Skidmore Fork and North River August 2020

All this work at home during COVID with no escape, begged for some R&R in the mountains.  JC and Will were game so we arranged a quick trip to the George Washington National Forest for some trout fishing.

We made a quick stop at the South River Fly Shop in Waynesboro so JC could get some waders and boots to up his wet wading tenkara game.  Here is the happy camper!  

We left on a Thursday afternoon and made an early dinner stop at our regular watering hole - Blue Mountain Brewery.  I was good and had a salad along with my Kolsch.  

With rain in the forecast and all the extra fly fishing gear, we opted for a drive up campsite rather than backpacking in somewhere.  Hone Quarry campground fit the bill.

Hone Quarry is very basic - no water, no electric, but it does have a pit toilet and the $5/night fee is unbeatable.  There were only a couple other campers so we pretty much had our choice of campsites.  We picked a nice high, level one next to the stream.  With more rain forecast and the threat of flash floods, we wanted to make sure the site wouldn't flood or pond water.

The picturesque Briery Branch flowed behind our campsite, providing white noise for a great night's sleep.

JC and I woke up Friday morning, cooked a simple breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and headed north and west to meet Will at the Skidmore Fork parking lot.  Even though Will came separately from Richmond, we arrived within seconds of each other.  We suited up and started hiking to the Switzer Dam.   On the way, JC spotted this newt...

Arrival at the dam.  The meadow was full of butterflies!

The fishing in the pool below the dam bottom release was good and it was hard to leave, but eventually we did, but not before catching many brookies on parachute Adams, and yellow stimulators.

We moved downstream and split up, each of us deploying at one of the stream crossings and working upstream so as not to risk fishing water that had already been disturbed.  The water in the Skidmore was good and the fish were cooperative.  It's a beautiful little stretch of water.

It started to rain in the early afternoon, but not too bad.  I spied this one little trib with a waterfall and figured a trout would be living there.  I was right!  

While my trout finding radar seemed to be on point, this was one of the most gratifying catches of the trip.  

I moved along, and continued to catch beautiful brookies on the yellow stimulator.

After losing both Stimulators,  I switched to a hand-tied Henryville Special with a little yellow foam post for visibility.   That worked too.

The rain steadily increased, and even though we had intended to fish the Dry River for a few hours, we were thinking about our campsite, cooking and eating in the rain, and that was not too appealing so we called it a day and headed for the comfort of Harrisonburg for food and dryness.  We stopped at the Mossy Creek Fly Fishing store, aka the "Candy Store" and restocked on yellow stimulators, ants, and beetles, I got some crosscut rabbit for steelhead flies, and we got some intel from Brian on the next day's fishing.  Stopping in at Mossy is always a good time. Afterwards, we had some wood-fired pizza and ale. 

Returning to the campsite, we were pleased to find that the front had shifted, sparing our campsite and we were able to get a fire going with the aid of a Duraflame's pyrotechnics.  We talked story until 9:30 then retired for the night.  Unfortunately, I blew out my Big Agnes sleeping pad (warranty TBD).  JC came to the rescue with a spare foam pad on which to rest my old bones.

The next day, on Brian's advice, we headed south and west to the North River.  Pretty stream!

Like the previous day, we split up on different sections of the river.  Will shook off his troubles from the day before and resumed his penchant for catching the largest, fattest Brookies.

The river was full of caterpillars, and giant, beautiful butterflies.  Here's one of the smaller, but no less beautiful ones...

We all had good luck on the North River.  In the fast, rain-infused creeks, the yellow stimulator, and it's other-colored cousins as flies were lost, produced all day long.  Love my Taylor reel and G Loomis NRX rod!

In some of the deeper pools, I tried streamers, and nymphs, but got no love.  It seemed like a dry fly day and we were NOT complaining. In this deep, long pool, little brookies were rising everywhere.  I landed a bunch.

I meet up with JC as he covered this deep pool with his Patagonia/TFO tenkara rod.  He pulled many fish out of this pool.  He begged me to try streamers to get down, but again, no takes.

JC's beautiful pool... aka, the hornet's nest pool.

