Back Creek and Upper Jackson, October 28, 2017

Will and I planned a weekend trip to the mountains, but the fall drought had keep the volume and flow of most rivers very low and so we were advised to try Back Creek and the Upper Jackson River which received constant flow from lakes and dams.  

We arrived on a gorgeous sunny Friday, but traffic on I64 had stolen our hour or two of evening fishing, so we got our campsite at Hidden Valley (virtually deserted), reconned the Back River parking situation, got dinner at Cucci's in Hot Springs, and hit the hay.

The next morning, we got up early and went on the hunt for coffee.  We filled up at a country convenience store, munched on Clif bars, and drove to the Bath County Pump Storage Station Recreation Area.  It was a glorious morning...

Camping at this facility is more pricey, $30/night instead of the $10 we paid, but it has a lot of nice family amenities.  It too was virtually deserted. 

We changed clothes, rigged up, packed our food, and were ready to go.  It was a short walk between the reservoirs to get to the river.

 While stretching my fly line, it snapped about 20' from the tip.  I tried a blood knot connection, then a nail knot, but the line kept sticking in the guides so I eventually just trimmed it at the breaking point, tied a loop, and attached my leader to the stub.  Streamside RX.  It worked fine for swinging streamers.   

Back Creek is used a lot for Project Healing Waters outings, so the access along the stream is very good with picnic tables and wide access points to the river.

Back Creek is heavily stocked and holds some large fish.  As a result, it gets lots of pressure.  Fish hold in deep, slow moving water where they can get a very good look at your fly.  We wasted time with many follows and refusals in these areas.  Enticing as it may may seem, my advice is to avoid these areas and concentrate on the fast moving water.  

I missed a few hits fishing a bullet-headed black slumpbuster.  After losing all those in trees, I tied on a bullet-headed black woolly bugger and started getting more hits.  Perhaps the slumpbuster was just too much meat!  My first landed fish of the day came at about 1 PM... 

 

It was a 16+ Rainbow in a skinny seam where fast water dumped into a hole.  I had fished almost as far up towards the dam as possible, and started to walk back downstream to find Will and possibly change venues.  I stopped at one spot where I had had a hit and a miss on the slumpbuster and on the second cast got another nice rainbow.

 On your way sir...

 I found Will and we decided to go use our remaining hours of daylight to see what the Upper Jackson had to offer.  We navigated Will's trusty Honda to the Poor Farm Road access point.

 

 We made a pact that we would walk at least 15 minutes before we started to fish to try to avoid heavily pressured water.  We walked until the trail stopped and Will fished a nymph while I swung streamers.

 I started to recognize parts of the river and came to a spot where there used to be a downed tree over a deep hole.  I had broken off a large fish years ago fishing with David N.  and knew it was a good lie.  I had lost the woolly bugger so opted for an olive slumpbuster tied with pine squirrel fur.  I worked the hole methodically and finally got a solid strike.  Not the largest, but the prettiest rainbow of the day...

 See you next time little buddy....

 There was heavy rain in the overnight forecast and for the next day and our tent really wasn't ready for that weather so we grabbed some comfort food at the Country Inn in Warm Springs and then Will took me back to my car at the park-n-ride west of Richmond. Although there were lots of deer between Richmond and Williamsburg to worry about, it was smooth sailing until I hit a 9-mile bumper to bumper back up due to construction on I64.  That added an hour to my already late 1AM home arrival ETA.  I stayed alert listening to the XM radio 80's Saturday Night Dance Party.  Pulled into the driveway at 2AM, wedged myself into the bed between my wife and the two dogs (we were dogsitting) and closed my eyes.

Time to re-stock my box with streamers and nymphs, get a new 5-wt. fly line, and perform other maintenance.

Thanks Will for a great day on the water.  Fall trout fishing is always special.  Back to the salt in two weeks for some false albacore fishing in NC.  Until then...

Peace! 

 

Will's First Trout! October 25, 2013

My friend Will was getting interested in fly fishing, getting geared up, taking lessons, and doing his research. As his personal Wizard of OZ, I deemed what he hadn't got, was a trip to catch his first trout. 

This post is dedicated to Will and his first fly-caught trout! 

Since Will is a backpacker and hiker extraordinaire, I though I would take him to the Laurel Fork on the VA/WV border. It's a nice 3.5 mile hike in, and pretty water to boot. We left on a Wednesday afternoon for the long drive to the Laurel.

