Mossy Creek Fly Shop Report
The James and Shenandoah Rivers
Our guide crew has been out daily, fishing the James and Shenandoah Rivers for smallmouth. The topwater bite is as good as it has been all season long!
As water levels continue to drop and temps warm up, the smallmouth bass will be actively cruising and looking for big bugs falling in the river off the trees and overhanging banks. The shade lines will be holding the big fish during the heat of the day. If you take your time and fish slowly, you can spot big fish cruising the shallows and mid river ledges. These are usually large fish over 15″ and they are usually in pairs or groups of up to 5 or 6 fish! Be cautious when casting to cruising fish. A cast too close to fish can spook them. Using a light fly line like a 6 or 7 weight a long 9-foot leader in 2X or 3X can ensure you won’t spook fish with a good presentation. We like to land topwater bugs upstream of fish at least 5-10 feet away. The sound of the plop will get the fish to track down the bug and sip it off the surface. If the fish inspects your bug and begins to swim away, nudge it to give it some movement with a small strip. That small movement will generally get the fish to circle back and sip it off the surface. Too much movement can almost guarantee a spooked fish. Get out and enjoy the warm weather and great fishing over the next few weeks before days get shorter and cooler!
The largemouth are still being caught on flies. On bright sunny days, you can find them crowded in the biggest logjams. Drop your fly in, let it settle on the bottom, and watch these big fish track out and suck it off the bottom!
We will continue to give the musky a break until water temps drop back into the upper 60’s or low 70’s. We expect to be back on the musky program later in September!
Mountain Brook Trout Streams
We are giving the brook trout a break as we have now gone 3-4 weeks without significant rainfall. Fishing will be poor until we start to get massive amounts of rain and get streams back up and flowing again!
Spring Creeks
The spring creeks are keeping some of our local trout anglers sane through this bit of drought. South River, Mossy Creek, Buffalo Creek, Beaver Creek, and Smith Creek are all running low and clear right now, but water temps are still safe for fishing. Tricos are thick most mornings and the hex hatch has been going off in full force. The grasshoppers are very large right now and we are having success on big foam hoppers, crickets, ants, trico patterns, and size 6 and 8 PMX. Small attractor nymphs have been working well, sight fished, if they are unwilling to eat the big bugs off the surface. We have limited our trout trips to ensure minimal pressure on the fish. We are desperately waiting some quality rainfall to help boost water flows for the fall season!
Stocked Streams
Reports from the public trout waters have been few and far between. The Jackson tailwater is the best bet for quality, cold-water fishing through this low water period. Trout stocking updates are just 1 month away!
South River Fly Shop Moves
Tommy Lawhorne notes that South River Fly Shop has moved up the street to 323 West Main Street. “The larger size and better layout has allowed us to expand inventory even more,” he said.
Tommy also reports that fishing has been steady on the Delayed Harvest Area of the South with decent holdovers taking caddis nymphs, Pheasant Tails and Hex nymphs. Foam Beetles, Crickets and Hoppers are still catching fish along with Cicada’s. Rainbows and Browns from 10″-15″ have been pretty common and there are quite a few really large Browns being seen. Larger streamers and sculpin patterns are best to get the attention of the big boys.
South Fork Shenandoah River
Ed T of Front Royal Canoe reports on a 9-8 trip from State Park to Karo landings: The river is pretty shallow through this stretch of the South Fork of the Shenandoah. Lots of rocks poking out. Did my share of dragging the canoe over the shallow spots. Loads of algae, but less grass than we usually see by the end of summer. But you still end up cleaning off your lure constantly. Not the easiest conditions for fishing, but I’ve seen worse. I caught quite a few fish in the morning on a #3 Mepp’s spinner, mostly fishing it parallel to rock ledges. The only problem was most of the smallmouth were small, a lot of them around eight inches. Only a few were up to twelve inches. There were some decent size bluegill in the mix. Later in the morning I started getting some better size smallmouth by tossing 7″ Berkley Power Worms (green pumpkin) with just a large swivel and leader, no weight. Some folks call that a “swimming rig”. Anyway, I was tossing the worms close to the banks, especially under overhanging trees. I caught some nice smallmouth that way, including a couple of thirteen’s and one fourteen-incher. I continued to use the spinner around rock ledges and fished the worm near the banks. By noon I caught over twenty smallmouth, a pretty good count if you don’t mind that