It was time to get out of Dodge. For various reasons my wife and I haven’t had a chance for a road trip, no matter how short, for over two years. So, we made plans to meet up with my wife’s sister and her husband to spend a day fishing Mossy Creek in the Shenandoah Valley. Then we had planned to drive to the eastern part of Virginia and spend a couple days just relaxing. But with Hurricane Dorian moving up the east coast we decided to just fish. So, getting caught up with the relatives would be condensed into a few hours. In the end, only the fishing was quiet. But that’s not unexpected as fishing a spring creek like Mossy will humble many a fly fisherman, as I found out by the end of the day.
Rays of sun highlight the grasses that are a characteristic of spring creeks.
Wary trout will use the grass as cover.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)
We’ve made this trip about a half a dozen times and know what to expect. The problem I run into is most of my fishing is done in the Lake Erie tributaries targeting steelhead and smallmouth bass. Whether I’m throwing a streamer or popper I don’t worry about accuracy. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying to be accurate but If I aim for a spot a foot from a downed tree and get it two feet from the tree I'm satisfied. Besides, I’ve caught fish when making a bad cast, and not caught fish after putting the fly exactly where I wanted it to land. So why worry? But every time I fish Mossy I find out the hard way that without accuracy and a good presentation I’m not going to catch many fish on a spring creek. OK, call me a slow learner.
Trying to place a hopper a few inches away from the opposite bank.
As you can see there are some prime lies on the opposite bank for the trout to sit.
If only they were hungry.
Early September is usually prime terrestrial season. Ants, beetles, hoppers and crickets were all over the vegetation, and the trout should be looking up for a good protein meal. In addition, tricos were swarming above the water and a spinner fall was a couple of hours away. With all that protein available the trout should feel like we do after a Christmas dinner. And I think their bellies were full, as it was a very slow day on the water. We had to work hard for every one of our hookups.
Brian Trow, our guide for the day, and I were fishing a stretch of the creek and noticed a few rises upstream against the far bank. We made our way upstream and I began throwing a hopper against the bank. After a couple of good drifts right over the trout without any movement to inspect the offering we switched to an ant pattern. Again, after a couple of drifts with no movement we made another switch, this time to a small trico. Again, no reaction from the trout. At about this time Brian noticed another rise about 25’ upstream. So, we left this fish and moved upstream figuring if we left it alone for awhile it might start feeding again.
Needless to say moving upstream and casting to the rise was a repeat of what we just left. A couple of fly changes with no activity. In my mind I’m thinking that I am putting the fish down by some sloppy casting. Brian, ever the optimist, disagrees and believes we just haven’t found the right meal. Another change that included a nymph dropper still did nothing to move a fish. So very frustrating.
After a short break we made our way downstream and began to fish a stretch of water with some overhanging vegetation on the opposite bank. Remember that accuracy thing I mentioned earlier. This is when I had to bring it. Finally, after a few casts I dropped a cricket pattern under the branches. Good drift, nothing. Another cast and I get hung up on the branch. I wasn’t having any luck freeing the fly so Brian took the rod made a few moves and the fly dropped off the branch. He then made a short cast to straighten out the leader and handed the rod back to me. Just as I’m about to make a backcast a trout hits it. After a short battle we bring to hand a nice, 10” brown trout. Brian and I both shared a laugh over this as it took a snagged fly and a short cast to straighten out the leader to land our first fish of the day. Laughingly, we both took ½ credit for the catch, and with that the skunk was off.
We moved to another spot and noticed a fish feeding right off the bank on our side of the stream. This presented a problem. I was now going to try and land the fly by the bank using a reach cast. I’m a right-handed caster so casting upstream against the bank brought the vegetation into play. To get a good drift I had to make the forward cast and then reach toward the water so the line would land there. First attempt worked fine but the fly landed too far from the bank. The second attempt put the fly right by the bank. A brief drift was interrupted by a rainbow inhaling the cricket. After a brief run and an aerial display the rainbow made it to the bottom of the net.
A lot of hard work went into catching this rainbow.
It was fooled by a cricket.
That flurry of activity capped off an interesting, challenging and frustrating day. But it was still fun, and I’d do it again tomorrow. It may make me a better fisherman.
Another day comes to an end in the Shenandoah Valley.
This image was captured by my wife from the top floor of our hotel.
Go out and fool a fish!
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