap it off with a float for smallmouth bass.  More on those trips later.  This post deals with the trout fishing.

On Tuesday, I left Virginia Beach, not terribly early, at around 7 am and pointed the car west on I64.  Even though I hit lane closures crossing the Shenandoahs, I made it to Mossy Creek Fly Shop in Harrisonburg around 11:30.  I was told all the rivers were swollen, fast, and muddy.  However, the shop advised me to try the Skidmore Fork, a small tailwater flowing out of a dam in the George Washington National Forest - spitting distance from the WVA border.  

Heading west on Route 33 from Harrisonburg, you pass through the hamlet of Rawley Springs and continue as 33 parallels the Dry River,  The parking lot for Skidmore Fork is at the base of Middle Mountain.  IF you start heading up the mountain, carefully turn around (trucks take the hairpin turns in the middle of the road!) and turn into the parking lot on the right at the bottom of the hill.  

I had read that the fishing improved the farther upstream you went.  However, I also misunderstood that the river section was about 9 miles.  Because of that, I promised myself I would walk at least an hour upstream, without looking at the water, before starting to fish.  

OK, I cheated and looked at the river right from the start.  I just wanted to gauge the conditions - water level, speed, clarity.  When I saw this scene,  I was PSYCHED!



The trail was wide and easy!



Some "trail art".  



Perhaps because it wasn't too garish and you had to be paying attention to see it, I wasn't offended by this graffiti.  After 45 minutes of steady walking, I entered into a clearing and saw the unmistakable footprint of a major earthen dam!  Perhaps the 9 miles I got in my head includes the dammed lake and the upstream portion of the Skidmore Fork.



And at the far left hand corner of the dam was the outlet channel.  The weir groaned and belched slugs of water that came in waves.  But the pulses of water quickly dissipated; healthy sized brookies were rising everywhere.  



Using a #16 parachute Adams, I had my my pick of fish.  Their colors were spectacular, with brilliant patches of orange and white epaulets.

Just look at that tail!

Having caught enough fish in the first hour to last a day, I moved on to the more challenging fast water down below the dam outfall channel.  It was rushing pretty good and I worked my way down to find creases in the flow where the water slowed down a bit.  

Some of the brookies were average size for a small mountain stream...



Some of the little guys still had their par marks - so cool!

You can see, I was using a small stimulator for the fast water and it worked well.  Even if their colors were muted, some of the fish were quite nice sized!

That guy was in this section...

My 6X tippet went "blink" as I lost a monster in this pocket - DAMN!  

After that, I clipped down the leader and started fishing a streamer that my TU buddy Bill Campbell taught me to tie at a meeting.  I caught a few fish on that too.  I mean, check out this scenery - breathtaking!  I'm sure you could do very well just fishing streamers from the dam down to the parking lot.

I left the stream at around 5 pm since my evening accomodations were not yet set and there was the potential that I may have had to find a campsite.  I headed back east and south and the setting sun over the Blue Ridge Mountains was the perfect capper to an excellent day on a new VA stream.  Peace!

Trout Fishing in Western VA 10/9/12

Over the Columbus Day Weekend, members from the Bill Wills, Southeast Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited got together for a trip to fish the waters of the Laurel Fork Special Management Area and the Jackson River.

Fishing the Laurel Fork Wilderness Area involves hiking in and out and the weather forecast for Sunday was full of rain so we opted to do the hiking on Saturday.

Andy had the day off so he made his way leisurely westward, stopping to sample the waters of the Bull Pasture River before arriving at the Locust Springs campground on the WV/VA border west of Staunton.

David and I met in Richmond at 8 pm, got jacked up on coffee, and blazed westward.  We wanted to stop along the "Brew Ridge Trail" - at one of the craft breweries that populate the mountainous regions of western VA.  We found our way to the Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton VA, entering at the stroke of 10pm.  With the kitchen already closed and the employees sharing a well deserved capper, we implored the barkeep to serve us just one as I hastily purchased a 6-pack of their Full Nelson beer for streamside cheer.  A nice tip loosened up the bartender's demeanor and we had a nice time talking with him while also planning our final leg of the trip into the deep woods of WV and the the Locust Spring primitive campground.

Back on the road, once we got past Monterey VA, the country roads were dark and full of deer so we slowed and picked our way carefully.  We were concerned for Andy, alone in the middle of nowhere, as the hours ticked by - 11, 12, 1...  We didn't arrive until about 2 am.  I guess we made enough noise to wake him up because Andy crawled out of his warm tent to great us.  We set up a second tent and quickly bedded down for the night.

Got up Saturday morning and it was cold and grey.  Definitely looked like rain was in the forecast.  We struck the camp.  Andy made a big pot of coffee (THANK YOU!), and we each prepared a little something for breakfast and made or packed a lunch.

Our campsite at Locust Spring

Based on intel from the Warm Springs Ranger Station of the George Washington National Forest, we decided to hike down on the Locust Spring Run trail, fish the day, and then return on the Buck Run trail.  We like the idea of checking out the fishing opportunity on Locust Spring Run early and then using the better (wide, even grade) Buck Run trail for our escape since it might be getting dark, raining, or otherwise dicey.

Getting ready

The Locust Spring Run trailhead was at the far end of the meadow where we had set up our tents.  We decided to hike the trail in our waders and hit the trail at around 8 am.

At the trailhead...

The Locust Spring Run Trail

The Locust Spring Run is beautiful and it parallels the small creek all the way down to the Laurel Fork.  The water level was down, but there was still plenty of small pocket pools that we thought would hold native brookies.  I spotted fish in one and asked David to give it a go with his Tenkara rod.  It was a beautiful thing - one cast, one fish!

