2026 Trout fishing Slaty Fork, WV: May 31 - June 1

A week of rain had dashed my plans with my friend Christopher to fish the Slaty Fork section of the Elk River in WV, and to catch the quicksilver from last year where Will and I had rising fish on green drakes and sulphurs all day long.  I was watching the river gauge every hour as the flow climbed to over 100 cfs (avg is 350), then to over 2,000 cfs, and then after another hard rain to over 3,000 cfs!  Stream cameras showed a torrent of chocolate milk raging down the river.

No rain on Thursday, no rain on Friday, the gauge was dropping.  I decided to throw caution to the wind; I needed to get in the woods regardless of catchability.  So on Saturday, I decided to leave early Sunday morning, drive to WV, set up camp and then fish Sunday afternoon and Monday.

I got up at 5 am on Sunday and made my way to Staunton, where I gassed up, not knowing what my options would be in the wilds of WV; I just knew they would be expensive.  I actually found gas 60 cents cheaper than home (how is that possible in rural VA?!) near Liberty, a nugget that I tucked away for future westward jaunts.  Then I wound my way through the mountains and the backroads of WV, past the confederate flags, until I found Tea Creek Campground and crossed the bridge to find my spot.

I would highly recommend Tea Creek.  It's clean, the sites are nice, acceptable pit toilets, and for the low low price of $15 cash per night - $7.50 if you have a national America The Beautiful park pass.  I quickly erected my Big Agnes UL1 tent, blew up my mattress and hustled off to Slaty, about 18 miles away.

I got to the parking lot around 1 pm and, being Sunday, there were four other cars in the parking lot.  Without high expectations, I took my time to gear up and hit the trail. 

There were these groves of giant queen anne's lace looking plants along the trail that really captured my attention; the photo does not do them justice!

Seeing the purple, pink, and white phlox is also always a joy.  I continued down the abandoned train tracks to the spot where Will and I had done so well last year. 

As I sat down to load the road and attach a fresh 5X leader, this waterlogged bugger was spotted crawling around on a nearby rock.  At 2", what the hell is this thing?!  

 I was tempted to chum with him, but in the end, just let him be.  Even though there were no bugs on the water, I knotted on a size 12 green drake and cast to the bubble line along this long and dark pool.

I drew no attention along it's length so started walking downstream, when I saw a nice rise.  I set up a little downstream and cast so my big fly would get sucked into the flow right along the edge of a rock and BAM!  Fish on!

No monster, but a promising start.  I wanted to work downstream, but after a short while spotted two other anglers so I forded the stream and walked back to my original point and started working upstream to some familiar water where I had also done well last year.  

I waded and fished about 1/2 a mile upstream, but saw no risers and got no other bites.  I ended up at a big long pool where I saw a huge fish crushing something with a rise form that suggested he was eating subsurface.  I threw a couple casts with my big green drake, and then switched to an emerger, but the water was so slow, my guess was the big fish was just cruising around and picking off emergers at will - no pattern, no feeding lane, almost impossible to hook (so I soothed my ego).  I stopped fishing around 7pm and hiked the short way back to the car.  

It was near dark when I arrived; I made a quick meal, looked for the mini blue moon (no luck because of all the tree cover), and then hit the hay. 

Monday arrived and I made an early morning breakfast of oatmeal and coffee - making sure not to leave any scraps behind to feed the critters.

I travelled north for a little intel to fish some new water.  This led me to the Elk River Lodge Fly Shop.

It's pricey, but a well-stocked shop, with lots of flies, line, tippet, etc. but the proprietor was not too helpful, telling me the Elk was too low and clear and practically unfishable.  I did not tell him about my success the day before.  I bought a few more green drake emergers with a cdc post and gawked at the pay for fish ponds outside the shop before heading back upstream.

Wanting to see for myself, I stopped at the access point to the lower section of the Slaty Fork, thinking that it might get less pressure.  I found the tiny parking lot, dismayed at the no camping sign there.

Indeed, the water was lower than the southern section, but probably fishable.

 I should have fished it, but instead caved and went south.  There werre only two cars in the parking lot when I pulled in.  I suited up and made a promise to walk further downstream and fish new water.  Along the trail are remnants of the old railway, tracks, junctions, out buildings...

I fished the same pool as the day before and worked it from bottom to top.  I did see one rise in a nearly impossible pocket, but one where I had caught fish before.  On the second cast I got a take from a nice fish, but was slow on the hook set so that's all she wrote!  I took my lumps and walked another 30 minutes downstream.  For the effort, I was gifted with this stunning deep bend pool. 

I put the backpack down and pulled out my jar of peanut butter, spooned out a couple dollops and had a few hand-fulls of trail mix.  While relaxing, I saw some small fish rising in an eddy.  I put on one of the store-bought emergers and proceeded to miss at least a dozen takes.  I'm glad I was alone so no one could hear me curse myself!  I missed a nicer fish in the seam and then after putting everyone down, I moved around the bend hoping to change my luck.  The puddling butterflies soothed my tender ego.

Downstream, I didn't see any risers, but the emerger was drawing strikes.  My intuition was good, my casts were on point, but my reactions were still slow.  I missed fish after fish.  I hooked one nice fish, but broke him off.  I went back upstream into the eddy and did finally land a small rainbow - thank god!

But I could not shake my poor reflexes.  I'd put the fly where I thought fish would be, saying "they should take it right about now"; they would AND I would miss them!  Was it lack of faith, confidence or something else?  As I worked upstream, I ended up catching 3 total, but for every one I caught, I swear I missed 15 hits!  So frustrating.  Even thought there were no risers, the emerger was drawing strikes in all the good water.  I fished about 1.5 miles back to the first big pool where I started and took a few casts at the near-impossible fish, but there was no fooling him.

I promised I would stop at 5 pm and made it back to the car at 5:15.  As I changed out of my sweat soaked everything, I chatted up a local who was just heading out.  He peaked my interest when he talked about fishing mice patterns at night.  I told him Slaty kicked my ass today, and he said "that's just Slaty", which made me feel a tad bit better.

I had to realize the amazing fishing I had the year before was epic, not likely to be repeated again.  The Slaty Fork section of the Elk is beautiful, hard to time without being local, especially since it seems to rise and fall so quickly and the nearby Elk River stream gauge doesn't seem to accurately reflect the conditions in this section. I'm sure I'll go back, hoping to catch a great hatch and landing big fish all day, but I'm also going to fish some of the other areas in WV as the state seems to have a lot to offer.

Until next time....

Peace.