Return of the Padwans 24-25 May 2021

'Return of the Jedis suggests mastery of our craft and after months chasin different species we each found delicate fly fishing skills are perishable...so Padwan learners we are and were ...thanks for asking.   

Fritz, Henry and I do dedicate ourselves to getting out more often to keep skills fresh.    This was our third adventure to Little Juniata and Spruce Creek about a dozen miles WNW from Huntingdon, PA.  

This trip was planned for last year but got virus'd.  Our trucks met at the Penn State public access lot on Spruce Creek and we geared-up as dark clouds bore down and pea-sized rain pelted us ...no worries, waders and gore-tex make fast moving storms no more than an inconvenience and Spruce was running low and looked like it could use a drink.  

For anyone who cares about such things Spruce Creek is a semi-famous brown trout stream that's questioned presidents' and angler luminaries' skills in its storied past.   The majority of Spruce is off limits to the public, but fortunately there's a beautiful stretch kept up by Penn State upstream of its confluence with the Little Juniata in the hamlet of (you guessed it) Spruce Creek.  Fritz and Hen drifted nymphs in the rain, but I can report I fooled a nice 9" brown with dry on a special fly rod that came to me by way of Bill Pfeiffer. 

She was treat of a catch on his rod and a great memory.  With no trout rising and slow action in the rain we left at 1300 and hit Spruce Creek Outfitters to support our local fly shop.  We each left with a pocket full of flies and a tantalizing report, that  Green Drakes had appeared recently in the evening!  Armed with excitement and a few green drake spinners in our vests,  we visited familiar waters at the quarry pool.  

The river was low but quickly added 80% cfs (recall that rain) which brought it up 4 inches and with it a bit of bank debris and bugs, bugs and more bugs!  The frothy surface layer was silly with insect activity in the current seems. 

these appeared late afternoon

Soon Yellow Sulphur mayflies were rising through the water/emerging and browns livened up ascending through the water like breaching submarines.  Excited by the inevitability of the spinner fall we waited as the sun dipped over a ridge and the bridge swallows swooped and darted feasting on the fat bellied sulphurs. Henry and Fritz put away their ESN rigs and with standard 5wts we brought a few to hand, but unfortunately the excitement of the hatch did not bring all the fish to hand we had expected.   Perhaps we needed to stay later?

our imitation

As we were about to leave the river we took one last look at the river and saw a mature brown rising 5 feet from the step-in 2 feet off the bank.  Feeling thwarted thus far we threw in a size 16 sulphur dry which was inhaled by the brown to end the day!

We found our way back to Huntingdon's lone modern hotel, A Fairlfield Inn and Suites, bedded down and the next morning, loaded with coffee and Gatorade, made our way to a riffle-pool-riffle section downstream of the Spruce Creek confluence, (join us next year to find out where :-) where we had an amazing day.  

 

sulphur nymph was a producer

We found we could pick up sporadic browns nymphing seams, but had better fortune targeting individual rising trout in deep cuts under overhanging tree boughs.  

Instream positioning was key to successful, often sidearm, casts looking to get 3-6 feet of dragless drift to the rising trout.   If you could solve the stream-positioning/casting/ drift riddle the browns played their part and we each all caught our share throughout the afternoon.         

Hen w a fat brown ...that log structure provided a natural buffet line for feeding browns

Browns-on ...Fritz and Hen double-up 

Fritz has enough of the world to himself 

Comradery was great throughout, but the catching improved on a steep curve from arrival at Spruce Day until we were forced to quit squinting in the ghostly light of the harvest moon.

Fishing beneath the harvest moon

The best hours of the day were clearly 1900-2115 and the river explored with activity from 2040-2105 as yellow-sulphur and green drake spinners fell to the water fueling a burst of activity.   We surely annoyed a nearby campground with exclamations of, "Fish on" or Hens', 'Fritz get down here its crazy/it's amazing mate!" Cause when you fish with brothers like these you always want to put your mate on the best bite 🐟🎣💪

This'll be an annual trip so let me know if you want in next May.

Fish on friends.

