Not having fished the trout streams of interior PA, I jumped at the chance to accompany Bryan Davis and his dad Jack to their home waters about 60 miles ENE of State College, PA before my daughter's volleyball tournament. Bryan is her coach and we'd swapped fishing tales but had never had a chance to get out on the water together before. We linked up at about noon and outdrove any fishing pressure on dirt roads until we came to a parking cutout familiar to Jack and Bryan. We geared up with short light flyroads and began the 200 yd walk to the white deer river. I believe Jack had hand made the rod he was using out of cedar he had left over from a present he'd made for Bryan. We enjoyed telling stories in the lot and during the walk to the river. At the river we found a bridge that became our waypoint for the trip.
We crossed the river which was a little smaller and slower than the Rapidan at the junction pool and walked down-stream another 200 yds before we began leap-frog-fishing back up to the bridge. It wasn't long before we found that the river was filthy with 2" brookies who aggressively attacked both dries and droppers. I fished the majority of the day with my standard tandem, dry-dropper rig and Bryan and Jack almost exclusively stayed with light colored dry patterns in the #14 range. We fished up past the bridge/waypoint and continued fishing upstream for a half mile or so until volleyball beckoned us back to State College. It was a great day. Jack noted that the fish we caught were the smallest he'd experienced and that the stream usually yields far bigger trout. There's no doubt in my mind that they werein there they just weren't as active as the small guys.
While Matt's up in PA chasing trout, I ventured down to Fredericksburg to see if the stripers were hitting. Friday's weather was nasty.... cold & really windy, plus the river was running awfully fast -- more on that later.
Striper with bad attitude
The bite wasn't hot and though I saw 5 or 6 other spin and fly fishers on the river, no one really seemed to have broken the code. I did manage to pick up a couple of stripers (the biggest was about 18in) -- on shad darts, and a couple of shad -- on clousers! Rounding out the smorgasbord were a few white perch and bluegill. The striper put a charge into an otherwise low key day as it took me into backing within seconds of the hookset.
As I worked my way downstream, did I mention the water was running a bit faster than normal... I took one step I shouldn't have and in a split second I was in over my chest waders and fighting from being dragged downstream. I'm not sure how much trouble I was in, but thankfully Dan Soper, a terrific Project Healing Waters supporter was nearby and lended me a hand to get back on solid footing.
The Rapp can be deceiving. It looks like a relatively easy wading river. I think I'll pack my wading staff next trip down. The shad run seems to be reaching its end. I have to believe more stripers will be coming up the river soon.
Conor and I had planned to fish the Rapidan for smallmouth but we got out of the house late so we opted for an easier and shorter trip to the fall-line rocks above Historic Occoquan. We put in at Occoquan Regional Park and paddled upstream. We were initially cautious as we could see folks in the distance hopping on what I have come to think of as our personal perch on table rock. As we approached we found that they were bow-hunters and table rock was uninhabited. The closer we got though, the stiffer the current & it became apparent that significantly more water was being let out of the damn and the rock garden was angry, swollen and fast. I wasn't sure that we would be able to reach or safely get out of the canoe at table rock. After some strong paddling by both of us we got in the back eddy below table rock, tossed the grapple anchor and climbed aboard the rock. I didn't think we would have luck fishing the swollen pool but after a cast or two it became obvious that the fish were there in huge numbers and the only challenge was weighting the presentations to get them low enough in the water column. I began fishing with a 6wt and a small clouser fly (silver and blue) and Conor worked with a spinning rod with a shad spoon. In 90 minutes we caught 4 shad and 3 catfish and hooked into huge carp and snakehead that we couldn't land. There were monster carp moving upstream in pods within casting range. I hooked into one that was a wide as a football and 3' long and after playing him for a minute or two in the honey-hole he broke Conor off. Throughout the period snakehead kept rising in the pool for a gulp of air and snaggers on the Fairfax side and bow-hunters on the Prince William side were putting snake on the table. Again, a very interesting experience and a wonderful time with Conor.
6 May 2013: Scott and I started out at the Occoquan hoping to replicate our recent success, it was dreary and gray and promised (we thought) great fishing. We canoed to tablerock and began to survey the honey hole, the light didn't allow us to see into the hole, but it was obvious that it was not teeming with shad or carp as it had been recently. Scott caught a shad or two from the sweep-spot and I worked my way to the upper hole after having been skunked on tablerock. My move to the upper hole was intended to stake a claim to the hole local-eater was approaching up the north bank pail in hand. He turned out to be sight fishing/snagging for snakeheads, suffice it to say his family is well fed. I hooked into what we think was a snake in the upper hole and like two days ago he took my fly after a 4-5 minute fight. My mistake was that I let him get into the current at the front of the hole. Next time I hook him I'll try to work him and keep him in the back of the pool. Before we left the honey pool Scott hooked the first schoolie striper of the year (eureka) and as we floated out of the rockgarden I hooked two nice shad. We paddled into a light but steady rain-cloud and were happy to get warm in Clifford by 1030.
