It started out Great!

This post is poor cousin to Scott's post on the Northern Connecticut River (two posts earlier) but I wanted to capture a few notes.   Paul and I fished the North Fork of the Shenandoah for 3.5 hrs Saturday.  We entered at our normal takeout off the low water bridge at Lumpton Road, pushed upstream .5 miles and fished back to the takeout. The river pool was optimal registering 2.28 ft of the Strasbourg Gage.

Nature bathe in this river

These Riffles produced the best fishing of the day

As I paddled up stream I slid through the end of a size 20 BWO hatch coming off the warm water and smallie bronzebacks sipped them off the top of the water. It felt like one of those days where we'd be fighting fish on each cast, but it was not to be.  I began in a riffle section of the river and picked up smallie after smallie in the 6-11 inch range sliding my flies and tubes over fast flows and allowing it to settle into deeper slot runs. As the action was very consistent I took off my very productive 2' smoke sparkle tube and tied on a fly meant to imitate the tube and fished it in the same manner from the same spot.   The tube out-fished the fly 3:1 (Damn), back to the bench!  I didn't realize that when I left this riffle section I was leaving the most productive water as Paul and I struggled to find fish for about 2 hours in deeper slower water until finally getting back into fish in the faster water just above the takeout.

  My best bet is that with the water at its summertime warmth the bass are congregating in the oxygenated rapids, the deepest (holes) and at any cool water springs or tribs.  I also used at heavier 6wt 10' rod over gunned with an 8wt line which was heavy enough to cast those small weighted tubes with ease but unfortunately dampened the feel of bites from these smaller smallies.  Next trip I'm going back to a 9' 6wt w a 7WF line, this seems like the happiest set up.