New Water ~ North River

Anxious to get on the water and get away from D.C. on Inauguration Day Fritz, James and I set out on wet roads for an adventure to the Delayed Harvest Section (DHS) of the North River West of Bridgewater, Va.  North River had been on my list for a year and the DHS is a 1-mile tail-water between the bottom discharge dam at Elkhorn Lake and Staunton Reservoir. My hope was that the bottom release dam would add consistent trout friendly water and that Elkhorn lake would serve as a buffer to rain. Turns out I was right on both. The flow was optimum and running at a winter-warm 46.👍

James and Fritz atop the dam with Elkhorn Lake and the WV Ridgeline behind them

With Fritz driving and a worn Delorme in my lap we found our way to the headwaters of Elkhorn Lake in about 3 hours.  The section of North River that flows down the VA/WV border and feeds Elkhorn is supposedly good native Brookie territory and will get its chance soon too. We found the parking area at the head of Elkhorn, geared up in the rain and drained our last drops of coffee before the .5-mile walk along the southern side of the lake toward the dam. We'd heard this section was decent sized trout water for the VA Mtns so we took an assortment of rods not knowing exactly what to expect.  Expecting to thrown tandem nymphs under an indicator I decided on a stiff TFO 8' 2wt, Fritz a 7'6" 4wt and James his trusty 7'6" 3wt.

What a sledding hill this would have made!   Fritz and James head down

It was a chilly and damp walk in the rain to the spillway and I thought of Camas Creek as I headed down to the spillway.  We noted the spillway pool BLOG-chatter claimed always held trout to our delight saw trout suspended in the pool.  

trout, bass, river suckers, pan fish this discharge pool held them all

After a few strikes in the spillway pool we decided to walk down the stream-side trail and fish back up to the pool. I thought the trail led all the way to Staunton Reservoir, but it turns out that it ended after about half a mile.  

 

DHS between the two reservoirs the trail ends at the 90 degree bend midway between

 With James and Fritz catching up I examined the forest, the rock ledges carved by the rivers constant cutting and the beauty of it all.   Fritz had seen nesting Bald Eagles at the car and attuned to their presence I smiled as one dropped down into the riverbed and swooped ahead alighting on a branch down river.  

When we reached the end of the streamside trail James decided to fish up from there and Fritz and I resolved to head down stream toward Staunton Reservoir.  We followed deer trails, broke brush, hit a few pools and finally came to the top of Staunton reservoir.

Top of Staunton Reservoir and our furthest point downriver

 

View from the bottom looking back into the Special Regs/Delayed Harvest Area

To our delight and frustration 10-12 Bows and 2 brookies made this large rock their home-base

I approached from the farside while Fritz roll casted from the near bank using the current to carry his wholly bugger into between the rock (see above) and the bank... bam rainbow-on.

 In the pod in front of us were a dozen rainbows and 2 somewhat larger white-finned brookies, for near an hour, Fritz and I crept and crawled bloody through the thorny bank trying our best to entice another trout to hand to no avail.  After nodding respectfully to these finicky stockers we began our trek upstream to close with James.  

We found James just upstream of a gorgeous bend pool bisected by a large trunk splitting the pool, another 12-15 trout were in the pool and as the afternoon had warmed to a super comfortable 60 degrees the trout turned on eating emergers coming off the cobble strewn bottom.

Here I am drifting my split shot-weighted fly under the log to the feeding station

We all enjoyed hook-ups and talking each other onto trout...steady...steady...to the left...here he comes..now.now...set the hook, but Fritz was the only one to come away with a bow, see video below.

 

 With the shadows starting the creep up the river valley we decided to fish our way back up and call it day.    I'll come back here again (can't abide being skunked on such lovely water) and next time I'll be sure to work the North River above where it enters Elkhorn Lake as well.

Thanks for following along!

 

 

 

 

 

 Here are the directions