District Fly Fishing

I have lived in Virginia full-time now for nearly five years. And last week, I fished the Rapidan River for the first time. I had an Esq. conference in Charlottesville last weekend. Being the generous employer that I am, I apportioned some time to fish on my way down. The way down to Charlottesville is mainly piedmont -largely bereft of public access water - but a small diversion into Shenandoah National Park proved convenient enough.

I mean, I held the morning out as open for appointments. Is it my fault no one took me up on it?

Now, the Rapidan is a well known river, famous for having hosted presidents and whatnot. It is a glorious stream. Trent tells me it has the largest water volume of any stream in the park. So we are talking about the king of the heap when it comes to a place famous for its brook trout streams. But I put off fishing it for a long time. It is too famous for its own good. I’ve heard it gets crowded in the summer. And that’s not a feature I look for when I go brook trout fishing. So I put it off. Then, as described, an opportunity arose. In the middle of the week. In the middle of February. On a day when it was going to warm up... Auspicious. 

So I  woke up before my alarm  and filled my Yeti mug with coffee (thanks Teresa!). Put the car in drive and turned on a history podcast. Stopped for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. Soon enough I was passing the church I put in my GPS, on a back road headed up the mountain. 

Gee, the road looks rough. Gee, I should turn off my podcast. %^&* I better concentrate! The road was rough - and kind of fun in the right frame of mind. Shortly after becoming a dirt road, the fire road became gouged with erosion and studded with bedrock. At the helm of my trusty Subaru (thanks Teresa!), I persisted and make my way up the mountain.

The forest was shrouded in mist, but the stream’s voice was the perfect volume. Full but not bursting. A nice flow. I thought I might need layers but I ended up taking most of them off. 

I turned off at the first spot that I saw, because when I know I’m going to return to a stream, I like to fish from the bottom up. It’s the methodical way of doing it. Still, I put in 5-10 minutes of walking downstream. But not too much. It takes time to thrash water with the flexy plastic line, and I had a Chick-Fil-A Spicy Deluxe lunch waiting for me in the car.

I tried an orange stimie for a little while. When it didn’t work, I reassessed. I had come to a big pool. Streamflow was strong. The water was deep. It looked ideal for tight line nymphing. 

I put on an attractor nymph (my sexy hare’s ear) and a Higa’s SOS on a tight line setup. I was only fishing a 7′6″ 3 wt rod but oh well. It was perfect water for the method. Right away I started seeing fish move around the fly. Showing interest. I moved up to fish the heaviest water, the heart of the seam. After a few casts and a few drifts I had my first jewel.

This lovely male brookie took the Higa’s SOS. I was trembling with adrenaline after catching this fish. It was just a lot of unknowns coming together how I thought they would. And there were more coming!

I fished small water a bit on the way to the next pool. But it became clear they were in the prime lies.

The next fish came out of the bottom 1/4 of this run. The flow turned and became perpendicular to the bank. The next fish also took the Higa’s SOS. At this time I figured out that they were eating little black stonefly nymphs.

Another nice fish came to hand.

Sorry for the spot on the lens.

The other mistake I made this day was I forgot my tippet spools. Usually I swap them out on my sling pack depending on whether I’m trout fishing or warm water fishing, but I’ve been musky and pickerel fishing a lot lately and it kinda slipped my mind that I would need extra tippet. So I had to triage other leaders to get tippet material. NBD but when I lost my tight line nymph rig after lunch, I had to switch techniques bc I didn’t have enough leader for a euro leader. I switched to a dry-dropper, with a s16 Adams-gray Klinkhammer above and various s16-18 stonefly imitations 18″ below. 

For the rest of the day, I continued to take beautiful, wild fish. I only took one on the dry, but I’ll tell ya I also missed a real nice one that rose to the klinky in the tail of a prime pool. 

I really liked this fishy because she ate in a subtle little run below an obvious spot, and she took the fly milliseconds after the tight line nymph rig hit the water. Overlooked spot fished with the right method, in other words. 

Well, I had a practice management seminar I paid extra for at 4 pm, so I did have to end the day before the fish stopped biting. I told myself my cutoff was 1:30, but then I came across a really nice pair of pools and told myself I could still manage a quick shower when I got in. Turned out I was right, and I was rewarded for my perseverance with the best fish of the day. Just before 2 pm, she took a Sexy Pheasant Tail and fought like a salmon.

I judged that this fish was about 12″, making it a trophy Shenandoah brook trout. Biggest fish I’ve ever caught in the park. It’s so funny, when you see a fish this big in one of these streams, you do a double take when it’s not a brown trout. 

Maybe I put off fishing this stream, or maybe I just didn’t force it. I think we met at the right time. Now I know it will be there when I need it.