Anyway… the gist here is that springs and groundwater are not being replenished like they used to be. “What have been historically reliable spring flows are disappearing, droughts are becoming a regular phenomenon with increased temperatures,” according to the draft report presented to the county’s Board of Supervisors.
It gets worse for us fans of brook trout fishing. The article states that according to Shenandoah National Park personnel, “numerous springs are experiencing greatly reduced flow and that some have dried up entirely.” I noticed this two months ago when I fished the North Fork of the Thornton River from the bottom up into the park. It looked like this:
North Fork Thornton River, summer 2011.
Not what I was expecting. And this past summer was not as bad as some recent summers. This is not a good thing at all but may be something we are going to have to get used to.
Nice tip from Murray’s Fly Shop in Edinburg Virginia regarding Passage Creek, and newly stocked fish tactics in general — “Bring along a few streamers like a Pearl Marauder or Olive Strymph, these guys need to swim around in the wild a few more days before they figure out mayflies and caddis are good to eat.” A friend of mine also has a dirty trick to fool newly stocked trout. He ties up a “fly” that resembles one of the food pellets they’ve been raised on. All’s fair in love and…
Albemarle Co.
Mint Springs Lake (Middle) (10/08)
Mint Springs Lake (Upper) (10/08)
Amherst Co.
Pedlar River (Lower) (10/13)
Bath Co.
Bullpasture River (10/14)
Bland Co.
Wolf Creek (10/14)
Fauquier Co.
Thompson WMA Pond (10/12)
Grayson Co.
Elk Creek (10/12)
Highland Co.
Bullpasture River (10/14)
Lee Co.
Martins Creek (10/12)
North Fork Powell River (10/12)
Patrick Co.
Dan River (Below Powerhouse) (10/11)
Roanoke Co.
Roanoke River (City) (10/11)
Roanoke River (Green Hill Park) (Delayed Harvest) (10/13)
Note the South River, near Waynesboro, Virginia. I spoke to one of the owners of the relatively new South River Fly Shop at the Rapidan Trout Unlimited chapter‘s fly fishing show this past February (see also the fly shop’s fishing conditions report). He had a lot to say about the South River’s comeback and I had meant to get down there this year to fish but have not. Yet. According to the fly shop’s fishing conditions report, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries “stocked the 4.5 mile Special Regulations Area in Lyndhurst yesterday (September 26th). 10,000 brown trout were stocked, with sizes mostly from 6-8″, but some fish approaching 12″ were included.” This may be one of the items below from the VDGIF’s fish stocking report, but for a different date, interestingly.
Well, it’s been a month since I fished here and it’s the first time I’ve tried it during the summer. When I got there I did not expect to find a mostly dry boulder strewn spillway with some scattered puddles of stream. How can fish survive a summer in something like that? But survive they do. I ran across a couple walking their dog and they said it looks that way every summer. I know I’ve caught some nice brook trout in this river on two occasions (both springtime) so they are in there somewhere. And I managed to find a few.
I parked on the side of the road at the bottom of the stream and hiked into the park. It’s tricky figuring out how to walk in without trespassing. Hikers are definitely not encouraged with all the no parking and towing warnings, and you have to walk by a couple houses right at the park entrance but it’s all legal. I always make an effort to be quiet and move quickly past residences in these spots, which is not uncommon throughout the lower reaches of Shenandoah National Park. If I were living there that’s what I would appreciate, so I try to operate that way and be unobtrusive and as invisible as possible.
Work and the typical obligations of life have kept me bound to the local spots. The one place I can get away to quickly and spend an hour or two in the evenings is a local bass pond, a pond thick with bluegills as I wrote about no too long ago.
Not only is this a fun place to catch a mess of bluegills but I’ve caught quite a few nice largemouth bass at this pond, too, all on slightly larger flies like blue and black Shenandoah poppers. I also landed my biggest bass from that pond using a big black round popper on a five weight fly rod. It measured sixteen inches and weighed a little over two pounds. Not bad for a pond that might be five acres in size and is pretty shallow.
The only bad part is that over the past few weeks the weeds have grown massively on the edges of this pond, negating a lot of the advantage of using a fly rod there. The next step may be to take the ultralight spinning rod down there with some poppers. Not quite the same but still a fun way to end a day.
Some of my friends who fish for bass and pike up north really look down their noses at catching small fish. But a small fly rod makes for a fun time catching some big bluegills and even small bass. I've caught a bunch on my four weight seven footer and, really, how can you complain about that?You can't.So now we're into July and it is HOT. My inclination is to stay away from the lowland trout streams unless they are fed by very cold springs. Trout are stressed when the water temperature hits 70 degrees and for a lot of streams right now this is the case. I have not been in the mountains since early June so have not measured the temps their but I understand that all the spring rain we've had has kept them in much better shape than normal this time of the year. Murray's Fly Shop reported last week that they were still seeing hatches of sulphurs and little yellow stoneflies, as well as the typical summer fare of terrestrials including beetles.
