Smallie Rodeo on the South Fork

drink in the beauty of special places

Hen with a Leopard-spotted smallie

Wind burned faces, weary backs, gouged shins, swollen, lacerated hands and bleeding finger tips couldn't take the smiles off our sun creased faces as we huddled over lasagna and Legend Brown Ale and recounted the highlights of day one of our bronzeback adventure on the South Fork of the Shenandoah. 

This is Paul's Massive smallie cauffht on day 2 -- Handsomefish

Hen the start of day 1 

small flows produced many small smallies

A fave a productive flow for Hen

Henry and I look forward to our fishing trips together and this was no exception.   Planning began about a month ago for this two-day trip when an attempt at the C&O Canal fell through, but truth be told I'd much rather be fighting smallies than working through cramps in my arse. I was eager to get back on the South Fork as last trip I'd cleaned up in terms of BTH numbers but had hooked played an lost the biggest bronzeback that had ever speed-dated me.  

Our adventure began with an evening of meat lust celebrating Conor's 22 Birthday at Fugo De Chao in DC then a meat swollen sleep and an early departure.   Weather here in DC had been record-hot, fours days above 100 in a row, so we counted our lucky bass that it was a partly cloudy and forecast to only get into the middle 80's (perfect).   

Hen at the top of 2nd rapid

Hen contemplating his kit at the bottom of 2nd rapid

This was a two car adventure so we dropped one at the Alma, VA takeout and headed for the NewPort put-in to begin our adventure.    Fortified with gallons of water, sandwiches and Gatorade we slipped into warm South Fork.   Fishing with Henry is always a joy, his big enveloping smile is contagious and was etched on his mug quickly as he pulled his first smallie of the morning in the put-in rapids.  

bass were holing just on the shoulders of each of these outflows

pick-a-spot-any-spot

Now smallies aren't particularly finicky when they're feeding and you can make many right choices to entice them.   I know it's heresy, but I've taken to throwing a 2" silver-smoke-sparkle tube with a 1/32oz jig head on a 1.25" hook.  This rig is a killer.   Golden retrievers work pretty well as do other varietal bugger-streamers but if you're looking for the jog of a hook-up there's nothing I've found that rivals the action of these small tubes.    

happy amid turbulent water

The catch-rate was standard to slow for the first two hours and then started to pick up between the second and third rapids.    Henry in particular picked up the pace in the narrows flows, chutes and pools along the right hand side.   The active bass seemed to be in these secondary flows outside the main channel.    I followed suit and was soon catching small smallies at an unprecedented rate,  Then to keep our hopes up a big smallie snatched Henry's offering and a memorable deep water fight was on, a 16" smallie that reaffirms your faith in a greater power.

  

The catch rate continued to increase and then at about 1730 as the sun began to rake the river at a lower angle it happened, a hatch of size 26 black (non-biting) flies so thick if formed a film of flies on the water. The bronzebacks turned from 'on' to 'crazy' for the next 2 hours and in that short time we caught another 150 bass including many in the 10"-14" inch range which when caught down-stream and fought up stream are a gift from mother nature.  At 1945 we licked our wounds, high-five'd and navigated the final rapid having caught 350 smallies.

Paul joined us at 0730 at the Newport Put-in on day two and after introductions and a few highlights from Day one we slipped into the water again determined to bypass the first rapid and lake portion and not start until the second rapid.   Henry and I were much more relaxed the glow of the first day still warming our memories and I confess my knees and back feeling every bit of my age.  The catch rate was steady but not fantastic.   We all had stretches where we caught bass out froom each other noses and then went 10 minutes without a hook-up.   Paul then caught the monster of the two day adventure hooking a handsome, gnarled old smallie in a innocuous run.   The fish was so heavy and stayed so deep that Paul was at first convinced that he was a cat fish but as Paul fought him in and I approached with the suddenly inadequate net we found a huge smallmouth, the mayor of this stretch of the river.  

Lunker to remember

Drop by Paul's garage in Leesburg and you'll probably still see a smile on his mug from that huge fish. Measurement with a float tube ruler is never precise but he was just over 18".  He reminded me of Jangles from the Children's book.  Paul slid him back in the doah and moved downstream forcing he pace to make sure that we fished the final rapid above the take out.

We dealt with some gear issues along the way as Henry wrapped his line around his boots and snapped it as it caught in the sharp teeth of his boot-lace guides and my access 6wt inexplicably snapped in two in the second section, but we fished on with some line magic and the extra rod Henry has thought to pack.  I was once again reminded of buying a quality rod up and the value of the Orvis Guarantee, I just received this rod back from Orvis-repair and for the cost of shipping Orvis will fix this one too.  If you need a rod, advice on water, or want to join the long-rod community see Mark at the Orvis store in Woodbridge and he'll take care of you.

We neared the last rapid at 1400 and fished it for a bit over 2 hours exploring this fast, robust stretch that we'd previously neglected.   What a treat.  It's a challenge to fish with the canoe threatening to pull you downstream, but well worth the effort as willing bass were ready to ambush offerings anytime the water was greater than 2'.  I caught my biggest smallie at 1600 on Henry's three weight and on a light rod like that it seemed like an anchor but I finally brought it to answer with the help of a rock ledge which harbored off the current allowing me to tame the 15-incher enough to give him a kiss before I released him.  I stopped my count, but was with Henry as he BTH # 100 and 101 as we neared the take-out.   This stint on the river was jaw-dropping, our outrageous two day total was somewhere north of 625 smallies BTH, an embarrassment of riches.

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