Contact Jeff Kelble at: 540-837-1478 or email: jeff@fishinginvirginia.net
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Here are some
2003 fishing reports so you can judge how the rivers are
fishing and how well I'm guiding. I'll try to make these as specific as
possible. Please phone or email with questions or booking requests: Contact Jeff Kelble at: 540-837-1478 or email: jeff@fishinginvirginia.net |
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2001 Fishing Reports 2002 Fishing Reports 2004 Fishing Reports 2005 Fishing Reports Client's Feedback following September Float
OFF SEASON November through February - I will run trips sporadically and will post when I do - but right now I'm getting ready to move my residence from Arlington, VA to the Shenandoah Valley!!
October 28, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: River was flowing well and crystal clear Fishing: I told my anglers that this day was a great way to cap a tough wet season! We had a hoot today - great chemistry in the boat and I think I was the brunt of most of the jokes. And we caught a ton of fish. Big smallmouth was caught on a husky jerk suspended over moderate depth flat and measured 17". The soft stickbait definitely ruled the day though and these guys easily boated 50 fish between 12 and 17". A few cigars were smoked, and quite a few lies were spun into the mix. This essentially marks the end of my season - I will have sporadic trips from here and will try to update if anything exciting happens.
October 25, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: High clear flow, water temp about 55 degrees Fishing: I would rate the fishing as good today. Once we established a pattern that is - this took the better part of the morning unfortunately. Until then we sporadically caught some nice fish. Then we found fish in moderately fast water -and fishing picked up. Most of the fish were caught on tubes, in colors we don't normally fish this time of year. The big fish came from the base of a rock outcrop.
October 24, 2003 North Fork Shenandoah Single Angler Conditions: A bit low and clear for my taste but my anglers lives on the North Fork and really wanted to learn how to fish it Fishing: My angler picked up on the river fishing skills very quickly. He learned to fish the tube and the soft plastic stick bait efficiently. Most of the fish were in isolated ledge areas with depth over 3 feet. Very few fish over cobblestone or throwing stone sized rocks. Fishing was definitely slow for the first couple hours and slow for the last hour but about four or five hours in the middle were excellent. Big fish of the day measure 18.75", beautiful.
October 23, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: Falling and clear, still above average-which allows the raft to get through Fishing: Good day of fishing today, we definitely found fish in isolated groups today for the most part. By this I mean we often caught several fish from one area then there would be nothing for some time. Black was the color today for the second day in a row. Big smallmouth of the day measured 17.5" and my anglers caught fish steadily throughout the day. We did have one spot where my out of town guest caught seven largemouth in seven consecutive casts-all between 13 and 15". The best fished for smallmouth was behind secondary (submerged) ledges with good depth behind the ledge and current blowing over the top.
October 22, 2003 N. Fork Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: The North Fork looks great, above normal flow which allowed us to fish it this late in the year, good clarity and color Fishing: We had an excellent day today on numbers and size fish. Most of the fish were on the small size but the action was steady as a rock. Our big fish in the boat was 19.5 inches and weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces, beautiful looking fish. The lure of the day is a secret but I will say that it was black, and had an internal jig head.
October 21, 2003 Potomac River Single Angler Conditions: This river is in seasonal transition between summer and winter Fishing: I had considerable trouble nailing down any kind of pattern today. We tried every bait and lure in the bag in every kind of water I could think of and after all that - we did our best job catching walleye crankbaits. This was kind of fun - and maybe I need to add "walleye guide" to my business card.
October 17, 2003 Susquehanna River Two Anglers Conditions: River has continued to rise but the structure was still available if you took the time to find it. We bit off a short 3 mile float today and I worked my but off to ferry back and forth across this big river to get onto the best pieces of structure Fishing: Textbook day. We caught numbers and size and caught them on a wide variety of baits. We caught smallmouth on spinnerbaits buzzed over the tops of submerged water willow beds. We caught them on tubes in the eddies behind the beds. We caught them on jig and pig in ledge pockets, and we even caught a number of fish on fly! Big fish of the day and the species count could be attributed to the crankbait. The crankbaits caught a walleye, and a carp that measured about 33 inches. We also landed a 20" smallmouth which we weighed at 4.25 pounds. Awesome day, despite the cold rainy weather.
October 16, 2003 Susquehanna River Single Angler Conditions: Improving over yesterday. local tribs had calmed down and the main stem rise hadn't come yet Fishing: Also an improvement. The grass beds were basically taken out of play to some degree, they were totally covered with current and that's not always bad but we could not raise fish on spinnerbaits above the beds. Instead we found fish behind rock outcrops-the ones that were still outcropping that is. And the fish we caught were DIRECTLY behind the rocks - nose to stone! I think we landed 15 or so fish and all of them were big and chunky. Lengths ranged from 14-19 inches again.
