Overnight fishing trips for me began more than a decade ago with a fall trip to the Salmon River with the Pfeiffers. Spaced throughout the year I greatly look forward to these trips and savor their memories. I didn’t get to the Upper Connecticut River in June so I was very anxious to hit the South Fork of the Shenandoah July 7th and 8th.
I cast the net to the usual suspects Henry and Paul were eager and able to join with James, Fritz and Jacob planning to join day 2. Anticipation for the trip made good York vacation conversation and between frozen-numb swims Henry researched and ordered a sweet new fishing kayak, to our chagrin it didn’t arrive in time so we loaded my trusty canoe and headed towards the Virginia Mtns early Friday morning. As Sunfowers are more beautiful than words to describe them… so’s this section of the South Fork even though it was running high at 2.83 on the Luray gauge (below 2.3 is optimal).
We had Christmas-morning smiles as we met Paul and geared-up. A mixed array of long rods hit the water. Of note, Paul has been experimenting with rod making. I’m not talking about buying a kit…Paul harvested and dried bamboo and built specialty lathe and planning tools to build rods … miniscule tapers ….incredible. I brought a bruiser 6wt for casting heavy-weight offerings and Henry brought me, straight from a UK buy, an Orvis 9’3” 5wt ‘Spring Creek’ 5wt from the original graphite series. It’s lovely, long and casts like a dream, if it were in a magazine it’d be in the middle. Shout-out to Lucy Ritchie my UK eBay agent!
As always happens we spent too long in the upper lake section and Henry killed them in this section putting 20+ fish on us (we’d never catch up). The height of the river wasn’t a problem in the lake section but when the river narrowed in the first rapid we felt its channeled power. Even tethered to the canoe, I can usually traverse the rapid and fish where I choose – no chance today.
Encouraged (swept along) by the strong current Paul and I worked quickly down the left hand side of the channel. Henry, one of Neptune’s Creatures, moved into the side channels where he found fish and slower water but cloudy water hid rocks which found his knees and thighs opening up some colorful flesh, good news … no sharks in this water.
At some point below the first rapid, we hit our stride and began to pile up smallies. Paul had quickly sync’d with the slow, but true action of his bamboo stick, he’d used an Orvis 7’9” bamboo taper (not sure if it was the F&Fine) and could cast our heavier offerings up to about 30 feet. I really enjoyed the length and play of the Spring Creek. These early Orvis Graphite rods have a narrow almost elegant grip and this one’s length really transmitted the fight, but still reserved plenty of backbone in the last third provided one has the patience to let it load deeply.
The smallies weren’t large, mostly 7-9 inches, but just after lunch I landed a 12” which would prove the largest of the day. He was no monster nut he was lovely and like all was released back into his haunts. Henry actually caught the largest fish of the day, a small channel cat which Paul helped him release so he wouldn’t get barbed.
In the middle section, around the high cliff on the left, Paul and I switched rods and I pulled in 3-4 with Paul’s bamboo and he brought in nearly a dozen with my Spring Creek! As late afternoon closed in we urged Henry forward and found pushed to the upper section of the last rapid at 1830. We’d been on the water for 9.5 hours at this point, were exhausted, and the excitement was just about to begin.
Paul and Henry had both already passed the century mark so Henry took the canoe from me so I could see if I could join them. Henry Rigged up his Epic (straight from NZ) 6wt and I brought out my 6wt to deal with the heavy fast water. We found a familiar (deeper) channel amid the 150m wide rapid and began hooking up in the swollen-wild water. Along with the comraderie this was one of the reasons we’d come. Fighting these ferocious fighters upstream in current adds 6 inches of ‘feel’ to the fight and these fish did not disappoint.
Paul joined us straight away and as I was exhausting in a catch I saw a canoe waving a paddle at us from a couple hundred yards upstream. I thought I lost and they’d found a loose paddle and were hailing us, but after a few seconds realized that I recognized the profiles and that Fritz and Jacob had joined us early. As it turns out they were not able to join us Sunday so had decided to join Saturday afternoon, but Fritz’ trusty Ranger had taken ill (cracked radiator) and they got a late start to join us.
They were questioning whether we’d still be on the river, but Jacob quickly noted that Henry was fishing and that it’s near impossible to get him off the river before sundown so they came and we were elated they did.
My favorite time on the river was fishing 5-wide, Paul tucked into the deep, rocky seems to my far left, Hen just to my left fishing the seam in front of us, Jacob on my right fishing the another run w/in the river and Fritz on the far right quickly hauling in fish after fish. What a treat, what a river, room to fish 5-wide and each enjoy each other’s catches. The hatch we were waiting on never materialized but as the sun lowered dark clouds and lighting obscured the mountain downstream heading towards quickly. Thankfully the lightning passed just before the wind hit and heavy drops in a cloud of white engulfed us. We were already drenched and the fish were biting, so with little choice in the matter we fished right through the squall wiping rain from our eyes pulling in fish after fish. I went over the century mark during the storm, my fishing fever subsided, the squall passed revealing a near full moon rising over our right shoulder.
Why didn’t we fish day two? That’s a story for another day.
“I do not envy the man who eats better meat than I do, nor him that is richer, or wears better clothes than I do; I envy nobody but him, and only him, that catches more fish than I do.”
Isaak Walton, from The Complete Angler
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