Big Run Farewell, May 2015

It's sad, but true; my good friend David is leaving VA to head back to his native streams in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  So it was with great urgency that we fish one last time in the bosom of the Shenandoah.  We chose Big Run for some sweet, blue line brookies.  After a successful Bill Wills SE VA TU "Trout in the Classroom" release of fingerling brookies in the South River (Waynesboro), I shanghaied Logan, had a relaxing dinner at Blue Mountain Brewery, and we met David and Robert at the Rockfish Gap entrance station to the Shenandoah National Park. 

Like other "hike in" streams in the mountains, fishing Big Run requires a commitment.  The downhill to the stream is easy enough, but time-consuming.  The hike out after a day's fishing - that's another story!

We camped overnight Saturday, rose early and made a quickie, just-add-water breakfast, and hit the Big Run Loop Trail at 7:30 am.  We wore light hikers and packed in waders and boots to make all the hike more bearable.

And so the trail begins…

We kept a good pace on the descent, making note of all the blooming flowers on the way.  They were diminutive, but pretty.

The white petals on a dogwood tree are technically sepals, not  "flowers".  The flower is the yellow/green explosion in the center of the white sepals.

One of the many feeder streams entering Big Run.  Every addition made the run bigger, wider, and deeper.

More flowers….

 We're suckers for blue line fishing.  Trickle of a stream - we'll fish it!  But this time we heeded the advice of of the folks from the South River Fly Shop and we agreed to bypass some earlier water and press on to the lower section of the stream along the Big Run Portal Trail.  It was hard to pass up promising water, but we had faith…

We switched from hiking shoes to waders and wading boots and started licking our chops.  I stayed with Logan for a bit, but it didn't take long before he got the hang of approaching pools from below and fishing his way up to the heads of the pools.  He had his first fish in short order.  For safety, we made plans to all rendezvous for lunch and so we could compare notes.

I didn't see a whole lot of rises, none actually, so even though I saw one huge brown mayfly and one big yellow bug, I decided to fish a bead-head pheasant-tailed nymph.  It was a good choice.

Here is the first of my fish that day...

And the fish were cooperative….

I took five fish up against this bank; two of the brookies were 10-11 inches.  Here's Robert seeing if the brookies would come for a dry fly take.

The brookies were loving the pheasant-tailed nymph, and I was happy to give them a little exercise.

 

Here's Logan laying out a nice line with his new kit.

We hop-scotched our way downstream, section by section fishing our way upstream.  Unconventional?  Perhaps, but effective nonetheless.  The fish were treating us nice. 

Below the confluence of the Big Run and Rocky Mtn. Run, the stream just got prettier and prettier…. 

Pretty, pretty pools.  I don't know about the other guys, but in the slower water, I was catching some pretty big chubs and a few dace.  So I tended to pass up those sections as I made my way NW.

More flowers….

Below the confluence there was a fairly long flat staircase section of the stream.  It was pretty, but did not appear to offer any holding water so I moved on. 

After lunch I enjoyed a steady pick of fish.  I had left the Scott 3 wt. in the car and instead focused my attention on my Tenkara USA "Rhodo" rod.  I had used it sporadically over the past year, but on this day, it really proved its metal and I'm not sure I'll ever go back to a rod and reel in the Shenandoah.  The Tenkara is perfect for these brookie streams!  Thanks to David for getting me hooked!

At lunch we had agreed to stop fishing at 4 pm so we could hike the ~4 miles back up the Big Run Portal and Big Run Loop Trails before dusk - the last ~2 miles would be a steady and torturous uphill climb after an early rise, hike down, and full day of fishing.  The fishing was fairly closed in making casting a technical affair.  To fish this stream, an angler needs to cast over, in-between, and through bushes, tree branches, and tall weeds.  

I broke off my nymph on some outstretched obstruction or other and lost a fair amount of tippet to boot.  It was getting late, past 4 :), so, like the saltwater fly fishing heretic that I am, I loop-to-looped a section of 5X to the snapped leader's end and put my faith in a parachute Adams to round out the day on dries.

I got to this picturesque pool and knew this was the place!  I picked up one fish, but the rise and take made me forsake my 4 pm promise and I had to have another.  Thankfully, I didn't have long to wait!  

I telescoped the Tenkara USA Rhodo down and joined David, Logan, and Robert for the long climb out.  After a couple of fords, we switched out of our waders and boots, and back into day-hikers.  Sweet relief!  Up we climbed, and climbed, and climbed.  We took breaks, snacked, and drank what water we had left - knowing that we had a sixer of Blue Mountain Brewery Kolsch-151 in the cooler in the car as a reward.

