By Dr. Peter Brookes
You don’t hear much about Buffalo Creek,, but fly fishing phenoms (and friends) Joe Irby and Derek Hutton have been trying to get me to come down to wet a line in the stream for quite a while.
I was interested, but like everyone else I was “busy.” Looking back now on that piscatorial procrastination, putting off fishing Buffalo Creek was a big mistake.
While shockingly there are no bison there in spite of the name, the Buffalo Creek Special Regiulations Area (SRA) is an overlooked treasure of a trout stream that makes a visit to the Lexington area worthwhile for both Old Dominion anglers and others. The SRA extends from the confluence of Collier’s Creek upstream 2.9 miles to the confluence of North and South Buffalo creeks. The stream flows through private land and please note that a free written landowner permit is required to fish these waters.
As such, there are many reasons after a recent visit for why I think that you should “shuffle off to Buffalo” – as the famous 1930s song goes.
For starters, this is a possible Trout Slam water. Buffalo Creek SRA may from time to time hold all three species of Virginia trout – brown, rainbow, and brook trout. Indeed, with Joe and Derek’s patient coaching, in just a few hours on a beautiful mid-April afternoon I netted my second Virginia Trout Slam in about a year.
After catching a bunch of brownies and ‘bows, we ended the day—and completed the trout slam—with a good-sized brookie. In classic textbook-fashion, it hammered a grasshopper dry fly right at the edge of a big tree root ball.
Buffalo Creek is also a Year-round trout fishery Groundwater- and spring-fed Buffalo Creek is, in theory, fishable 365 days of the year. Of course, please use precautions when fishing in the warmer months of the year when flow rates may decrease and water temperatures may increase. Hooking and then playing trout when water temps hit 70 degrees or more, which can easily happen in the warmer months, can lead to increased fish mortality. So fish ethically.
It’s also teeming with trout. DWR tells me that they put between 3,000 and 4,000 fingerling-sized browns and ‘bows in the Buffalo during two stocking sessions annually, usually in the fall and spring.
That’s a ton of trout figuratively—maybe even literally.
Private fishing, trout advocacy, and conservation groups are also allowed to make supplementary stockings to the nearly three-mile public area of the Buffalo Creek SRA; these are, of course, based on pre-approved DWR permits.
Besides the significant stockings by DWR and others, anglers may encounter a “transient” wild brown or rainbow in the SRA. DWR has collected wild fish upstream of the SRA. The brookies, like the one I caught, are likely stocked by outside groups, but could also be wild fish that have slid down from the upper reaches of the South Buffalo.
Buffalo Creek is a Special Reg Area. The special regulations for Buffalo Creek mean that anglers are only allowed to fish with a single point hook and artificial lures; no bait may be in possession. That said, it’s not just catch-n-release. Put-n-take is also allowed, but the daily limit is two trout of 16 inches or longer per angler.
While most of the 12-plus trout I caught that afternoon on a 5-weight fly rod were in the eight-inch to 12-inch range, local lore claims that there are some real lunkers lurking in the depths of Buffalo Creek.
Another great thing about Buffalo Creek is that it’s centrally located in Virginia, making it accessible to a lot of aspiring anglers—it’s not far from the I-81 corridor. The drive was about three hours from my Northern Virginia home, admittedly in off-peak traffic.
But this smallish water—often just 30-feet wide—is a lot of fun, especially for the beginner, who may be a bit unsure of their casting ability and/or accuracy. No 50-foot “hero” casts needed for Buffalo Creek—thankfully for me.
The access that anglers currently enjoy to Buffalo Creek comes due to the generosity of the landowners. It can be quickly and easily taken away. Unfortunately, it has happened elsewhere in Virginia due to a variety of reasons. If you get the chance, wave to a local landowner, and say “Thanks!”
At a minimum, the Buffalo Creek SRA waters offer some great trout fishing. Even better, the Buffalo may also hold a Virginia Trout Slam for the lucky angler or possibly even a few trout-zillas. But there is only one way to know for sure.
So shuffle—no, better yet, hustle—off to Buffalo (Creek).
