Road Trip To The Shenandoah Valley

This past week my wife and I made a quick two day trip to fish Mossy Creek in the Shenandoah Valley. Mossy is a beautiful spring creek in the valley with a good population of wild brown and rainbow trout. We’ve fished it only a couple of times in the past, usually in the springtime when we could be fishing anything from streamers to dry flies. But, being mid-August we knew the weather and flows were ideal for dries and terrestrials. Being from northeast Ohio I do not get to fish for wild trout so making trips like this ramps up my excitement.

Weed beds make for interesting fishing. Keeping a fish out of there-a challenge.

(Click on image for larger view.)

A beautiful spring creek in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.

It seems that when I take a road trip the fishing starts at 2:00AM. After getting four hours of sleep I inevitably wake up and begin anticipating the day, often envisioning holding a nice rainbow or brown caught on a dry fly. Then questions will begin to crowd my brain. What’s the water going to be like? Are the fish going to be feeding? Will there be some risers? This lasts until I nod off around 4:00AM and get in another hour of sleep.

We met my sister-in-law and her husband Art, the man responsible for my fly fishing addiction. Shortly thereafter Brian Trow, from Mossy Creek Fly Fishing arrived and it was off to the creek. Gearing up we received some bad news. Brian mentioned that the hex hatch arrived on the creek a week or two early, and the fish had been gorging on them at night, so the fishing may be tough early on. That was an understatement.

A landing pad for damsel flies.

We saw some fish feeding but they were very selective. Brian and I were watching a brown feeding under a tree while Art drifted fly after fly at him. The fish would follow his fly, turn away, then snack on something else seconds later. Later in the day, Brian and Art change flies multiple times at another brown. The fifth one did the trick but the fish quickly broke off the 6X tippet.

About mid-morning Brian noticed a few hex’s hatching so he tied on matching pattern and I made my way up a pool. Right at a shade line we saw a riser. On the third or fourth drift a rainbow came straight up and sucked in the fly. This was the moment I was waiting for. Fishing with 6X probably for the first time, I set the hook just like Brian instructed me to earlier in the day, quick but not forceful. Seeing the fish take the fly, then watching it run downstream about 20 yards, was a great feeling. The rainbow jumped, the splash sounding like a belly flop off a diving board. That fish was thick. Then it came straight at me and stopped dead. Brian said the fish went into the weed bed trying to shake the hook. For almost a minute there was no movement. I kept steady pressure on the line but couldn’t tell if the fish was still on. Finally the fish made a move, splashed on the surface, and went back to the weeds. At this point, Brian went into the water and with the stealth of a heron got the net under the rainbow, and in one movement scooped it up. That was fun, and thanks to my wife, most of it captured on video.See the end of the post for the link.

Casting a hex pattern to the shade produced a nice, spring creek rainbow.

Brian midstream with a rainbow and five pounds of moss in the net.

The fruits of our labor.

Unfortunately, that was all the action we would see. We just caught the creek on a tough day. Still, I won’t complain. I learned a lot (practice casting), and did manage to land a nice rainbow.

A final shout out to my wife and her sister. They endured an extremely hot day so Art and I can feed our passion.

The day started with blue skies and fair weather clouds.

It ended with storm clouds.

Enjoy the pictures and the video.

Go out and fool a fish!