Raining Fish on the North Fork of the Shenandoah

Let me begin by saying to Fritz, Bryan and Conor... you were missed.  Scott and I headed to the North Fork of the Shenandoah at 0600 this morning to stalk smallies but ready to divert to Mossy Creek or SNP if the river had been blown out.  The drive to our favorite section south of Edinburg took 90 minutes. We happily found the water clear and moderately-low even with the recent rains...it looked perfect. We parked in our normal dead-end, suited up and the rain met us sheeting down as soon as we left the jeep.  Fortunately the fish didn't seem to mind as we worked the far bank, Scott with his 6wt Access and me with my 5 wt. 

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                                                     We began to pick-up fish immediately having the most success on beadhead buggers in green and black.  Unfortunately the other thing that picked up was the rain storm that stalled over us.  Even with waders we were soaked to the bone in minutes, wondering quietly about hypothermia but pretty sure that the lighting might get us before the cold really kicked in. Borrowing a classic from CaddyShack Scott yelled, " I don't think the heavy stuff is coming for quite some time." 
   
   As heavy as the rain was the fish didn't seem to mind as we had each caught 20+ fish (50% smallies) in the first hour.  We fished downstream leaving the wide and deep lake, the fishing slowed down alittle, but the fish were still nearly constant.  We both had multiple doubles on the tandem dropper rigs.  Interestingly the fallfish (river shiners) were also extremely active and it seemed the largest ones were turned on today.  They fought like smallies and we thought each one was a largish bass until we brought them to hand.

   

   Scott in the downpour ...it didn't bother the fishing!

   By 1100 we were still catching fish, but were turning blueish and soaked.  We trudged back to the jeep and drove to Edinburg in search of a laundromat. We blissfully found one, tossed our soaked clothes in the dryer...never have 3 quarters been so well spent.  While we were waiting for our clothes we visited Murray's Fly Shop, met Murray and bought some flies.  He's a real character and was happy to have us in the store and swap stories.                           While we were in the store a spry older gent came into the shop to pick up a rod he'd been having repaired.  He exchanged pleasantries and as he left he said that he looked forward to getting out a few more times.  When the door closed the clerk told us that he was 101 hears old!  He reminded me of Pappy Reilly.  Murray recommended several new spots, we gladly took in the scoop and headed back out loaded with dry gear, new flies and new places to hit.  We tried two places but by this point it had been raining for 6 hours and the river was rising quickly and clouding up.  We caught a few more smallies and then made our way back to NOVA.  All said and done it was a +100 day between the two of us.  A great Day.

   

   Storm-mist lifting over the Shenandoah River valley