October 15, 2003 Susquehanna River Single Angler Conditions: Well, as good as yesterday was, today was that bad Fishing: A MAJOR cold front blew through last night and local rain totals were around three inches. This immediately swelled the local streams which poured mud into the river so that the first several hundred yards of each bank were very muddy. This is not always bad though because normally we can fish midriver and find a great looking seem of clear water down the middle. Today though, we were battered with sustained 35-40 mile per hour winds with gust in excess of 60 mph. This eliminated the possibility of going midriver so instead we fished an offshoot/canal of the river. I was ready to can the trip but my angler said "what... are we going to just sit in our hotel rooms, let's go fishing" It was a short float and not normally a great time of year to fish this particular portion of the river. We caught a couple fish but it was disappointing.
October 14, 2003 Susquehanna River Two Flyfishermen Conditions: Just about perfect, which had me nervous with high expectations: Fishing: Just as good. My fly anglers fished black flat faced bugs today. They bumped them, and dead-drifted them and without a doubt - this was a good choice. I've taken one of the anglers fishing many times- he is an accomplished caster so we had to "reel" him in a bit to get him to fish closer to the boat. This was necessary because the targets were moderate to small in size - in many cases. Today's river level created excellent conditions in the water willow beds. The flow was high enough that just the very front of each bed was pushed over by current but the rest would part around the bed and create a pocket or series of pockets to hold fish. However, we found that isolated beds (not groups) had the cleanest river bottom behind them, and best depth and held all the fish. Groups of grass beds on the fronts and sides of islands had no smallmouth. Add a ledge outcropping to the grass bed and the fish were often bigger than average. My anglers caught all quality sized fish today. I think they landed nearly 20 smallmouth apiece every one measuring between 14 and 19 inches - all on fly.
October 13, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: water condidtions were excellent, cooling water temps near the 60 degree mark, higher than average flow (about 2.5 times average) Fishing: Considering the poor fishing we had yesterday, I'm pleased with today. Both anglers had their share of fish in the 12-17" range. The other guy in the boat landed an 18" on an experimental cast, this fish weighed 3.25 pounds even after it had regurgitated a large sunfish on the fight to the boat - very heavy fish for its length. We found most fish over bedrock bottom in moderate depth areas with flow either blowing over them or next to them.
October 7-October 10 I guided the Potomac River, North and South Fork Shenandoah and the Main Stem Shenandoah. I'm lumping this week because the fishing was poor. I was happy after a day if the anglers caught 15 fish between the two of them. I tried all the rivers and they were the same. The first big October Cold front has seems to have thrown these fish into a tail spin. We tried it all and could manage nothing but the occasional fish. It appears as though fish were in transition between summer and winter water as well. The fish we did find were in current or near fast current.
October 3 South Fork Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: Moderate flow, clear water Fishing: I was pleased with the fishing today and so were my anglers. We caught a nice mix of sizes and good numbers of fish. The two big fish measure 16" and 18" and were caught on tubes. This was a jig day for sure, and every October I find a period where the fish move from feeding in the middle of the water column to the bottom -is this the beginning of the tr ansition?
September 30th North Fork Shenandoah Husband and Wife Conditions: Moderate flow, clear water Fishing: I was very pleased with the fishing today. The wife was a hoot, very energetic and into the fishing. Everybody caught fish today and the big fish was about 16". Big fish broke off early in the float. Jeff had a nice walk after the float when we found out that the keys to the shuttle vehicle were in the glove compartment of the upriver truck. Thanks to the road crew that picked me up about half-way through my walk - which was quite pleasant by the way.
Septeember 29th Rescheduled due to high water
September 27th and 28th Some boys came down from Maryland to brave the post flood conditions. We were limited to the upper parts of the North Fork Shenandoah if we wanted to find fishable water. The first day we fished a middle-upper stretch which is punctuated primarily by midriver structure, the guys caught a bundle of fish but most were small (we did manage a 16.5" smallmouth) and a good number had skinny bodies. Looks like post flood stress to me. We did manage to hook a monster early in the first day though-the mystery fish of the weekend. The second day we went even further up the river and fished a very bank-oriented stretch. I thought the fishing was excellent and we narrowed the shoreline pattern to steep banks with rock=smallmouth, steep bank with wood=largemouth. Good overall considering our obstacles.
September 18-26th Hurricane Isabel and it's evil cold front twin made sure there was no fishing this week
September 16-17 Had two pairs of flyfishermen these two days. I'm abbreviating the writeup because there wasn't much to be discussed in terms of patterns or triumphs. The guide did catch another 19.5" smallmouth on a demonstration cast with a black bug. This was the only sizable fish caught on the 16th, this is never my intention but I guess it does show that presentation counts and that the fly is right?!
September 13, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Father and Son Conditions: Great conditions, very pleasant weather Fishing: This is dad's third trip out in three weeks with his third and youngest son. We had a ball today, and chased turtles, bugs and fish alike. The youngster was six years old and he fished his little heart out for the second year in a row. Get This! We caught him on video, from start to finish, locating a good spot, casting his lure, setting the hook fighting and landing an 18" fish. Won't forget that one.