I was fascinated by the rocks in the stream and wished I knew more about the geology of this area.  I kept coming across these dark black rocks with a streak of white crystal in them.  

They must be tough, because I hunted for a small, broken-off piece, but could not find one.  I liked the fascinating rocks, the massive butterflies everywhere, and the fact that the bug life was healthy and on display.  Crossing this rotting tree-fall, a giant millipede was just chilling - perhaps having munched on some tasty mushroom.

One of his caterpillar buddies...

The forecasted rain stayed away, we caught many, many Brookies and had a great day.  Feeling fully satisfied, we called it an early afternoon in anticipation of the drive home to Richmond and Hampton Roads.

JC and I said our goodbyes and parted ways with Will on the back roads around Churchville and we navigated to Starbucks in Staunton to juice up before the 3+ hour drive home.  Fully caffeinated, we enjoyed good conversation until we made it to JC's house.  I threw my wet waders, and camping gear into the Outback and was home in 30.

Thanks for a great trip guys.  Can't wait to do it again!

Peace.

Guided Trip with Mossy Creek Fly Fishing

My friend David is lucky.  Out of 4000+ entrants, he won a Distinction Magazine (www.distinctionhr.com) "Get Hooked Up" contest for a guided fishing trip with Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg, VA.  I'm even luckier, because he invited me to go along with him!

We left South Hampton Roads at 12:30 for the drive to Harrisonburg, VA.  It's amazing once you get past Williamsburg how easy the travel is!  We had great conversation and listened to mountain tunes as the miles ticked away.  Crossing the Blue Ridge on Rt. 64 provides spectacular views.

As we went, we were intently surveying all the streams that crossed our path.  Three days of constant and pouring rain rain early in the week had left everything we had seen like a fast flowing river of chocolate milk.  And yet, we had faith.

We made it to Harrisonburg at just past 4 pm so we decided to hit the Mossy Creek Fly Shop to ogle at their fine selection of equipment and fly tying materials (1790 E Market St #92, Harrisonburg, VA 22801; http://www.mossycreekflyfishing.com/).  We purchased a few things including the materials needed for a black sculpin pattern that we thought we'd tie up for the occasion.

We had a nice conversation with Brian Trow, co-owner of the shop and guide service with his brother Colby.  John Fall with Distinction Magazine showed up and we talked excitedly about the next day's fishing.  Brian informed us that they hadn't gotten as much rain as forecast so the rivers would be off-color, but fishable - especially with streamers - perfect for targeting larger fish!  The off-color water also provided the advantage of letting us get closer to the stream without being detected by the fish.

After a while, we headed over to the Stonewall Jackson Inn (http://www.stonewalljacksoninn.com) where we would be staying for the night.  The Inn was built in the 1880s and was one of many large grand homes that populated E. Market Street.  It's a beautiful place and Mimi, our host, was a delight.  David and I got the east facing room (the "Grant" room), stowed our stuff, and joined John on the back patio for some beers and good conversation peppered with pictures of fish.

At around 7 pm we rendezvoused with the crew, Michael Wood from Dogwood Black (a custom shirt production and bow tie company:  dogwoodblack.com/), John Fall, Brian and Colby Trow, Jessica our photographer, and David and I, for dinner at the Local Chop and Grill House (http://www.localchops.com).  The food was out of this world with some of the best scallops I've ever tasted!  Go there!  Everything on the menu we had got rave reviews!  Lots more great conversation later, spiritually and physically full, we retired back to the Inn.

Thinking of the fun to be had, I could barely sleep, and got up early the next morning to catch the rising sun in the backyard of the Inn.

With its spacious yard, it would be an excellent place for a family reunion, summer party, or other gathering.  All you JMU moms and dads, check it out!

David joined me, we raided the kitchen for some wake up juice, we set to tying some of the sculpins Brian had recommended.  

We dressed them in black and David dubbed the creation the Stonewall sculpin!

We had a fantastic breakfast at the Inn and then met up with everyone at the Mossy Creek Fly Shop.  