David's Native Brookie from the Locust Spring Run

A beautiful, wild brookie

Stoked by David's success, Andy and I rigged our conventional rods and we started hopscotching each other and picking pools on our descent to the Laurel Fork.

Andy applying stealth to his approach

Very different to our homes in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, the leaves on the trees seemed to be in peak color and there was lots of leaf litter underfoot and in the stream.  Trout were hiding under the floating leaves and you had to accurately deliver small flies to the opening in the leaf clutter to hope to get a strike.  It was pretty fun.

The beautiful Locust Spring Run

Because we could not pass up any likely holding water on the Locust Spring Run, I think it took us 3 hours to make it down the ~ 3 miles to the Laurel Fork.

The intersection of the Locust Spring trail and the Laurel Fork

What a beautiful River!  David could not resist fishing the very first pool at the intersection. 

David picking the pocket with the Tenkara rod.

While David fished, Andy and I got down to business finding an appropriately swift section of the river for which to stash our end-of-the-day celebratory libation.

These new Orvis packs come with a very handy pocket for essential supplies - a six-pack of Blue Mountain Brewery's Full Nelson beer.

 Based on fishing reports we found we decided to head upstream towards the Slab Camp Run.  We hop-scotched pools and runs as we worked upstream marveling at the scenery as we went.  Most of the brookies were wild and palm-sized.  We didn't care so much about the size.  We were just happy to be fishing in such a beautiful area.  Around each turn, we just went "Wow, look at that!"

David demonstrating the bow-and-arrow technique with the Tenkara rod

I was catching all my fish on a size 16 parachute Adams.  (Note to self - next time tie the posts in some color other than white!  White posts get lost in the white bubbles and foam)  Moving above Slab Camp Run, I came across a nice pool, cast the fly in the seam, and a bigger brookie took the bait.  As I got him close, the colors were incredible - the yellow and red spots, the brilliant orange of the belly, the in-your-face red/orange color and the distinct yellowish white epilets on the pectoral fins.  Spectacular!

Many sections of the stream are bordered by rhododendron bushes.  It's hard to imagine the Laurel Fork looking any prettier, but I'd like to go back in spring when they are in bloom.

Rhododendrons flank the Laurel Fork in many places

We rendezvoused back at the beer cache around 4 pm to give us plenty of time to hike out before dark.  We shared a brew with some fellow trout fishermen and traded stories - the best way to end a good day on the stream.

Streamside chillin'

David passing on Tenkara know-how

For the hike out we took the Buck Run Trail.  It's an old rail path so it's wide, level, and easy to hike.  Still it took us about 2 hours to hike out, but we made it before dark.

 We got out of our waders, and pointed the car south towards Covington.  The country roads along route 250 and 220 were dotted with farms, fields, and forest.  Sunset blanketed the sky with a mixture of pinks and and blues and the mountains were a glow as the sun sank.

 It was a pleasant 2 hour ride to meet up with our TU bretheren at Gene's cabin on the banks of the Jackson River.  Gene, Bill, Gordon and CJ were waiting for us and Bill guided us through a Get Smart series of cattle gates, and past barking guard dogs, and mooing cows before the car could go no further.  Inside we were treated to Gene's excellent barbecue, fruit salad and mini Butterfingers - Halloween candy came early!  We talked story well into the night until the weight of our eyelids demanded penance.  Sleep came quickly and easily.

 Gene's cabin on the Jackson River

Gene was up first and made coffee.  I was up at 6:30 and the rest soon followed.  We sipped coffee, ate delicious apple doughnuts and talked somemore.  After pleasantries, we got down to business planning our next day on the river.  The temperature had dropped down to the mid-fifties and it had been raining all morning with promises of the same for the rest of the day.  We decided to fish around the Poor Farm Road intersection with the Jackson River.  The area had been recently stocked and the ability to drive right up to the river gave us a quick escape route if we got drowned out. 

CJ lead us past Warm and Hot Springs to the stream access point.  

Andy, David, and CJ on the Upper Jackson River

The scene that awaited us

The rain was only a sprinkle when we suited up.  At this location, the Jackson was big and beautiful, with an abundance of falls, DEEP pools, long still runs, and complicated seams.  It offered lots of possible tactical approaches.  There were some large reddish brown caddis flying around - a "fall caddis" we were told.  So instead of the Adams that worked so well on the Laurel Fork, I tied on a 14 tan caddis.   

      

Andy working the seam

 David couldn't pass up this section

With my tan caddis, I became the Chub King.  Don't get me wrong, they were fun to catch and all, but we were looking for their trout cousins.

One of my loyal subjects

CJ guided me downstream and showed me a nice pice of the river where he'd spied a couple of big trout.  I had cut my leader back and switched to a "slumpbuster" streamer dragging it through some head-high pools going for broke.  I stripped it through CJ's pool and after a couple tries got a solid hook set.  Boy was I surprised when I landed this smallmouth bass!

I guess the water was warmer than I had thought!  Still, I ventured on in search of Salmo sp. enjoying the beauty of the river as I went.

My path crossed with David's and he hipped me to his success fishing a nymph as a dropper off a medium-sized Kaufman's stimulator.  Shortly thereafter I did find a trout lair, and hooked 2 nice rainbows. 

Several more chubs sacrificed themselves to the King, but I didn't care.  I was fishing on a beautiful stream, rain or no.  

I hooked one monster in a deep pool and his flash made my heart skip.  I got him on the reel, he surged, and my 6X tippet went "blink".  Damn!  I know where he lives though, and I'll be back.

Thanks to the Bill Wills, Southeast VA Chapter of TU for putting on this trip for the members.  I learned new waters, made new friends, had a great time, and can't wait to do it again. 

April/May 2013 anyone?