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.   

Speckled Trout Fishing on VA's Eastern Shore 2012

Here is a video of a speckled trout outing on the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore.  One word describes it:  "mirrorlike"!


Eastern Shore Speckled Trout Fishing from Coastal Explorer on Vimeo.

"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!