Beaver Creek, VA 1-14-13

I've been  wanting to revisit Beaver Creek since my last trip in November, and Monday was clear on the calendar.  I left the house at 3:30 and headed west. I arrived at the Ottobine Country Store at 5:35 a.m. and was the sole car in the lot.  I waited till about 5:45 when I saw some activity in the store. I paid $10, grabbed my pass and headed up to the elementary school parking lot.  Daylight would not be for another hour -- that's the downside of Beaver Creek fishing.  I rigged my 4-wt Orvis TLS Power Matrix ( predecessor to the Access line) with a sculpin and hit the water.  Weather was overcast and air temps 45-50 degrees... good fishing weather, or so I thought. Nothing seemed to be working swinging streamers downstream. I changed up colors and patterns of sculpins and woolly buggers and varied retrieves -- no luck.  A disconcerting image I found in one pool that has an overhanging edge that allows you clearly look down was the presence of suckers in huge numbers.  When I was here in November, the pool was full of trout... now suckers and an isolated few trout?  I switched tactics to dead drift nymphing and finally found modest success.  Using a tandem rig of copper john and zebra midge I finally enticed a 14-in rainbow to strike.

I had a couple other strikes, but nothing was brought to hand.

I'm not sure why the fishing was so tough today compared to my last trip.  The presence of suckers this time of year also has me puzzled.  Until next time... tight lines!  spl

New Year's Day 2013 - Passage Creek, VA

What better way to start the new year than waking up at 5:30 New Year's Day and loading up the truck for a early morning fishing trip in the Shenandoahs.  Destination was Passage Creek near Front Royal.  Air temps started in the 20s and never got much higher than mid-30s..... it was cold! I met Dave McKissick there. Dave is a regular Orvis fly fishing customer and he's fished Passage Creek with some success in the past.  We met at the Fish Cultural Station at sunrise, and after rigging up my Orvis TLS Power Matrix 4-wt headed downstream to fish that section first.  We threw woolly buggers and an assortment of nymphs with no success. After taking a short break to warm up in the truck, we headed upstream and fished a really nice looking hole up by the dam. After changing up flies again and again, I finally felt that welcome bend of the rod tip as a pretty rainbow sipped a red #20 Copper John nymph.  

 Alas, that was the only fish of the day.  After snapping a quick pic, I gently released it back to its hole.  As the feeling in my toes was nowhere to be found due to the icy water temps, it was time to pack it in the for morning and head on home.
Passage Creek Delayed Harvest Section is definitely worth another visit this spring when the water temps warm a bit.
Welcome 2013. spl