North Fork Shenandoah Scout Trip 17 Sept

 Scott and I hit the North Fork of the Shenandoah today in 4 different locations along rt 11 from Edinburg up to Strasburg.  While the conditions were ideal, the fish were not active and in places where we'd caught +100 smallies in the past, we were nearly skunked.  We tried all manner of presentations and combos and the fish were simply not there.  Our best luck came at a bend in the river Scott and I will call 'cow pasture hole' where the remnants of an old concrete bridge caused the river to pool. We ended our day fishing the swinging bridge hole in southern Strasburg with little luck frustrated by few pools and omnipresent green-hair-grass.  A great day with good river scouting but few fish.

14 September Shenandoah

Sammy and I fished downstream of the Rt 50/17 Bride over the Shenandoah for a couple hours this afternoon.  I made a gear mistake and fished the afternoon with my 6/7 switch and 6wt wf line. I could sure throw my popper dropper combo a mile or so, but my presentation was poor.  I fished downstream around the island complex Scott described and back to the Jeep under the overpass.  The conditions were gorgeous but I only caught 3.

Quick Run to Turkey Run

Nicest Smallie of the day at 13 Inches

Always happy for popper action

Itching to get out after a few days along the banks of the Clarion River in Northern Pa.  Scott and I linked up after he finished up at the Orvis shop for the day.  We headed north on 95 and then trundled up the GW Parkway to the Turkey Run exit just past CIA but before 495.  We parked in the C lot and geared-up.  I was interested to see other fishermen in the lot gearing up.  I had checked the water gauge at Little Falls and the water was running steady at 2.98 (perfect).  I assembled by newly bought 6wt and Scott did the same with his Orvis Access 6wt.  We headed down the switchbacks before the other fellas were ready and had our pick of the clear running river at 1545.  I was very happy that there was FAR less slime on the rocks than I had remembered and the conditions looked perfect.  Scott and I entered the river at the bottom of the trail, in retrospect we should have headed upstream or downstream to get away from trail access pressure.  We were both throwing poppers with green wooly-bugger droppers. The fishing was slower than I expected with about 50% pan-fish varieties mixing in with the smallies. We each caught 5-6 smallies and an equivalent number of sunfish.  As dusk was setting the first storm bands from Issac were moving in so we moved off the water to head home.