September 12, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Outdoor Writer and Professional Guide Conditions: Low Pressure system remnants of a hurricane passed through while we were on the river - drizzly cold and windy conditions prevailed. The river was in good condition though, a bit high still but good clarity with some fog from upstream spring runoff Fishing: Today Chuck Kraft - legendary James River Guide - Owner of Kreel Tackle Fly Company and King Montgomery - National Outdoor Writer - took a day off and went fishing. We caught a ton of smallmouth on flyrods today using a wide variety of flies ranging from Chuck's CK Baitfish, to his Clawdad to some of his bugs. Big smallmouth all day was probably about 16 or 17", no giants but consistently good fish - we did have to work hard to catch fish though-and struggled a bit with the weather. Just an awesome day with three people who could not conceive of a better place to spend the day and I could not come up with better company - thanks guys.
September 11, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: Good level, color and very clear Fishing: Average fishing day, we did have enough clarity that we saw fish all day. Today we spotted some of the largest fish I have ever seen in the South Fork. We also got to study a school of large Crappie which were hanging out by an accumulation of dead wood. Some thick fish in there. Decent numbers today of both largemouth and smallmouth.
September 10, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah-Short Float A Flyfisherman and woman Conditions: Same as yesterday Fishing: Yesterday the bite was on and today the we struggled big-time to catch fish. I have some theories though. Today my anglers used flyrods and the fish were very selective about presentation. Either I wasn't doing my job, or they couldn't grasp the presetation I was trying to convey?? At any rate, I did catch a 19" smallmouth on my presentation demonstration cast. The bugs we were fishing had to be snapped down onto the water's surface before the flyline hit the water. The fish were very particular. The anglers didn't have enough experience to do this.
September 9, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah - Long Float Two Fishermen Conditions: The Shenandoah looks as good as it has all year, moderately high levels but the river is a beautiful green color, very little filamentous algae, very little stargrass - definitely jig fishing heaven Fishing: The fishing was strong today for both numbers and size. Big fish of the day was a beautiful light green smallmouth that we measured at 20.25". Nice going.
September 6, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Father and Son Conditions: Considering that a good piece of this watershed is flooding, I thought conditions were awesome. Good green stain to clear water, perfect level for this float, which created a maze of foam pockets in the areas of elevation drop which attracted many big fish Fishing: Great day of fishing, this is the same father who came with his other son on August 30th, and they caught more fish today. How do I know - the young boy counted because he wanted to beat his brother. No Giants today but we did land six fish that measured 17" or 18". Pretty awesome. All big fish were caught on soft plastic stickbaits. The young man also caught a turtle in my landing net and dad got it on film.
September 5, 2003 Cancelled due to flooding
September 4, 2003 Potomac River Mark Kovach Fishing Services American Sportfishing Association 7 Boat Float Conditions: Umm, bad. By the time we got on the river it had risen 2 feet from the night before, and then it rose another three while we were on it. Muddy, mud mud and debree oh and did I mention mud Fishing: The fishing was great, the catching, well it didn't happen in my boat. I had two women who hadn't fished before and I was so dissapointed that this was their induction to the Potomac. Had we not tried for three months to coordinate 21 people getting the same day off - we wouldn't have considered running this trip!
August 30 Main Stem Shenandoah Short Float Father and Son Conditions: Can't Complain Fishing: Strong bite today with most fish coming on soft plastic stickbaits. The son kept track so I know they caught 52 bass (not counting dinks). No giants today.
August 29 Potomac River- Mark Kovach Fishing Services Float Two Anglers Conditions: Potomac looks as good as I've seen it all year Fishing: Excellent fishing for most of the day - after getting through the needles that is. Father and son caught very good numbers of fish and their big fish were 18" and 18.75". Very strong thunderstorm anchored our buts to the bottom of the raft for a while today but the fishing really turned on both before and after that sucker rolled in and through. Today the guide blew it and caught a big fish on a demo cast, 21" 3lb 14 oz.
August 28 Rappahannock River Two Anglers Conditions: Good conditions, water was stained a light tea color. Hot and humid day Fishing: Both anglers caught a bunch of fish today and some nice ones were landed too. The soft plastic stickbaits took most and biggest fish. Big fish of the day went 21" and weighed 4lbs and 4 ounces. We tried bugs on the flyrod too with little success, I was surprised by that.
