17 May on The Occoquan with Conor

         Conor and I had planned to fish the Rapidan for smallmouth but we got out of the house late so we opted for an easier and shorter trip to the fall-line rocks above Historic Occoquan.  We put in at Occoquan Regional Park and paddled upstream.  We were initially cautious as we could see folks in the distance hopping on what I have come to think of as our personal perch on table rock. As we approached we found that they were  bow-hunters and table rock was uninhabited.   The closer we got though, the stiffer the current & it became apparent that significantly more water was being let out of the damn and the rock garden was angry, swollen and fast.  I wasn't sure that we would be able to reach or safely get out of the canoe at table rock.  After some strong paddling by both of us we got in the back eddy below table rock, tossed the grapple anchor and climbed aboard the rock.  I didn't think we would have luck fishing the swollen pool but after a cast or two it became obvious that the fish were there in huge numbers and the only challenge was weighting the presentations to get them low enough in the water column. I began fishing with a 6wt and a small clouser fly (silver and blue) and Conor worked with a spinning rod with a shad spoon.  In 90 minutes we caught 4 shad and 3 catfish and hooked into huge carp and snakehead that we couldn't land.  There were monster carp moving upstream in pods within casting range.  I hooked into one that was a wide as a football and 3' long and after playing him for a minute or two in the honey-hole he broke Conor off.  Throughout the period snakehead kept rising in the pool for a gulp of air and snaggers on the Fairfax side and bow-hunters on the Prince William side were putting snake on the table.  Again, a very interesting experience and a wonderful time with Conor.

Location Trifecta

6 May 2013: Scott and I started out at the Occoquan hoping to replicate our recent success, it was dreary and gray and promised (we thought) great fishing.  We canoed to tablerock and began to survey the honey hole, the light didn't allow us to see into the hole, but it was obvious that it was not teeming with shad or carp as it had been recently. Scott caught a shad or two  from the sweep-spot and I worked my way to the upper hole after having been skunked on tablerock.  My move to the upper hole was intended to stake a claim to the hole local-eater was approaching up the north bank pail in hand. He turned out to be sight fishing/snagging for
snakeheads, suffice it to say his family is well fed. I hooked into what we think was a snake in the upper hole and like two days ago he took my fly after a 4-5 minute fight.  My mistake was that I let him get into the current at the front of the hole.  Next time I hook him I'll try to work him and keep him in the back of the pool.  Before we left the honey pool Scott hooked the first
schoolie striper of the year (eureka) and as we floated out of the rockgarden I hooked two nice shad. We paddled into a light but steady rain-cloud and were happy to get warm in Clifford by 1030.

          While we were fishing Scott got an invitation to pre-fish a Chancellorsville lake ahead of his Orvis fly-fishing 201 class this weekend. We swung by Montclair and picked up lighter bass rigs and headed south to the Walter Issacson Sportsmens club off Orange Plank Road.  We found a great track of land with a lovely pond and well laid out firing ranges.  After getting used to sporadic gunfire we fished 1/4 of the lake with poppers and droppers and had steady action from crappie, sunfish and the occasional large-mouth. Scott had fun christening his new Helios 2-wt and pulled in a 3-inch sunfish to break-in the rod!  I fished with a 5-wt given to me by my friend John Caldwell.  John isn't as mobile as he once was and is happy to have me enjoy the rod (thanks John).  The pond should be a great place for the 201 class with plenty of backcast area and plentiful action.
         

Not ready for the day to be done we headed to the the shad hole 300 yards upstream of the Falmouth Bridge and after a few exploratory casts decided that we'd toss the canoe in for 45 minutes. A local schooled us for 30 minutes as we anchored, upstream of the prime spot with only a shad or two between us.  The local left (with a satisfied smirk) and in a driving mist we drifted into the center of the hole and began to hook-up.  Scott caught shad on his Access 6wt with a chartreuse dart and I did the same with my trusty spinning rod and a small yellow and orange.  These shad we several inches bigger that the Occoquan shad and beautiful fighters.  A great day...I hope our wives let us out again! Here's some Video Scott took of a Shad hook-up.

Fish Buffet on the Occoquan

This is a combined report from May 3rd & 4th.  Scott and I wanted to try the pools at the Occoquan fall-line to target shad with fly-rods and avoid the combat fishing at Falmouth flats.  We set out from Occoquan Regional Park and paddled upstream passing 6-8 boats targeting the channel.  We found the rocks pleasantly unoccupied and starting working the pools upstream of table-rock. A school of 14-16" shad had congregated and couldn't get much further up the river.  We began throwing chartreuse shad darts and silver clousers on 6-wts.  Scott used a sinking line and I weighed my leader with a few split-shot to get down in the current.  The fishing was great from the 3rd cast and we were quiet in our excitement to avoid several kayak anglers who were cozying up to us.  We found that by wading upstream we could throw into the pool and use the current to sweep the flies into the greatest number of fish.  Together we caught 15 shad in 90-minutes. Interestingly we saw two gents with compound bows, hunting/fishing for snakeheads immediately upstream of us in the rocks, they 'harvested' 3-4 good sized snakes.  
          

