I fished the confluence for the first time this year as a scouting trip for Bill Pfeiffer's trip to Va next weekend.
I parked at the end of the Richards
Ferry Rd and Mt biked in, 10-min. The
weather was sunny and 70 with light wind.
I noted when I crossed the Rappahanock at Ely's Ford that there was a
lot of water in the Rapidan and it looked quite brown.
When I got to the confluence campsite I
found, to my surprise 15 dudes there with 10 canoes, they were from the
Spottsylvania Fire & Rescue and had put in the day before at Elys. They were messy but pleasant enough. It was apparent that there was far more water
in the Rapidan than the Rappahanock. The
Rapidan was really unfishable and borderline dangerous. The Rappahanock was
high but much clearer and just fishable.
The reading on the Fredericksburg gauge was 3.28. This reaffirms that I
really want to fish the confluence at or below 3 on the Fredericksburg gauge.
There was one other gent fly fishing the
Rapp lower into the confluence his name was Lindsey and he was from Southern
MD. I began and fished the nearside of the Rapp up about 100-150 yards from the
camp site. I used a 4wt rod and line and
found that it was too light for the #6
bead head bugger I was casting, I'll bring a 5 wt next time. I primarily fished back into structure along
the bank as the flow in the middle was too much for me to target runs and
holes. I caught 4-5 good sized panfish,
great fighters, and 3 smallmouth in 75-min of fishing.
As I exited and looked over to the
Rapidan there was a large moccasin slithering in the roots close bye trying to
avoid the current.
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