In the pitch black of country roads over the mountains of the George Washington National Forest (Bullpasture, Jack, Back Creek, Lantz, and Middle Mountain), we started to notice something in the headlights.  What could that be?  Ash from a fire? Holy smokes!  That's snow.  But wait, it's only October 22!  This is the scene that awaited us when we made it to the campground at the trailhead.



Shouting many expletives, we pitched the tent hurriedly, fluffed the sleeping bags, made a quick run to the loo, and then hit the hay.  

We slept comfortably enough.  We got up to find a couple of inches of powder on the ground so we made quick work of getting a fire going to cook breakfast.

"Will, did you bring a cook set? No, didn't you bring yours?"  That's how we learned that we  would be making coffee water in the iron skillet!  It wasn't too bad.  As we sipped warm beverages, Will demonstrated his prowess with eggs and sausage in the skillet on an open fire.  Yum!

After breakfast, we got our gear assembled - anxious to get moving on our 3.5 mile hike down to the Laurel Fork.

With the snow, the trail was beautiful!

However, the wet snow on the ground stuck to the bottom of our boots making walking difficult - it was like we were walking on stilts!

We spied some trout in the tiny pools on the Locust Spring adjacent to the Locust Spring Run Trail which buoyed our spirits and gave us reason o anticipate the good fishing that awaited us down below.  Once we made it to the Laurel Fork, I coached Will in the arts of casting and nymphing in between flurries that persisted all day.  

The Fork was gorgeous blanketed in a fresh coat of snow.  

Needless to say, we had the river to ourselves.  Unfortunately, the gods were not smiling on Will.  There were a few takes, but no hookups.  That's the way it goes sometimes…

We hiked out before dark, broke down the gear, and celebrated a beautiful day on the river.

We drove from Bartow, WV and headed towards our next day's destination, the Upper Jackson River, and our campsite at Hidden Valley Recreation Area.  As we drove south, the snow cleared and we were blessed with this view on Route 640.

We must've seen 1,000 deer in the fields as we went south on Route 640 and then on Rt. 220.  We drove to Hot Springs and had Italian subs for dinner and lingered to imbibe many cups of hot coffee to warm up for another night in the cold.  

We picked our spot at Hidden Valley, paid our fee, pitched the Big Agnes, and hit the hay.  There were snow flurries again.

The next morning, we woke and Will got the jump on the fire, thoroughly cleaned out the skillet so we could make debris-free hot beverages, and then we had a second round of campfire eggs and sausage.

We had a nice chat with the campground host, broke camp and got to the business of trout fishing. 

The hike from Hidden Valley to the special regulation section above Muddy Run was only 1.5 miles, but we figured even that distance would be enough to discourage many anglers and that the trout there would be less harassed. 

(A note to self - work some blaze orange into the fishing ensemble.  There were lots of hunters (bow season) at the campgrounds and in the area.)

The hike in was easy (on no!) - through fields and on gravel paths all the way to the swinging bridge.  We must've seen at least 20 woolly bear caterpillars on the path!

  

The weather seemed as if it would be at least 10 degrees warmer than the day before - cool, but with sunny skies and pleasant conditions.  The stream at the swinging bridge was inviting!

We worked our way upstream - Will fishing a nymph and me swinging large streamers through the deeper holes in the river.  Within about 30 minutes, I heard some excitement down below, and sure enough, Will was into his first fish.  It was a beaut!  I hope he saved that prince nymph for a keepsake.

We continued to fish the rest of the day.  This section of the upper Jackson was gorgeous, with "I know there's got to be a big one in there"-water, and although the weather was warmer, we never did have much bug activity and no rising trout.  Will stayed with the nymphs and I kept swinging streamers through deep pockets, but with no success.  

THERE"S GOT TO BE A BIG ONE IN HERE!!!

No matter.  Will got his first fish - mission accomplished.  The scenery both days was spectacular, the company was great, the camping was good, what more could you as for.

We celebrated the fish back in the Hidden Valley parking with a little more Devils Backbone Striped Bass Pale Ale as we de-frocked, laid our gear to rest, and prepared for the next part of our journey.  We were meeting up with friends at the Devils Backbone Brewery for dinner and some bluegrass music before hiking for 2 days on the Appalachian Trail.  You can read about that part of the adventure (coming soon) at:  www.ofthwoods61.blogspot.com.

Now this is living!

Peace!