North Fork Shenandoah +120

The bronzebacks had been calling so Paul and I met off 66 and journeyed to the North Branch of the Shenandoah in Woodstock on Friday morning.  

"Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God." - Tony Blake

The June sun was already high in the sky when I stashed Emily's old orange rock-hopper under a big sycamore tree at our take-out at the low water bridge off Lupkin Road.  We retraced the road to the next upstream low water bridge and rigged up. 

Paul lands his first smallie within sight of the put-in.   Notice the high brown water

Paul started with a medium-weight spinning rod a gold floating rapala and tube baits and I rigged 3,4 and 5 wt long rods with various smallmouth friendly streamers.   The water was as high as I've fished it and stained brown from recent run off.   It was fishable, but with the water level and the lack of clarity I knew would make for a long slog.  We slid the canoe into the brownish water at 0800, finished rigging up and made our way pretty quickly to the first bend in the river where Harry Murray had recommended that I start fishing.

Paul surveys the first straightaway just before the turtle encounter

We had the first smallie at about the same time as Paul felt a large log pass between his calves...not true...the log turned out to be one of the largest snapping turtles either of us had ever seen.   It passed (through) Paul and floated with the current by me 30 feet later about just a smidgen smaller that the lid on an old aluminum garbage pail -- orangish brown in color - it was amazing.  While we couldn't see the bottom, we learned to feel our way downstream by feel of our toes as much as by sight.

Paul beating the heat -- the pics look washed out from the sunlight

In short order the sun was beating down on us and Paul, who was catching his share with his rapala, agreed that he could catch just as many with a fly rod.   We took turns throughout the rest of the day passing back and forth the 4wt Orvis Clearwater and the 5 wt Access I had brought along for the trip.  This adventure I upgunned the 5 wt with 6 wt line and it really seemed to bring new vibrancy into the rod, it loaded beautifully and shot line and tandem streamers wherever I pointed it.  We tried various streamers but settled on a heavyish size 6 streamer followed by golden-retriever variants.

The guys loved the the Golden Retriever

After a few hours our goal of 100 bronzebacks seemed doable and we both hit several holes, ledges, runs and riffles where we pulled out multiple smallies. The vast majority of our smallies today were small sophomores but every 5th fish was more respectable with the largest small-mouth of the day just about 11 inches.   It surprised us that 95% or better of the fish caught were smallies.   I would have guessed that they would have been about 50% of the catch with sunfish accounting for a far higher percentage.    The small-mouth were aggressive and dirty-aplenty.

Fish-on!

Half way through the fish, about midway through the bow of the horseshoe a welcome thunderstorm pushed just north of us and lent us some clouds to cool us off.  Paul no longer had to fish through a deep hoe to cool himself off.  Exhausted after more than 8 hours on the river and just about at the same time that the river deepened approaching the take-out we hopped in the canoe for the last 90 minutes.   Paul worked casts from the bow and I stood in the back and hit likely deep spots with my Golden retriever.   It was amazing and to see the smallies rise up from the depths and shwack our offerings.  I reminded myself how much I like casting and fishing from an elevated position to see the takes.

Standard third year bronzeback

 I stopped counting at 70 smallies and Paul had comparable numbers, so I'd estimate that we caught somewhere north of 120 smallies and a 130 fish brought to hand total -- amazing day.  A local walking along the low water bridge was happy to tell us that he'd caught 5.   We just smiled at him and told him that we'd caught a few too.

Paul: fish on with a 4wt

Head bobbing in a deep section -- Paul works the right bank -- I remember Henry taking a similar picture in the this same spot.