   The fishing was so good that Fritz, Jacob and I decided to return the next day.  We mirrored our approach and the three of us arrived at the table rock at about 0900.  Again the channel with filled with fishing boats, but we had the best spot (tablerock) to ourselves.  We surveyed the hole and through the shimmering surface could make out the outlines of swarming fish.  We positioned Jacob in the prime spot and started laying into fish.  Interestingly, the shad were not there in the same numbers and the fish swarming were actually carp!  The first fish Jacob caught on a standard 1.25 inch silver shad spoon was a large, gorgeous catfish!  It was the healthiest cat I've seen and it gave Jacob a great fight, it must have been 17-18 inches long.  We took turns in the prime spot and each hooked a fish or three!  The next fish caught was a large carp which gave Fritz a five minute fight and was not happy about the fly buried in his jaw.   We'd never seen carp in a feeding mode and it was exciting.  Fritz' carp was + 20 inches and thick as a football, an awesome fish.  I jumped in the hot spot and quickly hooked-up hoping for a shad only to pull in a 15-inch large mouth bass!  The diversity was incredible.  We continued fishing on and around table rock and pulled in several more carp and shad.  What a great trip. See video of Fritz fighting the carp.

W/ Fritz on the Rapidan 16 April

Sneaking up on Rapidan pool

        Fritz and I had been looking to get out on the river after life began to settle down and today worked.  We decided upon the upper-Rapidan and just after we passed junction pool we found a camper whose car had quit so we drove him and his dog back down to the Blue Ridge Parkway to get a tow, we were 25-minutes late to the river but it looked like a great day ahead.  We drove to the gate at the roads end, geared up and and headed to the river.  I began with a 2wt rigged with a dark hendrickson and pheasant tail dropper.

Get me back in the water!

Fritz w a trusty Orvis 4wt and a elk hair caddis followed by a 16 bead head prince.  As it turns out a well presented paperclip would have have some success today as the river was alive and action was constant between 0915 and 1300. We moved up the stream chatting, spotting and fishing.  The fish were exactly where they should be,  The water looked high down low in Criglersville but by the time we jeeped to the end of the fire road it was perfect.  I didn't take the temp but suspect it was 56.

Typical Rapidan colored Brookie

The fishing markedly slowed down from 1330-1500 as we picked up rock hopping speed in order to make the Brown House by 1500.  All and all a great 100 fish day between the two of us the majority of them were in the 4-5 inch range but 6-7 inch fish were not uncommon and a 8-9 incher was the prize for the day. Great fishing and even better to catch up with Fritz.

Upstream and up-waterfall

Classic Spring Day in Heaven -- On the river

11 April: Scott and I left NOVA at 0730 and headed to our favorite waters of the upper Rapidan .  The weather was holding ahead of an approaching front, promising highs in the 80s and light breezes.  When we arrived in Criglersville we found ourselves behind a slowish outback heading to the river, this company on the road was a harbinger of things to come.  The TU member allowed us to pass on the 2nd switchback (thank you). We passed the 2nd bridge and decided to fish the river on the right hand side until lunch as we were not so familiar with it as with other sections. Anxious to hit the stream we both geared-up w 2-wts and waders although you could have made a fair argument to wet wade (next time maybe).  The water was 56, clear & w optimal flow. We began to pick up fish immediately, Scott with an Adams Purple Parachute and hares-ear nymph and me w an elk-hair caddis trailed by a 16 bead-head prince.  Action was pretty fast for about 90-minutes then trailed off towards the end of our section.  We walked back down to our car .25 of a mile, although it seemed like more distance on the river as it always does.  We lunched by the river and that's where we saw our first company a TU veteran who kinda snuck-up behind us.  He was a gentlemen
and exited the river although we were happy to have him fish through.  We moved upstream to survey our post-lunch stretch and found that 8 SUVs had rallied at the campsite just below the Marine Camp.  They seemed like they were out for a good time so we gave them a good deal of river and put in upstream.  As it turned out they separated and scattered every couple of hundred yards as we quickly were penned-in and were not pleased that they had jumped in just 75-yds ahead of us.  We exited the river, moved upstream, only to have to repeat the process again as there were more of them.  We finally resolved to go to the upper gate and out-walk them upstream,  This worked well and we ultimately fished all the way to the presidential retreat unmolested.

 Golden Stonefly Nymph

Quill Gordon Nymph

Mid-afternoon was slow for me as I failed to change flies as the day changed and was cursed with some messy windknots, but action stayed relatively constant for Scott who adapted better to the changing conditions. There was a constant hatch throughout the day and we were fascinated by all the action on the water.  We still caught 60% on the droppers, but surface strikes were common and exciting, but all to frequently trout would rise and nose our dries only to resubmerge, so the issue became presenting what they were looking for.  Small dries worked mid day and then larger dries and larger droppers worked better late. 