While we were fishing Scott got an invitation to pre-fish a Chancellorsville lake ahead of his Orvis fly-fishing 201 class this weekend. We swung by Montclair and picked up lighter bass rigs and headed south to the Walter Issacson Sportsmens club off Orange Plank Road. We found a great track of land with a lovely pond and well laid out firing ranges. After getting used to sporadic gunfire we fished 1/4 of the lake with poppers and droppers and had steady action from crappie, sunfish and the occasional large-mouth. Scott had fun christening his new Helios 2-wt and pulled in a 3-inch sunfish to break-in the rod! I fished with a 5-wt given to me by my friend John Caldwell. John isn't as mobile as he once was and is happy to have me enjoy the rod (thanks John). The pond should be a great place for the 201 class with plenty of backcast area and plentiful action.
Not ready for the day to be done we headed to the the shad hole 300 yards upstream of the Falmouth Bridge and after a few exploratory casts decided that we'd toss the canoe in for 45 minutes. A local schooled us for 30 minutes as we anchored, upstream of the prime spot with only a shad or two between us. The local left (with a satisfied smirk) and in a driving mist we drifted into the center of the hole and began to hook-up. Scott caught shad on his Access 6wt with a chartreuse dart and I did the same with my trusty spinning rod and a small yellow and orange. These shad we several inches bigger that the Occoquan shad and beautiful fighters. A great day...I hope our wives let us out again! Here's some Video Scott took of a Shad hook-up.
This is a combined report from May 3rd & 4th. Scott and I wanted to try the pools at the Occoquan fall-line to target shad with fly-rods and avoid the combat fishing at Falmouth flats. We set out from Occoquan Regional Park and paddled upstream passing 6-8 boats targeting the channel. We found the rocks pleasantly unoccupied and starting working the pools upstream of table-rock. A school of 14-16" shad had congregated and couldn't get much further up the river. We began throwing chartreuse shad darts and silver clousers on 6-wts. Scott used a sinking line and I weighed my leader with a few split-shot to get down in the current. The fishing was great from the 3rd cast and we were quiet in our excitement to avoid several kayak anglers who were cozying up to us. We found that by wading upstream we could throw into the pool and use the current to sweep the flies into the greatest number of fish. Together we caught 15 shad in 90-minutes. Interestingly we saw two gents with compound bows, hunting/fishing for snakeheads immediately upstream of us in the rocks, they 'harvested' 3-4 good sized snakes.
The fishing was so good that Fritz, Jacob and I decided to return the next day. We mirrored our approach and the three of us arrived at the table rock at about 0900. Again the channel with filled with fishing boats, but we had the best spot (tablerock) to ourselves. We surveyed the hole and through the shimmering surface could make out the outlines of swarming fish. We positioned Jacob in the prime spot and started laying into fish. Interestingly, the shad were not there in the same numbers and the fish swarming were actually carp! The first fish Jacob caught on a standard 1.25 inch silver shad spoon was a large, gorgeous catfish! It was the healthiest cat I've seen and it gave Jacob a great fight, it must have been 17-18 inches long. We took turns in the prime spot and each hooked a fish or three! The next fish caught was a large carp which gave Fritz a five minute fight and was not happy about the fly buried in his jaw. We'd never seen carp in a feeding mode and it was exciting.Fritz' carp was + 20 inches and thick as a football, an awesome fish. I jumped in the hot spot and quickly hooked-up hoping for a shad only to pull in a 15-inch large mouth bass! The diversity was incredible. We continued fishing on and around table rock and pulled in several more carp and shad. What a great trip. See video of Fritz fighting the carp.
Not having fished the trout streams of interior PA, I jumped at the chance to accompany Bryan Davis and his dad Jack to their home waters about 60 miles ENE of State College, PA before my daughter's volleyball tournament. Bryan is her coach and we'd swapped fishing tales but had never had a chance to get out on the water together before. 
We linked up at about noon and outdrove any fishing pressure on dirt roads until we came to a parking cutout familiar to Jack and Bryan. We geared up with short light flyroads and began the 200 yd walk to the white deer river. I believe Jack had hand made the rod he was using out of cedar he had left over from a present he'd made for Bryan. We enjoyed telling stories in the lot and during the walk to the river. At the river we found a bridge that became our waypoint for the trip. 
We crossed the river which was a little smaller and slower than the Rapidan at the junction pool and walked down-stream another 200 yds before we began leap-frog-fishing back up to the bridge. It wasn't long before we found that the river was filthy with 2" brookies who aggressively attacked both dries and droppers. I fished the majority of the day with my standard tandem, dry-dropper rig and Bryan and Jack almost exclusively stayed with light colored dry patterns in the #14 range. We fished up past the bridge/waypoint and continued fishing upstream for a half mile or so until volleyball beckoned us back to State College. It was a great day. Jack noted that the fish we caught were the smallest he'd experienced and that the stream usually yields far bigger trout. There's no doubt in my mind that they werein there they just weren't as active as the small guys.