Hen w a colorfully spotted Brown

Fritz: Large brown on is watched by Hen

Gotta be on the River -- Harmons

Henry and I were looking at going to Gunpowder but after checking water levels we found that the better water might be on the South Branch of the North Fork of the Potomac at Harmons on in WV....boy were we right.    Originally we planned this trip as an out and back but with the long drive we decided to meet in the afternoon and get a late afternoon in day 1 and a full day on day on day 2.


Hen arrived, checked into cabin 8, got our passes and was already on fish when I was still miles away!   I arrived as the sun set in the deep gorge and was able to catch a trout from the riffle above the bridge before low light closed us out.

 Dinner in honor of past feasts was monster ribeyes seared in cast iron, baguette and salad washed down by beer and wine to settle our excited nerves.    Day two started with breakfast in Petersburg as the family restaurant Scott will remember .75 miles north on 220 along the river had closed down.

Henry and I were trying to pull off a local-look but I was betrayed by my work shoes from the previous day (damn...I was so close w my old Camo).  After breakfast the stream beckoned and 1.5" of fresh snow gave it a magical feel.

Hen started w his standard weighted-fly ESN set-up and began lighting them up immediately in the large pool above the upstream most cabins.   I started out w a 2x fly under an indicator rig but it was quickly apparent that Hen's approach was the winner for the day and I switched over, but not before Hen had landed 5-6 beauties.

A great day continued as we headed up the river to there uppermost hole and then back down.   As we approached our money hole we saw activity below us....turns out the Harmons was hosting PHW the next day and they were stocking 1100 lbs of trout!

Damn...some 11-13 inters but MANY breeders...wow, these fish were dazed upon entry to their new haunts and wouldn't bite but it was fun to see some huge trout.   The Hottest fly of the day turned out to be a size 14 tungsten weighted blow torch, but you had to be tight and attentive to your fly to discern the subtle takes in the 42 degree water.   Hen ended up staying another night and fished for a few hour before the PHW crew took over and caught more than any two men deserve😁. what a treat.

Thanks for having a look

Scott's Run

A couple years ago Fritz, James and I were deep in the Big Run Watershed and had just started our walk out when we spied a sizable tributary flowing out of a hollow and joining the far side of Big Run .2 miles downstream from the intersection of Big Run Trail and Big Run Portal. I thought about gearing up but decided to study, see what stream it was and save it for an adventure for another day.   It turns out the trib was unnamed and there's only scant reference to it in a watershed study of the area.  Audaces fortuna invat so I decided to claim it and name it.     Here it is flowing into Big Run from the east/right of the map.

Here's what it looks like from the satellite view:

The hike down was 2.5 miles and took 71-minutes, with the mountain laurel in full bloom lining the path it was beautiful, but every step down reminded me of the hike out to come.

12 minutes into the hike at the 2nd switch back you cross the headwaters of Big Run.   2.2 miles into the the hike at the bottom of a descending ridge-finger finds the intersection of Big Run Trail (heads off to left) and Big Run Portal (follows Big Run down stream).

.3 Miles below the trail intersection located at 38.266146, -78.699944
Eppert Hollowing and the newly names Scott's Run pushes into Big Run.

Scott's Run to the left, the headwaters of Big Run to the right

To my excitement I caught this sweet little guy right under this sign.

This long pool was as far as I got up Scott's Run

I fished up Scott's Run for 200m, it holds lovely squaretails that I can't imaging see fishing pressure at all.    They were spunky and seemed happy to reward the effort, it was a thrill each time they rose to slap my fly.   Scott's Run, found, named and fished I walked 12-min downstream from the confluence and started fishing Big Run.   The air was a cool 58 and the water temp was the same. As the sun found its way deep into the run, bug life exploded.   Several pools I just watched as hatches emerged and trout rose to take them from the surface film.   An amazing morning.   I fished for three more hours and with plans to be corral smallies the next day, I began my walk out.  Enjoy these pics...

 

Big Run

Harry Murray's Mr. Rapidan took this fellow 

Foot rest for him

Foot rest for me

This 16 Parachute Sulphur was the most product fly today

If you're ready for an adventure get down to Scott's Run

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.

final and finest pool of the day I caught my last trout 2/3 up on the left casting from this position

last trout of the day

The hike back out

Thanks for looking