Catching trout in President Hover's backyard

We ended the day as we like to, both catching a trout on our last casts within sight of the brown house.  It wasn't a record day but it was a great day.  I caught 28 trout Scott north of 50.

Matt landing a nice brookie

Classic pocket water and short riffles

Native brookie that fell for an Adams Purple Parachute dry fly

Shenandoah Valley 19-22 March

I had the opportunity to spend a week in Harrisonburg while Carole was working on an Alternative Spring Break program at James Madison University.  Having not spent much time in this area, my first stop was Mossy Creek Fly Fishing.  I talked a bit with the owner Colby who was exceedingly knowledgeable and friendly.  On Monday, I picked up some tying materials and planned to tie some Kreelex flies while staying in the hotel. 

On Tuesday, I headed out to Beaver Creek, but all the stream passes were logged out by the time I got there.  I decided to give Mossy Creek a shot for a couple of hours as I had never fished there before.  Air temp: high 30s, water temp 45 degrees, winds howling above 25 mph.  I had my dogs Allie & Jumper with me so I planned to fish for only a couple of hours while leaving them in the truck.. Casting was a challenge throughout... I had one hookup and one follow, but nothing brought to hand.  I'd like to give that water another shot someday when I have a bit more time. 

On Wednesday, Orvis hosted a Trout School at Rose River Farms.  Allie & Jumper again accompanied me for the ride, and enjoyed running around the fields before taking up residence back in the truck while I went to work.

 I would be guiding 3 gentlemen on the river today. I guided for Brian H,. Gerry B., and Charles W. --- and we had a terrific day on the water.
Air temp:40s, sunny, water temp: 46.  In the morning, we worked on dead drift nymphing techniques and everyone got into several nice rainbows. The hot fly for the morning was a size 14 Green Weeny -- don't laugh at the name, just enjoy the results!  I tied up a dozen of these flies a couple of days earlier and was happy that I did. 
In the afternoon, we fished a different stretch of water and worked on down and across streamer presentations.  Again, the group all successfully got the hot hand and were able to hook into some beautiful trout -- both rainbows in the 14-17 inch range, and brookies in the 11-12 inch range.  The best flies were #10 Olive Woolly Buggers, white woolly buggers also enticed a few aggressive rainbows.
All told, everyone in group caught, landed and safely released more than 10 trout apiece. 
At the end of the day, I grabbed my rod and headed down to fish for about 30 minutes.  The bite was still on.....

  On Thursday, I headed out to fish Beaver Creek.  It was bitterly cold.  Wind chill was in the mid-teens. 
While rigging up to start the day, I could not find my 4-wt reel & line.  My default option was my 7'6" 1-wt Superfine.  I knew if I caught a fish here that my rod would be put to the maximum test... and it soon was. 
Using a Kreelex fly that I tied a few days earlier, I drifted the fly down a sweeping run, then stripped out another 20 feet of line and allowed the fly to drift all the way through the hole.  At the end of the drift -- BAM the rod didn't literally double over -- it fully doubled over and then some.  Landing a feisty 16inch rainbow in fast current with a 1-wt full flex rod is a challenge.  But a fun challenge.  As I reached back for my net to land the fish, I found my 4wt-reel safely lodged in the webbing! I snapped a quick pic and safely released the fish back in the river.

 As the wind continued picking up and the rod guides continued to ice over, I decided to call it a day and head back to warm up.
On Friday, I tied a bunch of Clousers and Mickey Finns before picking up Carole and heading home.
Harrisonburg is a terrific area.... I could see taking up residence there some day.

Rapidan River Brookies 3-11-13

I've been fighting off some flu bugs and other viruses for about a week and Monday I woke to a clear head and sound body so what better to do on a day off than head up to the Rapidan and see what the brookies are up to.  The weather conditions as follows:  partly cloudy; air temp - 50; water temp 42.
Matt couldn't make the trip today so the trip was a solo effort.  The recent rains and snow meltoff made the road a bit dicey.  I spun the rear tires of my Ranger and headed up & down the switchback dirt road.

 

Today I fished the section from the Junction Pool to the first bridge.... about a 1.75 mile trek upstream.  I parked at the bridge and hiked back down to the Junction Pool to start fishing there.  The water level was higher than I've ever seen it -- good news for spring fishing.  I rigged my 7'6" Orvis Superfine  with a #14 Parachute Adams followed by a #18 Copper John.  When Matt & I fished the river last month, the fish were all small ones -- 6" or less.  Today I hoped to find some bigger ones.... and I did.  Although not a "lights out" day, I caught and released 10 brookies in the 7-11 inch range.  Six  caught on the Adams, 2 on the Copper John & 2 more on a #20 Zebra Midge.

I played around a bit with my waterproof camera and snapped these pics of the trout underwater.  I still have a ways to go on underwater camera ops.

I expect the fishing to heat up as the water temp inches up to 50 degrees and beyond.
See you on the river.  Tight lines! scott