The water levels are dropping from muddy and raging to fishable on all the rivers around here. Even the Shenandoah is clearing up, finally. I stopped by Passage Creek last weekend and it was wild. I even saw two whitewater kayakers putting in at Rt. 55, downstream of where the fish are stocked, but they could have easily run the sections upstream. Looks like they just stocked Passage Creek this week, so might be worth checking out.
Cedar Run in Shenandoah National Park is a tough stream in the section above the falls. It is very steep, boulder-strewn pocket water with the thing fish love and anglers hate — tight cover. There are definitely brook trout here but presenting a fly to them is a major challenge.
The day's lone victim.
Location
Cedar Run, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Date
Sunday 22-May-2011
Weather
Humid, 80 degrees, mostly cloudy.
Water
Mid-50’s temperature, medium high flow.
Terrain
Steep, rocky, muddy from recent rains; tight cover.
Distance Covered
3.5 miles, 3100 feet elevation change round trip.
Tackle Used
Winston WT 7 foot 3 weight, double taper line, 9 foot leader, Mr. Rapidan size 16 and an Irresistible size 12.
Fishing Results
Poor. Three brook trout hooked, one landed (about six inches).
Best Part of the Trip
Barbless hooks pull out of fingers easily.
Freakiest Encounter
Millipedes crawling around everywhere.
I feel like I was over-gunned pitching dries with a seven foot three weight on Cedar Run. A six foot or even shorter two weight (or lighter) is probably ideal for this stream. I was bow and arrow casting into a lot of the tight spots. When you’re casting like that, the stream is kicking your butt. I think had shots for fish in places I could not cast to — logs and low foliage all over this stream — but a lot of those places were difficult even for unconventional casting. On the other hand, there are quite a few deep pools. I could have tried nymphing some of them but many had very visible and sandy bottoms and were right next to the heavily used trail. I did fish a few deeper pools (with no luck) but the ones near the trail I passed by with my dry fly rigged up.
For some reason, whether due to natural barriers or thin water, there is always a line on every stream above which you find no fish. You usually realize you’ve found this line after you’re well past it, because you stop catching anything. Sometimes you never find the line, maybe because it’s getting dark, or you started too far downstream and you eventually have to head home. I have gone pretty far up many streams and not found this line when I expected to, and that’s a pretty cool discovery. But it’s always there, and if you keep going you will cross it and the action will cease. There should be a name for this place where the fish stop living. Maybe there already is, but this seems easy — the “fish line.” Like the tree line in alpine environments, fish are not found above it. Unlike the tree line, fish could still live above the fish line if they were put there and given the chance. Sometimes you find the fish line and it comes much earlier than you expect. You might think you’ve just run into some poor pools, so you keep trying the next one and the next. At some point, you grudgingly realize it’s not you. It’s the fish line. Your casting hasn’t fallen apart and no other flies are going to work. You’ve reached the line. You’re done.
I found the fish line on Cedar Run earlier than I expected. In between the falls where the trail crosses the river and the line, I managed to hook three fish, losing two — a single fish away from a skunking. There is always one fish that cooperates on days like today, and these are the worst days for me in this park if you measure them by the numbers. The only times I’ve come here and caught nothing were in both cases (I’m pretty sure) because there were no fish. The first time, on Indian Run, I am convinced I was above the fish line which was probably outside the park boundary on private property. Had to be the case. The other time, on Overall Run, I still think it was because there are no fish in that stream. I will race down to either of those streams if I find I was mistaken. For now, I’m convinced.
I did hook a good sized brookie in one pool on Cedar Run. Hooked him twice, in fact, but failed to get him. I know he was much bigger than normal because of the tug on the 3 weight rod. That may have been the best and the worst part of the day. I gave the pool a rest and returned but he was not having any of it. And that was the last fish I tangled with all day. He was at the fish line.
One thing I was not expecting was the huge amount of millipedes. Supposedly nocturnal, the North American millipede (narceus americanus) was crawling all over every dead tree trunk and rock. They were everywhere! In one spot I had pulled myself up by grabbing onto a large dead log and had forgotten that best practice of hiking and climbing — look at what you’re pawing before you grab it. Gladly I did not mash one of these guys, who can secrete some junk that can irritate your skin and cause temporary discoloration at the affected spot. Not as bad as I had thought before I got home and read about them — I was thinking it could have been certain death by their highly venomous mandibles. Not to worry, that is quite untrue.
If I get back to Cedar Run I will try from the bottom. When the water comes down that could be the better end of this stream. In the meantime, there are lots of other places and I think better streams in the park. But if you want a challenge and don’t mind demonstrating some fly fishing to the many hikers who use the trail, Cedar Run is worth checking out.