the majority were small. One or two of the bluegills I caught were as big as a lot of the smallmouth. So, you know, I was hoping things would improve in the afternoon as they so often do. Well, let me tell you, nature has a mean sense of humor. About twelve-thirty the bite took a real nosedive. I caught three bass and a few bluegill in the next two hours. S-L-O-W fishing to say the least. And the killer is that when it gets that slow for a couple of hours, that little voice in your head starts saying “Great. That’s it. It’s gonna’ suck for the rest of the day.” But fortunately it picked up some around 2:30. By that time I was fishing 4″ Berkley Power Worms (green pumpkin) on a 1/8-oz. Carolina rig. Started getting a few hits working the worm in deeper slack water. Gradually picked up to a reasonable bite. Caught a fish here and there with the spinner, but they were all small, so I mostly just concentrated with the worm. Best bass were still the smallmouth hanging in deeper pools near the banks. And the size was up to snuff. Most were ten to twelve inches. I ended up getting a couple of thirteen’s and two more fourteen-inch smallmouth, which vastly improved my outlook. Not too bad a day of fishing, but certainly not one of my better days. Plenty of bites in the morning, but plenty of small fish. And even though I’ve had lots of sudden slow downs for a couple of hours, for some strange reason it still bugs me. What can I say? But at least it picked back up. Oh well, you know about fishing. No guarantee that it will be top notch every time. The only real guarantee is a good time. If you can’t have a good time spending a day fishing on a beautiful river, you need help. So I look forward to my next fishing trip on the Shenandoah. Good luck with your fishing. Ed T
Chickahominy River
Mike Johncox at Riverside Camp in Lanexa said that fishing was great in his neck of the woods over Labor Day weekend. Kimble Carson and party boated two huge blue cats at 45 and 41 pounds respectively. Both monsters came on cut eel for bait. Bass action was also good with lots and lots of 2- and 3-pounders reported. Paul Booth used a “secret” soft plastic lure to entice a 6-pound largemouth, a very nice fish for the Chick. Bream action has been good. Crappie and perch are waiting for cooler weather before they cooperate
Potomac River
Grass is Starting to Die
Less grass is a good thing, opening opportunities for all day bites! Lower tides are best. Water temperature will slowly drop to around 80 and below. A cool front Thursday came through dropping the temperature to the mid 80s. Overnight, it’s around 70 to start the week, 60 by the weekend.
Hydrilla is dying back and creating isolated mats. Look for areas where grass has a thin top layer or many holes to enable fish to find lures. Hollow frogs like white Mann’s Goliath frogs on 60 pound GAMMA Braid will work in most scenarios even in direct sun. Take time to punch these small mats, especially during sunny hot times of the day. Use 1/2-1 ounce tungsten weights on braid. Strong flipping Mustad hooks with keeper barbs can bring up big ones! Shake on mats, and then allow bait to fall, watch line. Fish will pull, pull back and hold on. For early morning topwater bites in clear water, try Lucky Craft G-Splash 65 in Shad patterns. Use 10-pound test Copoly and make long casts. Stained water, go with walking Aurora Black Gunfish.
Crankbaits and spinnerbaits too. For crankbaits, big-bodied buoyant Lucky Craft BDS4 work when pulled into grass. Edge 12-pound test fluorocarbon enables long casts and better snaps out of grass. Contact grass, hesitate, snap free and pause.
Otherwise, Mizmo tubes, shaky heads, stickworms and drop shots will fill in during high tide periods. Also a good time to pull out the Texas rigged 10-inch ribbon tail worm. Make repeated casts to good-looking cover.
Capt. Steve Chaconas is a guide on the Potomac River. info@nationalbass.com
Lake Anna
Nice catches were reported in the recent Sunday Morning Tournament out of Anna Point.
Wayne Holder and Mike Wagner garnered first place with 13.19 pounds. Kevin Smith weighed in an 11-pounds, 3-ounce striper
That was caught on live bait. Striper action is heating up with boat traffic down and bait beginning to bunch up in advance of cooler weather.
Capt. Art Conway of Conway’s River Rat Guide Service (804-746-2475) out of Ed Allen’s Boats and Bait reported that Chickahominy Lake mid-day water temperatures were in the mid 80’s in the main lake on Wednesday 9/9/2015. The lake level was slightly above the top of the dam. The water was light brown and slightly cloudy in the lower lake.
Fishing with Capt. Conway, Doug and Olen Sutton had 6 crappie and 1 bass. Karen Anderson had 26 bluegills, 1 yellow perch, and 2 roach minnows. John Holland had 12 bluegills, 1 crappie, 1 roach minnow, 1 warmouth, and 1 bass. Carolyn Conway had 13 bluegills, 1 yellow perch, 1 roach minnow and 2 bass. Capt. Bill Buck had 41 bluegills, 2 shellcrackers, 2 roach minnows, 1 pickerel and 4 bass.