Blue Line Recon -- Jordan River

Surprisingly Big Brookies for this tiny water

From the 211/522 intersection at Massies Corner West of Warrenton headed north, the first fishable water is the Jordan River.   I've long wanted to explore the Jordan as it's the closest blue line to our house.  The Jordan holds its secrets well, it's small water and is justly overshadowed by the lure of the Rapidan and Hughes to the south. 

It doesn't have publicized waterfalls to draw hikers,  it's not easily accessed from Skyline Drive nor is the trailhead obvious from the valley floor.  It took a deep-dive into hikers' BLOGs to find good directions to the Jordan River Trails' trailhead access tucked behind a private property gate at the end of Bean Hollow Road (RR 629) in the backwoods of the historic hamlet of Flint Hill.  

Jordan River from Lower Bean Hollow Road

Flint Hill is a historic community of 200 trying it's best to ignore the DC Sprawl, 50-miles to the east but a world away. From 522 north make a left on Fodder Stack Road, then a right on 659 then a left on 628.  When 628 takes a 90 degree left hand turn stay straight ahead on Bean Hollow Road (629) which weaves its way over the Jordan River.  

Part of the herd from the 'Over Jordan Farm'

'Over the Jordan Farm' is across the river to your right (North).  4 huge white herding dogs guard a large flock of sheep and greeted me with barks promising they would either lick me silly or rip me to shreds. 

cute log cottage on the way in tells you that you're almost these

This is a lovely dirt road, the kind of place you'd like to build a cabin and escape and when you get to the colorfully named 'Big Bastard Mtn Lane' you can see a cute tiny log cabin to your right where someone had the same thought when cabins were hewn from logs and insulated with clay. 

 

Proceed up this driveway from the end of Bean Hollow Road 

The other feature that caught my TU educated eye were the raised culverts allowing the Jordan to flow under the road, but barring trout from movement on the river.  A 1/4 mile after Big Bastard Mtn Lane Bean Hollow ends at a misshapen cul-de-sac. There's a powerline cut that comes down the Mtn from the right, the river crosses the road at 2-o'clock, the gated path (drive way) you'll walk up is directly ahead.    Circle around the cul-de-sac and park headed back in the other direction with your passenger door against the forest.    

Right of way is up the driveway and then on to your right

It way gray, raining and chilly when I pulled in and I gear-up in the back of the Jamie.  The gated drive (right of way) has a sign on it that says 320. I walked up the driveway access and in 75m there's a well cared for camp on the left with the trail and Jordan River a straight walk up on the right.   

Another 50m past the camp is the SNP access and trail marker with the first seemingly fishable pools on your right.  Once you get into the park on the raised trail with the river below and on your right, it feels like the start of the walk into the Hazel or the Upper Rose. 

Just past the cottage is the entrance to SNP -- start fishing here

I decided to walk up the trail to out walk any pressure and 13 min from the Jeep found myself at the top of a small hill with three runs crossing the trail from left to right.   This is small water and fearing that these runs might be the  headwaters of the river I followed them down 50m to the main stem.   

The hike up should you decide to walk up further

Jordan River trail is yellow-hash blazed

First Rainy pool yielded a spec on the first cast

Grabbing roots along the way, I slid down the thorny and moss covered bank into the small gorge carved by the river.   This is micro-water.  What the Hazel is to the Rapidan, the Jordan is to the Hazel.   The only water similar in size and constriction is Devil's Ditch off the Conway.    

An uncommon bigger pool for the upper Jordan

male Brookie, notice the colors and beginning of kyped jaw

With rain soaking my shoulders, the water beginning to stain, a #16 Adams-chute on my shortest rod, a 5'9" CGR Glass Road from Cabelas I was rewarded with a 6 inch brookie on my first cast into a small but inviting pool.

young male brookie

I ducked, twisted and belly rolled up stream and quickly found that the "river" disaggregated into non-channelized runs.   I had BTH 7 surprisingly nice brookies, but when Jacuzzi size pools turned into bath tubs and then into kitchen sink pools I climbed back to the trail and made my way down stream to see if there was fishable water below where I had turned off trail earlier. 

Small pools characterize the upper Jordan

another colorful male

With 45-min of fishing time left I slid down into the lower river just above the SNP entrance.   The water here is still small but much more accessible than the upper reaches where I felt like I was casting inside the hallway of a single wide.  

This pool is lower/ closer to the park entry, I caught one brookie here to the left of the little falls

 I caught another half dozen in my remaining time, caught a beautiful brookie on my last cast to total 15 BTH for the 2.5 hours fishing and then with a smile on my face and another blue line in my memories, I turned back to the jeep for dry clothes and a jolt of coffee.  The Jordan doesn't have miles of fishable water like some other more remote streams, but from the SNP marker up to the where it disaggregates there's enough water for one angler to spend a great day here.  

tangled but released unharmed

mature female brook trout -- Thanks

New Water -- A Picture Story

Walked in 30 min before fishing

First pool we fished looking upstream

First pool we fished looking downstream

The water was remarkably clear

James with a nice catch

Run after run after run

James fishes the head of the pool

I worked my exposure duration to try to get the water to blur a bit

Nice male falls for a parachute

concealed below the pool James works his fly into position

Another handsome meaty male

This 9-foot waterfall marked the midpoint of the day.  The specs were bigger above he falls

