Get out on the River

"Fish come and go, but it is the memory of afternoons on the stream that endure." 

- E. Donnall Thomas

Fritz on my favorite Bend of the North Fork

5 Days before Fritz and I hit the North Fork of the Shenandoah Woodstock, VA was underwater as tributaries of the North Fork took over the town.  

We had hoped that the river had recovered fully, it had lowered to fishable levels but the but the smallies were more reserved than my last few trips here and I'd say that the catch rate was in the neighborhood of 50% of the last trip.  

Fortunately however the catching was only a part of the enjoyment.  The river was beautiful, Fritz and I enjoyed catching up, and we worked for the majority of the fish we caught.  

We intended to go slow and deep with weighted flies for bigger fish but the river simply wasn't settled out and the bronzebacks were widely distributed throughout the water not holding particularly to classic holding water. 

 After sporadic success with most streamers we found (once again) that the fly of the day was the golden retriever fished in tandem.  I believe the first retriever stimulates excited frenzy and the smallies then smack the dropper fly in their fury.  

Most of the 100-odd smallies we caught were also, interestingly caught on upstream strips as opposed to the drift or sweep.   Fritz and I could see bronzebacks checking out the flies on cross-stream strips, drifts and sweeps but they really hit very seldom with those patterns.  

Fish on on an upstream strip along the bank

Its hard to find a fish that's a better fighter than a bronzeback

 

Get out on the river with a friend -- its hard to find a prettier place