Lower Portion -- Upper Reach North Fork Moormans

Matt and James with the Stocked section of NFM in the background

No exploration of VA blue line trout streams is complete without a thorough examination of the North Fork Moormans (NFM) River.  I'd fished NFM twice before, the first time with Fritz years ago and again last Spring when I was washed-out after a few brookies after a long day scouting blue lines.

Moormans has four fishable sections; the first is stocked trophy-trout water managed by the Thomas Jefferson Chapter of TU located just below the Charlottesville Reservoir at the end of RR 614, this section can be accessed with a 45.00 annual pass anglers can pick up at Albemarle Angler. As we jeeped toward the resevoir we pulled off to survey one of the TU named pools and 'Flat Pool' was alive with stocked trout cruising just below the tannin-stained water.   It was all I could do not to throw a fly and pay my pass fee later! The second is the South Fork of Moormans which descends into Charlottesville Reservoir from the West, its a small stream without enough drainage area to support much flow or many trout.  The third section is the lowest section of the NFM and is located immediately above the reservoir, this section is stocked and has pools and rocks as popular with the UVA coed crowd as they are with anglers.   Upstream of where Black Rock Gap Road crosses NFM for the third time begins the native-brookie fishing and our  target for the day.

This is gorgeous water draining an isolated and remote valet which runs North-South paralleling Skyline just to the West.  The length of this watershed allows NFM to aggregate smaller blue lines (Pond Ridge Branch, Big Branch, Shop Run, and Little Branch Run to name a few) along its course and hold viable water year round.  Black Rock Gap Road continues to parallel NFM so just keep walking to get to less and less travelled water.

We began fishing about 10 minutes upstream from Sketch pool at 38.151759, -78.749555 and ended our day at 38.165445, -78.744546 where Big Branch spills into NFM.

The view from NFM as Big Branch's 4 waterfalls spill in 

In my anxiousness to fish I frequently beat the sun's warming rays on winter mornings and such was the case today.   We'd hiked in and were ready to fish at 0930, but the sun hadn't yet joined us in this narrow valley and though we found some perfect water the fish were slow to activate in the 48 degree water.  By 1030 the sun was warming the water and the fish became more active.    Here's James (below) questioning the upper reaches of Long Pool. 

Rivers captivate me as do the colors of these brookies.

The warmer it got the more it seemed the trout were in there normal holding spots and we approached each pool slowly after several clumsy approaches scattered trout at our feet...don't step in a pool you want to fish if you can avoid it. 

This superfine fellow fell for a grey-bodied parachute adams -- he stopped splashing for a moment to pose for the photo

We removed our droppers and team fished dries, leap-frogging pools.   With a good sized coyote critiquing our casting from a streamside finger we settled into lunch atop a sun-bathed rock and counted our blessings.  1500 found us tired and at Big Branch.    I didn't think we would make it this far but we must have moved a bit more quickly than I thought.  James explored up NFM for another 50 m while I was determined to add another stream to by blue lines ledger and was really happy to catch this colorful character (see below) in the plunge pool of the second falls.  Next trip I'll walk up to Big Branch (50-min direct walk from parking) and fish up from there.

Typical NFM Brookie

At the uppermost falls of Big Branch