August 26, 2003 Shenandoah River Main STem Two Fly Anglers Conditions: Excellent conditions, river is only twice average flow and is quite clear for the level Fishing: Two gentlemen from the LL Bean came to flyfish and were really pumped to fish. We spent most of the day fishing big bugs and the results were excellent. A couple 15-17" fish were caught on bugs and we experimented with some subsurface flies too and caught some fish. These guys flung the long rod all day, almost wore me out. Great day
August 23, 2003 Shenandoah River Main Stem Two Fly Anglers Conditions: As good as it's gonna get this year! Fishing: Two fly anglers who were referred to me through the Angler's Lie Fly Shop fished their buts off all day. We went for broke as we call it and fished bugs all day - regardless of whether the fish were reacting best to them or other flies. We felt this was our best shot at a pig. We caught some excellent smallmouth, big fish to the boat went 17" and a number of 14-15" fish were also caught. Then there's the encounter... dom dom dom. Just kidding but we got to see a monster eat the bug. This fish was well over 20" and thick. The fly plopped in a large bank eddy formed by a peninsula, water was between 2 and 4 feet - perfect, sand bottom. This monster literally traced a helical pattern on his way up to the bug, and when he got up to it he was tilted backwards with his belly up, mouth about 4" from the surface. Unfortunately my angler who had made the cast was looking at the line wrapped around his feet and he didn't crack the hookset hard enough after he figured out what was going on. Awesome experience though.
August 22, 2003 Potomac River Mark Kovach Float Two Anglers Conditions: Conditions are the best I've seen all year, water is approaching summer low, with only twice the flow we see a normal year. Good clarity Fishing: My anglers fished spin tackle most of the day and had excellent results. Soft plastic stick baits were king but big fish came on a tube. Five fish were caught between 17" and 19.5". Good numbers of undersized fish too. One angler wanted to fish his flyrod for an hour and within ten minutes caught a beautiful smallmouth about 16" on a textbook bug scenerio- very cool to watch.
August 21, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah One Angler Conditions: Visibility about 1' in AM, slight improvement as day progressed. Overcast Fishing: The first fish of the day went 18.75" and was thick, but she jinxed us because that was it for big fish all day. My angler did continue to catch nice fish between 12 and 16" on his spin rod. Then we spent the last half of the day working his flyfishing. He did very well and got the hang of bug fishing - good splats on the cast. Angler caught some nice fish in shallow water on the bugs.
August 20, 2003 Potomac River - Mark Kovach Float Two Fly Rodders Conditions: Pretty good for this year, good clarity but a bit high still. Fishing: My anglers wanted to chase carp for half the day then smallmouth for the rest. We got into four excellent situations, two in particular with good casts over tailing-feeding carp. One got rubbed by the line and ditched, the other must have been sleepy because the fly was right there and there was no reaction. Very exciting. The rest of the day showed some pretty good smallmouth action - best action was on bugs. Big smallmouth was a 16" fish, but again the king fish of the day was lost. A 19" class fish slurped a bug but the hook didn't engage.
August 19, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah Two Fly Rodders Conditions: Definitely not ideal, decent level but quite stained to muddy. Fishing: My anglers fished hard today on this PM float, boat left the gates at about 3:00 PM and we're fishing til dark. My anglers both caught some very nice fish today. We kept trying to get some interest on top with bugs but I suspect due to clarity had to go down to the bottom. When we got crayfish flies down into good water we got good responses, though not as many as I would have liked. Anglers caught a number of 14-16" fish. Big fish of the day was missed however, it mauled a moderate size cup faced popper fished over a shallow cobblestone bar - this one a known big fish hangout. She missed the fly.
August 16, 2003 Cncelled due to high muddy conditions
August 14, 15 Both Trips on North Fork Shenandoah Conditions: Marginal conditions with dropping levels. Stained brown both days Fishing: Day 1 was the better of the two I think because they were spin anglers. A mother and son came out and had only fished a few times before, never on a river and never with spin tackle. They did manage to catch a ton of fish, and had shots at three big fish. The first broke off, the son landed the second at about 18" and it was a very heavy fish for summer period, the third would have been about 19" but threw the hook on the third jump. The second day was brutal. My fly anglers fished hard for more than ten hours, that meant a lot to me. One of the main tribs was pushing heavy mud into the river and clarity was off for the last 2/3 of the trip. However I'm not sure how much difference that would have made. At one point we actually had more fallfish in the boat than smallmouth ughhhhhhh. The fish were eating primarily off the bottom and we couldn't get flies down to them.
August 12, 13 2003 Cancelled due to high muddy conditions
August 5, 6, 7, 8 2003 Potomac River, Main Stem Shenandoah Conditions: See Conditions in previous report, with the exception that it rained every day somewhere in the watershed. I expect deteriorating conditions but it didn't hit this week Fishing: Three days of awesome fly-fishing and one day of awesome spin-fishing. Mark this week on the calendar as the beginning of the BUG season for 2003. Big fish came up all three day to bugs, I'm sorry to announce we only went 1 for 4. Three were lost on jumps, time to recheck hooks I guess or give a lesson on what to do when fish jump. We did land a 19.5" on a big bug. My spin angler caught a summer weight 20.5" fish. Check out the photo gallery for pics.
