Semper on the Fly: Laurel Fork Adventure

Prettiest Brookie of the day

The older I get the more I realize I don't know. I do know that I've had my eye on Laurel Fork in Highland County Virginia for several years. This area, oft described by nutty folk like me as heaven on earth, first came to my attention as Scott and I headed west to link up with a friend in Marlington, WVA for another adventure.

This pristine area of ridges and valleys is home to the headwaters of the Jackson, Cowpasture, Bullpasture and North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac. In one valley nestled into the VA-WVA border forest is the Laurel Fork Special Management Area about 15-miles north of Monterey, VA if you look at it on a map and can fly like a crow.

This is high country for the East Coast, just east of the Eastern Continental Divide, Spruce Knob at 4863' the highest point in WVA is just north-west and the elevation of my camp was 3,000 feet. The stream itself gets its name from the rhododendron bushes (mountain laurel), that line its banks. As I unpacked my sleeping bag at Locust Grove Camp Ground the insistent wind, crisp air and star filed sky zipped my sleeping bag up to my chin.

lighting the way down the trail

standing watch above Buck Run Trail

Laurel Fork meanders southwest to northeast picking up volume as it runs north. If you're into tracking water, Laurel Fork merges with Straight Fork in Hardscrabble, VA forming the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac. It's not a boulder-strewn high gradient Shenandoah stream but a sandstone ledge-bottom, valley-tumbler that collects flow from numerous ravine-runs that drain the ridge lines that parallel the fork. These runs {Cold Spring, Christian, Knotmaul, Buck, Locust, Slabcamp, Lost and Bearwallow) can be fished for natives themselves. I flipped dries at fat brookies finning in jacccuzi-sized pools on the hike down and up but these trout were wary of danger from above and invariably skittered into their under-ledge hidey-holes at the first sign of my approach.

wary trout were everywhere

The hike down Buck Run Trail just after sunrise was 2.9 miles of fall splendor, a moderate gradient trail tracing the descent of a finger to my right and Buck Run to my left as I descended about 1000 feet to Laurel Fork.

Sun sparkles into Buck Run as it opens into Laurel Fork valley

view downstream emerging from Buck Run trail

The morning sun pierced the hollow as it rose and made the fall colors explode providing great contrast with the bright sky in the background. Slowed by the beauty of the trail and by marveling at the fat brookies who somehow exist in the little plunge pools of the run I made it to Laurel fork at 0830.

mature male finning on a redd

I approached the stream and as I was taking a seat on a convenient ledge two swirling splashes greeted me about 5 feet away. I thought I'd stirred a water snake but for the red and white that caught my eye as I oriented on the commotion. As I stood still two fat spawning brookies returned 15 seconds later to their shallow redds in the cobble. I knew that this was spawning season and this reinforced my 'step-carefully' mode for the day. This wasn't hard as the fork's bottom is predominantly sandstone shelf and the spawning grounds in the cobble were obvious and on the edges of the stream.

3 sisters falls

these under water paw prints let you know that you share this special place

To my relative disappointment the trout were feeding actively and I really had to work for each strike. I fished downstream from Buck Run for about 300 yards with little success only bringing one trout to hand using a variety of dry dropper combinations. I turned back up stream and began fishing my favored upstream presentations when a fly landed on my glasses and as I grabbed an apple I decided to mimic it with a size 16 yellow-humpy.

I matched this hatch w a yellow humpy

dark brookie takes a humpy

whirlpool sucked .5 the flow of the rover into a cavern

This didn't blow the doors off my catch rate but with my upstream approach and the matching the small hatch (see photo) I started picking up natives on both the humpy and a #18 prince nymph.

The colors were amazing today, the sun dancing on and through the water

I worked up to Locust Spring Run and then came to a magnificent pool and decided ala Scott that if I caught a trout I'd make it my last fish on my last cast of the day. I worked the tail (see below) of the pool and saw a rise 2/3 of the way up on the right. I checked my backcast (all clear) and looped a cast to the edge of my 1wts' range, nothing on my first cast, but two casts later I had a 7-inch trophy to end the day. The walk back out was beautiful but long, a full 3.5 uphill miles later I slogged wearily into camp, dropped my gear. I was super happy the van started and that I had saved (forgotten) a Twix bar. This is an awesome place its a hike to get here and a hike in but I'll come again.