Rainbows on Beaver Creek

With bass season winding down and the Shenandoah National Park not producing bigger brookies (at least not yet), I headed up (or down) the I-81 corridor this morning and headed over to Beaver Creek.
In the past Beaver has provided both lights out fast-action fishing and some frustratingly slow action.... I was anxious to see what today would bring.

     

I arrived at the store about 6:10 a.m. --   first one there -- so far so good.  I headed to the creek and sat in my truck and drank some coffee into the morning twilight.  I rigged up while it was still dark and tossed on a big heavy #6 Kreelex I tied a couple weeks ago thinking the fish will be aggressive while it's still dark out.  They were.  A hard strike on the second cast and "fish on" with the third cast.  Nice start to the morning... and the sun was not yet on the horizon.


That fish thrashed up and down the hole and I figured the hole was spooked so I ventured upstream and put on a nymph rig with a San Juan Worm trailed by a Copper John.  It wasn't long before I had another nice hookup and another beautiful rainbow brought to hand.

The bite slowed after that.  I picked up a couple of fallfish and a smallmouth bass, but no more trout until I got to the upstream end of the creek where it passes under the road.  I changed up my fly combo and tied a size 20 RS2 as the trailer.  Probably the best hookset of the day and one more rainbow landed after a spirited battle.

 I fish my way back downstream again. The water was off color today.... not a chocolate blown out look but more of a milky, chalky look -- not sure what the cause, but the creek had a different feel.

Finally I ended back where I started. I had fished about 4 hours and was ready to call it a morning but I wanted to try and hook one more fish.  Luckily I found a local guide who put me on to my last fish.

 He followed me the entire length of the creek and several times I heard him yelp -- I'm sure from busting thru his electric fence barrier!  I'll need to bring some dog treats next time I revisit.

Last fish of the day.

All in all a good morning.