July 29, 30, August 1,2 2003 Potomac River and Main Stem Shenandoah Condition: We still have stable summer levels, and still have twice our average summer flow but rivers are green and moderately clear Fishing: No Change from last report. This was a good big fish week with 18-22" fish biting on every trip. Unfortunately the biggest fish were not landed this week and we didn't break 20" but we had a strong showing of of 18-19.5" fish (2 one day and 3 another). Took Bruce Ingram fishing Wednesday. Bruce writes for Bassmaster and VA and W. VA Game and Fish. We had a great day, with some decent fishing thrown in, no monsters showed up to get their pictures taken. However, I enjoyed Bruce's company and he let me get away with some not so well thought out comments and questions including "Bruce is that how you always fish a tube? Do you catch fish like that" Oops, sorry.
July 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 2003 N. Fork Shenandoah, Main Stem Shenandoah, and Potomac Conditions: Summer conditions, water near 80 degrees F., rivers are stable and clear to moderately stained green. Summer pattern is emerging finally Fishing: Summer pattern fishing means big fish are scattered in locations dictated only by daily pattern, surface activity is still nill. Numbers of fish continue to be caught on soft plastic stick baits. Big fish are also coming on stick baits, tubes and jig and pig. Big fish opportunities every day with best day this week 4 fish between 19-19.5". Numbers of fish are typical of summer with 15-30 fish per angler depending on skill level. Flyfishermen should still be fishing streamers for best opportunity at sizable fish, with crayfish coming in second. No real surface bug action yet, but I'll keep you posted. Please see picture gallery for photos.
July 17, 18, 19, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah and Potomac River Conditions: Getting much better, only about 2.5 times average flow for this time of year Fishing: Potomac was a bit spotty fishing again with few eddies forming compared what we usually see this time of year. Particulary hurt by the lack of even slow current mid-depth pools which are the bread and butter this time of year - mostly washed out by high flow. Potomac fish were all oriented around primary rock structure eddies including most importantly the fronts of ledges. The Shenandoah fish were more active as has been the case with some bigger fish coming from rock bank structure and obvious bank current seems. My anglers on the 18th fished spin tackle and caught nearly 100 fish, no exxaggeration. The surface superfluke bite wore them out after about three hours of non-stop bites. Big fish was 20.25" and is in the photo gallery.
July 10, 11 Cancelled due to High Water
July 3-8, 2003 Three Trips on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers Conditions: Improving most days, high still but only with some green stain Fishing: Some hit or miss fishing on the Potomac but with a couple of big fish mixed in each day. Check the Photo Gallery for some an 18", 18.5" and 19.5" fly caught smallies. The patterns have remained the same for both the Potomac and Shenandoah but we're encountering five times the fish on the Shenandoah. All big fish have come from foam eddies and secondary rock current breaks on white CK Baitfish and tan CK Clawdads crayfish flies.
June 23-24, 2003 North Fork Shenandoah for Two Days Two Fly Anglers Conditions: High and considerably stained tan Fishing: I've been very nervous this month because of all the rain and these two anglers had traveled from Utah to fish the Shenandoah. We went way up on the North Fork Shenandoah the first day in order to find marginally fishable water. The result was tough and technical fishing but this husband wife pair stepped up to the challenge and really did well considering the conditions on the first of two days. They probably caught a dozen or so nice 10-14" smallmouth each, quite a few near the end of the day. The second day we were able to go downriver to a section or river with less gradient. The fishing blew wide open by about 10:00 AM, white CK Baitfish were the key today although we also caught fish on a white/chartreuse spoon-fly. Including an 18.5" smallmouth the pair must have caught nearly 100 fish today, 75%smallmouth. Great day
June 6-June 22, 2003 Cancelled Twelve Days due to Very Heavy and Relentless Rains -Tough Conditions
Thursday June 5, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Two Flyfishermen Conditions: Higher than Tuesday and Muddy Fishing: My two fly anglers wanted to fish despite the poor high and muddy conditions. I felt like I knew where the fish were, and they were hip to trying flyrods in muddy water. These guys caught a ton of fish today, almost all on black Clawdad crayfish flies. Many eddies were tough to fish because of floating debree knocked into the river by recent t-storms and rain.
Tuesday June 3, 2003 South Fork Shenandoah Father and 9 year old son Conditions: River is runinng high and quite stained, 5 times average flow for this time of year. Fishing: One of the hottest fishing bites I've seen in a while. The father and his 9 year old son lit fish up the whole day, start to finish. Unbelievable considering the hight conditions? Dad caught three nice fish at 17", 18.5" and 18.75" and missed a 20" class fish at the boat. The nine year old son caught more than 60 smallmouth (he counted) and his big fish was 19.25" - Awesome! Stickbaits were the name of the game today.
Saturday June 1, 2003 Cancelled trip due to Severe Weather Forecast
Friday May 30, 2003 Main Stem Shenandoah Conditions: Quite high but a nice tan/green color Fishing: An older father son pair fished spin tackle all day and did very well. I needed some big fish to make up for a week up unfishable conditions. The son landed a pair of citations at 20.25" (3lb 14oz) and 20" (4lb 1oz.) Dad held his own on numbers and landed a bunch of nice 12-16" smallmouth.
