Semper on the Fly: Shenandoah Overnight

The adventure begins on the Upper Conway

Bathed in the moonlight of a supermoon and cocooned in our hammocked sleeping bags, Henry and I fell asleep to the gurgling sounds of the Upper Rapidan on an overnight trip into the Shenandoah Mtns last week. Planning for the trip began on the Gunpowder earlier this fall when we sketched out the basics of an overnight in Va trout country. We began in the upper Conway, set up camp and walked down the overgrown portion of Rt 667 towards Devils Ditch. The flow was very low on the on the Conway and almost non-existent through Devil's Ditch. We decided to head down stream another 10-min and fish back up the main-stem of the Conway. Both air and water was 52. The Conway below Devils Ditch is fabulously beautiful, deep pools and runs reminiscent of the lower Rapidan up to Junction Pool. We were rewarded with a fish on my third cast as Henry put my cast on a likely target at the top of an amazing pool. The surface strike jolted us and the 9.75” brookie was a beauty.

Long and lean this brook-char was 9.75"

After that brookie Hen moved into casting position and had a similar dry fly strike at the top of the pool. Alas, after a great start, this would be the highlight of our day as the strike rate was REALLY slow throughout our time on the Conway. I did catch this nice little Mtn-born brown before we gave up on the Conway and headed to the Upper Rapidan looking to change our fortunes.

Looks a bot like a brookie but this is a Conway-brown

The Upper Rapidan is one of my favorite places and we jeeped up the rutted road above the other mountaineers who were getting an early start to their Veterans Day weekend. We made camp about 150 m below the forest service gate and caught a few brookies in the waning hours of the day.

After filling our bellies with a Pam’s spaghetti hybrid we enjoyed a beer as the supermoon rose from valley below. Lullabied by the Rapidan and the wind whistling through the trees we woke and started day two off with strong coffee and bacon sandwiches and hit the stream just after day break.

Breaking camp and making Coffee

Anxious to be ahead of the other campers in the Marine camps a few hundred meters below. Fishing was slow but slowly picked up as I introduced Hen to the lovely pools and runs on the upper Rap.

Hen works the top edge of a great Upper-Rap Pool (note more water in the Rap than the Conway)

Where rays of sunlight penetrated the deeply cut streambed we could make out a sparse, but noticeable hatch of black flies. The sunlight and warmed the waters and towards 1100 the brookies were hitting at reasonable rates as we approached the Hoover Camp.