James' a wet hand protects the natives skin

James scales the waterfall

specs

denizen of the deep takes a bead head pheasant tail

longest SNP pool I've seen -- 3 BTH in this pool

Thanks for looking

Jeremy's Run

"When you see someone putting on their Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen" 

Winnie-the-Pooh

There are still a lot of Virginia trout streams I haven't hit and one of the closest ones was Jeremy's Run in the northern section of SNP.    Jeremy's Run can be accessed top-down from Skyline Drive at Elk-Wallow or bottom-up from Hwy 340 and RR 611 (this lower section will be the subj of an upcoming post).  Jeremy's Run is tucked between Knob Mtn and the main SNP Spine, it has small but devoted following of adventurous anglers who's knees and spirit support the walk-in. Here's a picture-album The Gift of Jeremy's Run by an angler devoted to the run.   This fall while I was at Laurel Creek I met a Hokie fisherman-aquatic-entomologist who recommended the pools on the lower half of the run as great spots for insects and, corresponding, brookies.   With this knowledge and coffee my game-for-a-hike neighbor George and I set out on a moonlit morning toward Sperryville, Thornton Gap and the Park.  It was clear and chilly as we approached the parking area. Elkwallow is well marked about 7 miles north of Thornton Gap and if you follow the signs to the picnic area parking you'll end up at a parking spot noted with a "P" on the map below.   

The blue line traces the run and trail, I probably only fish 300 yds the fish were so active

The Trailhead is well marked from the upper lot

We stowed our jackets to avoid sweating them out and stepped off at 0900 for the mile down to, as we had heard, the first significant stream-crossing and what's effectively the upper limit of the fishable water. 

George and I rock-hopped the stream and made our way down to the next stream crossing where he made camp.  The well maintained trail crochets its way back and forth over the run continuously and is never far from the water. George set up camp at the second stream crossing and I walked a further 15 minutes downstream with a plan to fish to him for a link-up at 1300.  Heading down the hollow, the run picks up trickle after trickle and its flow and strenghtens with each gurgling input.  The further I got down the run the bigger and more enticing the pools became.  I stopped several times and marveled at specks flittering in perfect cobble pools.  Jeremy's has far less gradient than the Rapidan, Hughes or Hazel its a freestone valley stream more the in category of the Dry or Piney Rivers.   

more of a valley stream than a high gradient tumbler

The pools were long and deep enough to support trout throughout their length and all contained aggressive natives.   This was my first outing wearing my new Costa sunglasses (thanks Hen and Liz) and the polarized lenses allowed me to watch trout rise from the cobble to take my Dry. What fun!   I thought that I could see pretty well before but these lenses are amazing.  A #14 adams parachute and #18 bead-head pheasant tail dropper were all that was required today. 

I didn't lose a fly but the trout destroyed a couple like this unfurled adams

I couldn't bring any to hand in the first pool despite about 8 takes, but this quickly proved the exception to the rule as I cast my way upstream toward George.  I was very inefficient moving and only got about 200-300 yards in three hours as the action was non-stop.  As Scott and Fritz say, I had lucked into "one of those days".  

Frequently, so long as you work a pool carefully, you might be able to take 2 fish, occasionally 3, in the long pool below I caught 6 in 8 casts. Filthy with fish.

Lots of action in this great pool

No monsters today but several at 8 inches

Another on a mossy background -- all trout today returned uninjured 

When I hit my time limit my rangers beads indicated 33 brought to hand and I grudgingly trudged back to camp.    George had left the camp & returned to the trailhead, but the fishing was too good for me to quit so I lunched on a deviled ham and onion sandwich and decided I'd fish to 50 then hit the trail.  The run was getting skinnier and skinnier as surveyed upstream so I chose my spots and cast more deliberately but the fish were still active in their little haunts.  

It took about 10 underwater attempts to capture this handsome guy 

shadow caster

I continue to love my TFO Finesse 1-wt, it loads with just the leader and at 6'6" it slips easily under the branches that often compete for my flies.  In December the sun rises late and sets early deep in these SNP Hollows in December and as I was minding my shadow to not spook the pool I found this guy fishing with me. 

I went from 33 fish to 50 in less than an hour and seemed to be improving my catch % along the way.  I thought I'd quit at 50 as I knew George was waiting for me but pool after run after pool ahead of me tempting me to stay.  I gave in, stayed abot longer, and left after a spirited fish attacked my worn dry in a beautiful pool.   It was one of those times when you know, you just know, that if you can make the cast and tend the fly you'll get a strike.  Sure enough to the left side of a flow at the top of a pool a brookie broke the surface and took my adams, a perfect way to end the day 

Mirror image

keep-em in the water all you can and wet your hands before touching them

On the uphill sweat back I was tracking George's footprints, not focusing ahead of me, when I saw a flicker of black flitt through my eyebrows. I panned up to see a black bear, bigger than me, sitting on the trail 40-feet in front of me. Cue the soundtrack for BlueBerries for Sal as we both realized we were scared until he took off at full lope up the trail and around the corner.   With a shot of adrenalin cursing through my veins and a wary eye I made it back up to the van.

from the depths

dere's bear in dem woods!