May 29, 2003 N. Fork Shenandoah Conditions: River is clearing and stained green, nice looking Fishing: Excellent day, some fish were quite predictable. A couple big fish too at 17", 18.5" and 19.25". Good fishing and great company. We fished smoke colored soft plastics all day.
May 24, 29, 30, 2003 Shenandoah N. Fork and Main Stem Conditions: Above average flow but clear on the N. Fork Shenandoah but high and stained on the Main Stem Fishing: All clients are catching both good numbers and large fish. See the photo gallery for pics of four big fish caught here. Small fish are active and biting stickbaits, the bigger fish are all being caught on jigs. Banks are the name of the game with very few fish being caught in mid-river pools or from mid-river current breaks.
May 18-May 23, 2003 Cancelled three floats due to unfishable high muddy conditions on all available rivers
Saturday May 17, 2003 N. Fork Shenandoah Conditions: High and stained tan. Many of the important eddies have been washed out, midriver ledges require good jig control to fish. Fishing: Good numbers and big fish day despite marginal conditions. Fishing seems to be holding throughout the watershed if you can find 10" of water clarity. Today I had a father and son out, the son kept track and between the two 52 fish were landed. The dad got into big fish in one predictable big fish post spawn refuge, a moderate depth smooth surfaced pool. His big fish of the day were 20.25", 20.25", 18.5".
May 8, 2003- May 15, 2003 All trips cancelled due to unfishable conditions
Wednesday April 16, 2003 through May 7, 2003 Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers Conditions: High water fishing is the name of the game this spawning season. Flows have remained between 2x and 4x normal flow for this time period. Spawning has been sporadic, unorganized, and for the most part unsuccessful as far as I can tell. No signs of small fry around, lots of abandoned nests and only a little actual spawning taking place. The largemouth seem to be doing OK this year though. Fishing: I'm pleased with the fishing so far. We continue our streak of catching a fish over 19" each trip with one exception, and on that trip we lost two big fish and they got a couple 17" and 18" fish.
Saturday March 15, 2003 thru Thursday April 10, 2003 New River Block Book Fishing: I guided 18 days down on the New River in Southwest Virginia. A total of 16 of my regular clients joined me for between one and five days apiece to fish for the New Rivers' pre-spawn smallmouth. The conditions of the river ranged from relatively low and clear with 4 feet of visibility to high and muddy (2000 cubic feet per second to 14,000). We also experienced some nice swings in weather, for example, we had one week of 80 weather followed by a week of rain where I don't think it nudged past 45 degrees. I am very pleased with the results of the trip, we caught big fish on jig n' pig, spinnerbaits, suspended jerkbaits, crankbaits and yes tubes. My anglers landed 25 citation (at least 20") smallmouth in the 18 day period. Here's a listing of most of the truly big fish: 23" 5lb 10oz, 22.5" 5lb 11oz, 22" 5lb 9oz, 22" 4lb 7oz, 21.75" 5lb 4oz, 21.5" 5lb 2oz, 21.5" 5lb 2oz, 21.5" 5lb 0oz, 21.25" 5lb 6oz, 21.25" 5lb 1oz, 21.25" 4lb 15oz, 21.25" 4lb 10oz, 21.25" 4lb 9oz, 21" 4lb 12oz, 20.75" 5lb 0oz, 20.5" 4lb 7oz, 20.5" 4lb 5oz, 20.5" 4lb 3oz, 20.5" 3lb 12oz, 20.25" 4lb 3oz, 20.25" 4lb 0 oz, 20.25" 3lb 12oz, 20" 4lb 1oz, 20" 4lb 0oz, 20" 4lb 0oz, 20" 3lb 2oz. Nice fishing guys!
Monday December 30, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah One Fisherman Conditions: Good average flow with light green stain. Water 37 degrees but warming slightly. 0 Well, the single angler on board had never winter fished so I casually joined in the fishing (rare occurrence). I got about a dozen bites. The angler may not have had any, I think he thought I was faking it and I had nothing to prove him otherwise by the end of the day except for glimpses of a couple fish. Lost my cool today and threw my tube in the bottom of my boat after missing four fish in a row, tube bounced and rattled around the boat for a while. The jig and pig I switched to lost it's life after I chucked it into the woods following a missed strike. I learned a lot about this stretch of river today.
Friday November 8, 2002 New River Two Anglers Conditions: Unseasonably warm day, high near 55 with light winds Fishing: Another very disappointing day of fishing. River was very low and clear and big fish were not on the move today. Clients landed a 17" fish, and a few other assorted sized smallmouth.
Thursday November 7, 2002 New River Two Anglers Conditions: Nice day with winds subsiding by afternoon. Sharply rising barometer left the fishing a little sluggish, soft infrequent bites spelled the trend for the day. Fishing: Highlighted by near landing of a musky (hit a jig and pig jumped off an obstruction). Big smallmouth of the day was 19.5" and about 3lbs 6 oz. Not much else to speak of in terms of numbers or size. I'm a little disappointed.