We were happy to see the rock walls lining the Blue Ridge Parkway - that's when we knew our uphill ordeal was over.  We had a nice little celebration in the parking lot recounting the day's events.  Then we beat it back to Charlottesville for some Mexican food before the ride back to Hampton Roads.  Logan and I traded "my favorite band" stories to pass the time.  

I pitched Logan and his stuff out at around 10:30 pm  and made my way home savoring the memories - great scenery, great water, great fishing, great friends!  What a combination! 

I'm looking forward to the movie version of our trip on the "My Leaky Waders" Vimeo website.

David we will miss you.  Come back to VA and the Shenandoah - looking forward to fishing with you and JR! 

Peace!  

Floating the Shenandoah River for Smallmouth Bass May 18, 2013

Floating the Shenandoah River for Smallmouth Bass from Coastal Explorer on Vimeo.

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!

"No Name" Stream George Washing National Forest, January 2013

David, Chris, and I decided to go fishing and stumbled upon this stream.  It's probably typical of the small streams that are not listed in the guide books but that exist throughout the Shenandoah National Park and Jefferson and George Washington National Forests.  Go explore!

David and I left Norfolk at 5 am and rendezvoused with Chris in Hampton and headed up Rt. 64 towards the mountains.  We were feeling adventurous so we veered off the grid and found our little no name stream.

This was our first trip of the year so it took a little while to shake off the rust and get our gear squared away.

We worked our way upstream hop-scothching each other and allowing each angler a string of pools before jumping in and casting.  There were midges floating around and the temperature was in the 50's so we were hoping that we might be treated to an afternoon hatch and some rising fish. 

To start though, I used a red brassie nymph that has served me well last winter.  The first couple series of pools did not produce anything for me.  This is not out of the ordinary since I would call my nymphing skills rudimentary at best.  Chris fishes with much more poise and confidence; to this I aspire! 

After maybe an hour, I saw the strike indicator twitch, I lifted the rod and brought this little guy to hand.  The Chub King strikes again! Not well versed in identifying these guys, my guess is that this is a rosyface shiner.

After many other hit-less pools, I switched to a pheasant tail nymph, but still was having trouble getting a bite and I was smart enough to know that all these pools could not be empty.

It may be not true, but it seemed to me that all the logjams, sticks in the stream, and the abundance of overhanging vegetation that the stream was getting less pressure than similar plunge-pool dominated streams like the Rapidan.  It certainly made the stream more technical to fish and all my snags in and out of the water were a testament that I had not yet brought my A game.

As I worked upstream I saw this big piece of meat!

Man!  The crawdads I tie are WAY TOO SMALL!

Since I wasn't doing so well, I decided to watch Chris and learn from the master.  Here he is on a sweet run.

This was a beautiful steam with the recent snow filling all the creeks and feeders.

Here's David wielding the bamboo with crouching tiger moves.  

Chris at the top of this picturesque run choosing a winning fly combo.

Rock art.

Chris could see I was struggling so in an act of utmost kindness, he gave me the best pool I'd seen all day.  Yes, I chose my friends wisely!  I missed the first two hits, and then landed three nice, palm-sized, wild brookies.

After catching each one, I released the brookie downstream so as not to spook the pool.  Afterwards, I wondered what effect this had on the poor fish.  I imagine they gravitate to the pools as preferred habitat for feeding and living.  Maybe they will just swim downstream until they find the next pool, but what if that pool already had it's carrying capacity of fish?  I'm wondering how tightly coupled the number or size of the pools and number of fish are.  I will have to try and find out what the responsible release action should be.  I can live with only catching one per pool if it's important to release the fish back into the same pool he came from.

Here's Chris working another beautiful run.

Here he is on another late in the afternoon.

The dry fly hatch we had hoped for never came and as the sun got hung up in the hills and the stream fell into shadow, the temperature seemed to drop 10 degrees.  We layered up and pressed on, but agreed to call it quits at 4 pm so we could bushwhack back to the car before dark.

At around 4 pm, I promised myself one more pool.  I caught a nice brookie, but then Chris hop-scotched me so I felt liberated from my resolution.  I found one more promising pool and landed this little brookie - so young, he still had his par marks.

OK, I didn't want to be greedy so I stopped.  We all rendezvoused and headed back to the car picking up beer cans, plastic pop bottles, and candy wrappers as we went.  I truly can't understand the mindset of those that desecrate these beautiful natural spaces.  Unbelievable!

Anyway, it was a great day with great friends, on beautiful water.  We're blessed to live in Virginia and with access to such great year-round trout fishing.  Looking forward to stumbling upon more jewels.  Stay tuned..... 

If you enjoyed this blog post and value VA trout streams, then let Governor McDonnell know that you do not want to allow fracking in the public parks and forests!