Some adventures are just better than others and the only thing that was lacking on this one was good company :-) My office is transitioning to Quantico and I found myself with an unexpected day-off. I've been having a great time with the Shad but was thrilled to return to the beauty and peace of my mountain streams.
I'd long wanted question Hogcamp Branch and was determined to find some answers. The morning started off with a magical drive up to skyline drive through the hamlet of Speryville. The clouds hung low and heavy in the hollows and as I reached Skyline drive high on the spine of the Shenandoahs the peaks below me rose through the clouds like islands in a white sea, it was just spectacular.
Post card view looking west into the Shenandoah Valley and the ridges of West Virginia
My goal for this trip was three fold; corral a trout on Hogcamp, find the confluence of the Hogcamp and the Upper Rose and Get Out without assistance from Park Rangers, I'm happy to report that I accomplished all three.
I started at the Parking lot of Dark Hollow just north of Big Meadows on SL Drive.
nicely trod path
I geared up with a tiny 3wt and an extra litre of Booby Bouchet's favorite and headed down the well maintained blue hashed trail. It wasn't so bad at first...
From Parking area to the bottom of the f
I was surprised to find that HCB held water from the parking lot down with pools growing along the way. 5-min into the descent I saw my first mountain brookies, males with their orange bellies and white adipose fins finning in the cold mini-plunge pools. I fished the 4th sizable pool I found and caught a rabid little brookie on my second (first good) cast. I could now count HCB on my board.
25 minutes in I came to the bottom of aptly named Upper Dark Hollow Falls. Gorgeous and cut deep into the mountain.
Bridge just above the confluence of Rose River and HCB
Here's the 'joined' Rose River looking down stream
I caught a few in these plunge pools and then at the corrugated metal bridge at the base of the falls followed HCB trail when it intersected with Rose River Fire Road. HCB trail continued the knee braking descent into the hollow and I was able to and found an adorable little bridge not on my topo map which let me know I was within a few hundred bushwhacking yards of the confluence of the upper rose and HCB. As I rested at the the confluence I noticed a heavy hatch of little black flies and decided to head down another 200m then fish back up.
The fishing was amazing and after a few trout I decided to play a game with myself and see how many holes I could catch the biggest fish in the hole...there's no telling with the small holes but in the larger holes I think I caught the largest fish in 6 of them. I had three specs today that eked out a bit of line from my reel and put a huge grin on my face. Here are some of them.
see video below
after almost three dozen and out of water I decided to head back up the river and hit a few of the larger pools on the way back. At the bottom of Dark Hollow Falls I caught my largest brookie a mature beautifuly coloree male who must have been in his fourth year. He had the deepest, richest color that I've ever seen in person in a brook trout and at just under 11 inches was a monster to catch at nearly 3K feet on the mountain.
With this trophy safely returned to his cold haunts I splashed some of his home on my face and started back up the hill toward my stashed litre of water. As i approached my stash I found a family of 7 on the tail above me and as I puffed my way to them I thought I was going to have to carry out this little person who appeared to be broken as her parents, both hunched over held a leg and supported her back in some weird pike position...I thought she had a broken leg and was getting a bone set...Nope she was peeing w an assist from the rents, I shrugged, averted my eyes, exchanged a pleasantry and headed up the trail forgetting my water bottle in the cool moss. Man I could have used that water. As I made my way up the path in the head down slog mode known to hikers I sensed movement in front of me and looked up to glimpse a bear 30' in front of me and scurrying off the trail behind and kinda into a huge rock. As I passed the rock a few seconds later the bear scurried into a cave/fissure in the boulder. Good times! I was grape turned raisin when I got to the top. I sloughed out of my clothes, poured sweat from my waders and drank a half gallon of warm water. I was so happy to have made it out that parched. lest you think this is the end of the story, I hoped in Jamie and 200m north the road was blocked with fols out of their cars peering over the rock wall on the Va Side...not to be left out I pulled over and was treated to a Mama bear and two cubs high in a tree about 20m away. The Mama seemed full size and the cubs looked to be about 15lbs a piece...small dog size.
Momma
Quite and adventure. Just wish this guy was better company.
Years ago Fritz and I brought Henry to a rain swollen Rappahanock and Henry was the only one able to whisper a shad in the churning river.
Hen in lower right hand corner
fish on
A smile tells the tale
This memory is stuck in my bones and for several months Henry and I have been planning an adventure during the Shad Run and we had to wait till Henry returned from a Ritchie Family get together at the Paris Marathon to make it happen. I've been fishing the run and hoping that it would hold through Henry's visit and thankfully it did (just barely).
A heavy surge of identical white perch have invaded the river
There was a smaller slot size of shad running too
Water levels were steady and just under 3.0 on the Fredericksburg Gauge -- perfect -- I'm not sure how long the run will last, and on Friday we it seemed like it was over, Henry Caught to and I felt a bit dejected. That changed for us Saturday as untold multitudes of silvery ocean-run shad finned by us heading upstream. They weren't striking often, but more than enough to bend Henry's pristine Henry's Fork and a new (to me) rifle of a Echo 10.5' 5wt.
Hen celebrates after a successful fording of the fast water on the left (no sure thing)
I was proud to have caught seveal on this self styled clouser
Together we brought +20 to hand. The run was alive and we were part of it. If this is my last run to the run it was a great run.
This Echo shooting a 7wt WF line w a 10' sink tip rifled heavy flies
is the transition my switch line makes as it moves from its front loaded belly to its thin running line, the amount of red line beyond the last guide helped me consistently swing my weighted bead head fly into the strike zone as shad ran a riffle and rested in the pool in front of me. I only fished for 75-min today as my goal was ensure the run was still pumping for Henry's arrival this Friday. The run was still hot and I left after 15 shad and one blue cat brought to hand. I love these fish and with 7 anglers behind me crowding tip-o-island pool I had the lower pool to myself.
84 degrees with perfect water level - gorgeous day
Storm-born angry high water for two straight trips to the shad run frustrated me this weekend, but I struck gold at 3.13 feet on the Rappahannock River Gauge in Fredericksburg yesterday. Still storm-stained but just fishable all anglers got in on the fray -- diving ospreys, and a bald eagle included. With the prime tip of the island spots occupied I forded the side channel and got to the top of the lower pool.
Fish from A, cast downstream to left, allow a drift downstream to the right & catch just above riffle
I went with a hybrid jig fly presented by a 10.5" 5wt switch rod with a sink-tip leader.
Once I had all this worked out I was in the mix and 75% of cast brought me strikes with gorgeous 13-16" shad fighting the current and jumping on 50% of my casts....amazing.
Shad-on. Rod defines current to the left, pool to the right