Wednesday November 6, 2002 Walnut Creek Conditions: Major high pressure system rolled through over night leaving us with huge winds, gusts reported to 60 and 70 mph. Fishing: We opted to fish the more protected creek than the open river. This was mostly an experiment and we did find some fish. Beautiful river with frequent class two rapids, pools with rock bluffs, caves and mountainous scenery.
Monday November 4, 2002 New River Short Float Conditions: Cold, windy rainy, kind of what you expect up there this time of year Fishing: A little disappointing. We fished marginal water for the first half of the day without much luck at all. Then we concentrated on some heavily ledged areas and fished low and slow to scrape a few nice fish together. Big fish was 18.5" and a little thin and beat up.
Sunday November 3, 2002 New River- Practice Float One angler and Me Conditions: low and clear, warm sunny day Fishing: This unfortunately was the only really good day of fishing for the four days I was down there. We fished jig and pig all day and caught a bunch of big fish. Though I wouldn't call the fishing hot or fast. We had to work very hard to catch them. Three big fish of the day were as follows; 21" 4 lbs even. 20" 3 lbs 8 oz, 20.25" 4lb 3 oz.
Thursday October 24, 2002 Potomac River - Lower Stretch Two Anglers Conditions: River was at a nice level and stained green. It was cold, windy and a bit rainy but we accomplished what we set out to do. Fishing: Anglers just moved to the area - near the river and wanted to get a feel for the area. We fished an early winter pattern and caught fish by working slowly on the bottom.
Monday October 21, 2002 Susquehanna River - Duncannon to Marysville Two Anglers Conditions: River has receded to 5.0 feet at the Harrisburg gauge. Water temperatures in the high 40's. Fishing: Awesome fishing today. The river has receded to the level at which the stargrass humps have begun to show through and eddies are forming again behind prominent rock structures mid-river. Big fish of the day was 19 1/4", and trim. Tons of fish in the 15-17" range came fishing tubes slowly. We began the day catching fish in tributary mouths and moved to mid-river humps and ledges by midday and that was the right choice.
Friday October 18, 2002, Saturday October 19, 2002 and Sunday October 20, 2002 Susquehanna trips cancelled due to noreaster' rains and high muddy water.
Monday October 14, 2002 Trip Cancelled due to high/muddy water conditions
Saturday October 12, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah -Long Float Two Anglers Conditions: Absolutely gorgeous day, slightly overcast for part of the day and sunny for the afternoon. River was slightly stained green with good visibility to about five feet. Fishing: Excellent day fishing, anglers caught good numbers of fish today. Two big fish for the day were 20.5" athletic shaped fish, and an 18" smallmouth. Biggest fish was taken in the tail end of a pool with stick bait. The second big fish was taken in pronounced ledge eddy, on a tube.
Thursday October 10, 2002 Potomac River - MKFS Float Two Anglers Conditions: Better water levels than we have had this year. Overall a pretty good day of fishing. Fought wind for a good piece of the day.
Saturday and Sunday October 5-6, 2002 Taught Two Day Flyfishing School For LL Bean out in Front Royal
Friday October 4, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah Two Fisherpeople - Husband and Wife Conditions: Low and tannic (tea) colored water Fishing: Today was more about having a scenic float on a small mountainous stream. As I rowed though I noticed lots of big fish and they were easily patterned in moderately deep ledge water right were current dumps in and slows down. They did fish during the last hour of the trip and the husband and wife caught a bunch of fish. The wife took top honors though having landed three different species.
Thursday October 3, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Long Float Father and Young Son Conditions: Stabilizing and nice amount of water in the river Fishing: They caught more than 80 fish today, and I only know because the son was counting. Warm and sunny day and renewed flow definitely had these fish on the move. Early on the father landed an unbelievably athletic 19.5" fish with a big gut and she weighed in at 3-14, very heavy for a river fish that long. There were no fewer than 8 other fish that size chasing the stick-bait which had run up the line while the client was landing that fish. The grasses are dying back significantly and the fish are packed up chasing the vast numbers of baitfish in the river. Awesome stuff!
Monday-Tuesday September 30 and October 1, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Long and Short Float Conditions: There's water in that there river. Higher and stained with lots of dead and disconnected grass debris floating around in the river. It did clear over the course of the next two days. Fishing: Two gentlemen made the visit from Indiana to fish for two days. We actually fished spinnerbaits for part of the first day with success in the stained water until the tube and stickbait bite turned on and we never went back. Secretly we were all hoping a big fat 20" fish would show up to put the icing on the cake for these travelers but we ran into a wall at about 18.5". I had a great time guiding these guys and after a little partying the first day it was no bones fishing the second. They ended up landing very strong numbers of fish considering the fluctuating conditions with about a half dozen 16.5"-18.5" fish.
