It’s been a great year for smallmouth on the Shenandoah River. Guides with Mossy Creek Fly Shop noted the season began with high, discolored, and cold water and ended with low, clear, hot and perfect conditions. September, they said, was their best float fishing year in history.
“Our guides were slammed up every day into October and the fishing conditions couldn’t have been much better. We had steady dropping flows with warm days, very little wind and rain, and near perfect visibility. The topwater bite cranked up as soon as visibility hit the 10′ mark. We had big fish swimming off the bottoms of our deepest holes to sip bugs. We still have a handful of late season trips but our focus is now shifting towards our musky and trout fishing season. Leaf litter in the river will get bad in a few weeks and will last well into November. We are booking fall/winter musky trips and 2020 smallmouth trips.”
Mossy Creek also noted that the top producing bait was a crawfish imitation. It’s hard to be a juicy crawfish when it comes to catching big smallmouth. Contact Mossy Creek at store@mossycreekflyfishing.com for more information.
It sounds like the Shenandoah River is all the way back from a severe downturn just a few years ago.
Trout on the South
The Shenandoah Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited has just completed the first fall stocking on the South River Catch and Release Area. The fall survey prior to stocking showed an incredible number of holdovers from last year (and longer) so there is plenty of great fishing to be had. Shenandoah Valley Trout Unlimited is also hosting the International Fly Fishing Film Tour at the Wayne Theatre on October 19th. Doors open at 6, tickets are$12 ($15 at the door) and available in advance through the Wayne Theatre Website or in person at the South River Fly Shop. Proceeds will benefit the South River Stocking Fund to continue the annual supplemental stockings.
The water levels on the South are a little low, but quite fishable.
Go to shop@southriverflyshop.com for more information.
Nags Head Specks
There was a time when saltwater anglers loaded up their jeeps with surf rods and tackle and headed for the Outer Bank to intercept huge schools of big bluefish. That’s not happening anymore, but a bumper crop of big speckled trout has eased the pain somewhat.
Capt. Reese Stecher of Beachbumfishing said the trout bite continues with lots of fish and big fish at that.
Mixed in with the ]trout are catches of puppy drum and cobia as they begin to make their way out of Virginia waters and head south for the winter. Stecher said that the striper bite in the sound has been also been excellent and it looks to be another great season this fall.
Surf fishing has also been good for OBX anglers of late with a smorgasbord of pompano spot, specks, black and red drum, blues and Spanish in the mix.
For information on a guided trip for specks or stripers, contact Capt. Stecher at www.beachbumfishing.com.