Our first stop was a stretch of water near the Mossy Creek Lodge (http://www.mossycreekflyfishing.com/streams/private-water/the-lodge.aspx)

Brian Trow guided us, gave us flies, and tips to fish the stream and within no time we had fish on.  This stream is loaded with quality wild fish.  Some of the rainbows were post-spawn and still impressive even with washed-out colors.  The browns were chunky!

Fishing streamers and 0X tippet, Brian had to remind us to set the hook well and keep a tight line so that the barbless hooks would not come unbuttoned!  We lost a few fish before we got the hang of it.

The pastoral setting of these private Mossy Creek waters was spectacular and we couldn't have asked for better guides or weather.  I've been fly fishing for close to 40 years, but Brian taught me many new things.  His intimate knowledge of the stream and its ecosystem, of the fish lies, of proper approach, casting, and line management gave me insights to make be a better angler - and he's a fun guy to be with too! 

This is a pretty common wild brown football on the private waters.

Wading bird footprints on the soft mud banks underscores the protected habitat and superior management of these private access areas.  When the weather warms up, the banks will be covered with vegetation.

Here's David fishing for the "bridge troll"!  He pulled one out of the cover of the shadows.

For me, this was the killer fly of the day, the Trow brothers creation - the "Critter-mite". This fly was getting it done all day long!  Buy some as soon as you can get your hands on them!  They're in short supply!   

They would also make a dynamite smally fly too!

We moved to a new stream section, had a catered lunch streamside, and then continued to fish.  I was swinging the critter-mite through deeper pools and along undercut banks and picking up fish.  We were having the best day!

To change things up an see more water, we moved again to a different spring creek. It was getting later in the day and the wind was picking up forecasting some impending weather.  The Trow brothers took us to this spot on Beaver Creek where a set of riffles dumps into a deep broad pool in hopes we might find some dry fly action.  Brian rigged up a caddis fly on top with a psycho nymph dropper.  Due to the fast running water, we needed more depth so Brian then added a second nymph, a caddis pupa, to get down to the fish.  More lessons on how to fish the stretch, reach casts, and mending lines were all appreciated.

I had one fish porpoise after the caddis dry, but miss.  I caught a fall fish on the psycho nymph.  Shortly thereafter, I landed what is probably my biggest brookie ever - a fine 15" specimen!  A few more casts, and then the caddis submerged.  I was late to set the hook and had to remind myself to do a 6X hook set, not a 0X hook set!  The line moved away not too fast, but then Brian reminded me we had not yet seen the fish and not to get too cavalier.  After about a minute we both saw a flash of the broadside and we both gasped #$&&@!  I played this lunker for about 5 minutes and did my best to smoothly palm my no-drag reel.  On about the fourth set of runs and returns, just as I was getting the fish close to shore and the net, the fly popped out.  Ouch!  

Brian consoled me as a good guide would, but we both left that run with some heavy regret!

Nearing 5 pm, we moved down to one last run. Here we were greeted by the pool overlord!

David caught a nice fish along this run and I pulled out a small brown myself.

It was time to head back to the vehicles, but Brian wanted me to plumb that first pool one more time with a Kreelex fly

(http://www.mossycreekstore.com/Brass-Eyed-Kreelex-00001.htm). Within minutes, I saw a nice fish chase it to the shore before the pickup.  Following Brian's lead, I made a few progressive casts out into the main channel.  On the last cast, a fish grabbed the fly as soon as it hit the water and put a deep bend in the 5-weight.  Brian reminded me to put a good "0X" hook set on and we were off to the races.  This lunker rainbow jumped at least 4 times.  David got the whole thing on video.  We finally got him into the net and there was much rejoicing all around!  What a beaut!

I can't say enough about our day thanks to John Fall at Distinction Magazine, Mike at Dogwood Black, and the boys at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing.  It was a trip I'll long remember and we couldn't have asked for better or more fun guides as we found in the Trow brothers.  Book them and you'll have the time of your life!  I can't want to meet up with them again for a smallmouth bass float trip!

Look for more photos and the rest of the story in the upcoming edition of Distinction Magazine (www.distinctionhr.com) and on David's blog:  http://myleakywaders.blogspot.com/.

peace