Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Since I started trout fishing a year ago I’ve caught trout in MT, PA, MD, TN, WV, NY, CO & UT, but had yet to catch one in VA. I knew I would target some mountain streams this year for brook trout and today seemed like a good day given the various stay at home orders which differ from state to state. Thankfully VA allows us to fish under the recreation category. I wasn’t comfortable going to Maryland or Pennsylvania so I headed south between Harrisonburg and Staunton.

I made a stop at the Mossy Creek Fly Shop who is creatively doing business through a walk up window in their parking lot. I had met Andy and Colby from the shop at a fly fishing show with Ernie recently and they are great guys. It was great to talk fishing with them, if nothing else just to feel normal again. I picked up some flies and leaders, they gave me some last minute ideas and away I went.

The plan was to fish two creeks today since I was exploring new water. The first stop was pretty easy access and I was going to throw nymph since this is more of a typical freestone stream. There is some beautiful country out there. As soon as I arrived all of the recent BS just melted away.

 

Within just a few casts I had my first hit, lost one and then landed this beautiful brook trout.



The fish were eating good. There were fish rising and they were hitting the nymphs hard, even the really small ones.



I had a nice stretch of the stream all to myself. The closest guy was easily still 100 yards upstream when I was coming off. I landed 11 fish in just over an hour with four nice ones to keep it interesting.



While these fish are overall pretty small, my 3 weight rods make them fun and there’s just something special about catching native, wild fish out of these beautiful streams. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this type of fishing, but I have to say, it was pretty awesome. 

I then decided to head 45 minutes west to fish a more traditional mountain stream and the plan was to fish dry flies.  This is a really remote spot. I lost cell coverage about 20 minutes before getting there. The scenery is just stunning in that part of the state.

 

This spot would require a hike and they had the parking lot near the lake closed so that added to the distance. I hiked in 2.3 miles for a total of 4.6. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, add to it walking on the rocks of the stream bed for much of the way and the giant hill I had to cross twice at about the mile mark from the truck. For a guy that hasn’t worked out a lot and has been cooped up at home, that hill on the way back damn near killed me. To add insult to injury, I didn’t catch any fish there. I fished mostly dry flies and tried a nymph dropper but just couldn’t find the fish. There were none rising like the first stream.

When I got back near the car I switched my rig to a nymph rig and managed a nice mercy fish before I called it a day and drove home.



All told I landed a dozen fish, lost a few and had a bunch more hits. It was an amazing day off on new water and I kept my streak alive and can check April off the list. A trout in May will give me one every month for the past 12 months.

Last edited by Paul Naj (Apr-08-20 9:06PM)