South River

A south River Brookie waiting patiently (not) to be released 

My previous association with South River came from Scott who tried to find smallmouth on the Middle Rapidan, he mistakenly picked the wrong farm bridge and ended up getting lost on the South, he caught close to a hundred chub before getting deliverance-rescued by some locals in an old pick up truck ~ cue banjos. From that troubled memory untill Thursday I had pondered the Upper Portion of South River as a possible trouting adventure. Indeed the highest trickle of South River can be accessed from Skyline drive from the South River Falls Picnic Area and when the hills are seeping water the upper falls are a hiker destination. Today, South River was just a sip of gas down 642 from my Entry Run Adventure. I parked parallel to the river just off 642, but might have pulled further up and parked off Rock Island Road as well. 

There are houses and huan activity from the 642 up until the RWMA boundary but still fishable

Take the dirt roads right along the river to find parking spot 

As I slid into the cobble I was impressed by the width of the stream bed and how well it bore the high flow. It's aptly named 'river', bigger than a run or a creek and could be easily partner fished. I caught a Brookie on my third cast and satisfied that I'd found access and trout I surveyed the river preparing to scoot, but saw an Adirondack chair on the bank upstream 100m and decided to fish up to it. Wow. Some group had dammed up the river creating three swimming, fishing holes. As scenic as they are (and good for swimming) I suspect that they inhibit trout movement and actually are bad for the overall health of the stream.   There were trout in each but also populations of 3-inch black nose dace (little river shiners) which attacked each dry fly presentation.   3/4 of the strikes in these holes were from the dace.

See in these pics the man-made structure and holes

Further above the lovely artificial holes the river returned to balance and became a lovely trout stream again.   I fish up just a little further than the renovated house on the left. Throughout the course of the day today I never changed out #14 M. Rapidan that enticed so much brook trout attention.

With one more blue line trout stream to fish before dinner with Conor I left the South with plan to come back and headed toward the Mountains West of Charlottesville and the North Fork Moormans.