Saturday - Sunday September 28-29, 2002 Taught Two Day Flyfishing School For LL Bean out in Front Royal
Friday September 27, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Low and Clear Fishing: Triple boat float amidst Hurricane Isadore wrath. Not a fun day with HEAVY winds in the face followed by forcasts of tornadoes. We did have an awesome shore lunch with wine and fresh walleye!
Monday September 16-Monday September 23, 2002 Six Days of Fishing Block Booked on theSusquehanna River Conditions: Severe Drought Fishing: Honestly it took me a day longer than I would have liked to zoom in on a pattern up there. The river is so low, and there are enough fishermen up there that the normal paths and haunts became pressured. The first day of fishing was good for numbers of quality fish, some on top and some on bottom, but the second day suffered. Then I started walking the boat long distances through shallow water to get to un-fished water on the East side of the islands and things blew wide open. We experienced the best top-water bite I've seen for years over very shallow water. Clients fished everything top-water in the bag and more. As it turns out, clear tiny torpedoes and torpedoes were the bait for the first two days of top-water fishing. Then we had overcast and rain the last two days and we had to change to white bottom torpedoes. Overall a hot fishing trip, we landed unbelievable numbers of 13-18" smallmouth-mostly on top ( I apologized to the fisherman who was out the first two days for my guiding error)
Saturday September 14-Sunday 15th Taught Two Day Flyfishing School For LL Bean out in Front Royal
Friday September 13, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Long Float Single Fly Angler: Conditions: Unchanged Fishing: The gentleman today was a professional fly tier who hadn't fished many of his patterns. He is one of those people who gravitated toward the tying portion of the sport more than the fishing. We had a great time trying lots of flies and working on basic flyfishing and fish catching skills. We didn't catch a ton of fish but I don't think that was the point. I received a two page categorized and bulleted email after the float recapping the successes, failures and highlights of the trip - awesome feedback.
Thursday September 12, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Low and unchanged Fishing: A fathers third trip in as many weeks and he brought his five year old son. I have to complement this family, each and every son has been a pleasure to guide. They are polite and sincere young men and the father does a great job engaging them all day. We did cut the float short to make sure it wasn't too much for the young angler. We did it just right and he reached the boiling point just as the take-out came into sight.
Monday September 9, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Short Float Two Fishermen Adult Father and Son Condition: Unchanged Fishing: Big fish were on the move today for the son. We stuck with stickbaits all day with the exception of a few deep holes where we threw large tubes. The son's four best fish were 17", 19", 20", 20 1/4". Dad caught good numbers but I don't think he was casting far enough from the boat to get to the big fish before they spooked. He did catch plenty of fish though.
Sunday September 8, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Long Float Two Fishermen Father and Son Condition: Unchanged Fishing: The fishing has continued to hold up for numbers and for big fish if you know where they are before you get your boat too close. This is the father's second float, and this son is 12 years old. He also kept track of the numbers, in addition to the 20 1/4" and 16.5" smallmouth we landed, I think we landed somewhere in the mid forties.
Friday September 6, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Long Float Two Fishermen Conditions: Low and Clear. Fishing: Some excellent fish were caught today fishing bugs on fly rod. Fish were in very predictable spots today and the big fish of the day was 21" and caught on the fly rod. An 18", and 17.5" fish was also landed using hardware and tubes. Numbers were there but the fishermen were only after bigger fish and stuck with big fish lures and flies
Monday September 2, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Long Float Single Client Conditions: Low clear conditions with noticeable browning of the grasses. Fishing: I thought the fishing was going to be out of site, it was good, but not where I thought. I've noticed that many of the big fish have moved back into mid river deep pockets and holes. We threw tubes and jig and pig today for the first time in a while. Big fish were 18", 17.25", and 16".
Saturday August 31, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Short Float Two Client-Father and Son Conditions: Low and Clear Fishing: Excellent fishing for numbers and some big fish were moving around. The son was 9 and he counted the fish he caught and I think it was 46. The water strider pattern was on strong today. Most fish caught on stickbaits. There was a definite lull in the bite between 9:00 AM and Noon.
Friday August 30, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Short Float Two Clients Conditions: Relatively warm but reasonable day. River is still very low and clear and noticing some softening and browning of the stargrass, flow still strongly channeled: Fishing: I quote the client "This was my best day of fishing ever, you can put that on your website". We had a great stickbait bite today on numbers and on big fish. We did quite a bit of site fishing and watched fish eat all day. Big fish was a monster 22" smallmouth which weighed in at 4 lbs 9 oz, good girth for a summer fish.
Thursday August 29, 2002 Taught Flyfishing for LL Bean's Walk On Program
Tuesday August 27, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah - Long Float Two Flyfishing Clients Conditions: Very low and clear river conditions but the grasses are still quite full which channels the current nicely. Today I had the co-proprietor of Angler's Lie Flyfishing Shop and another employee who is a casting instructor. We fished bugs all day and the big smallmouth were motivated to eat them. As a group we missed noticing numerous very light bites from big fish, or noticed them too late. Still we landed 18" and 20" smallmouth as well as a 22" channel catfish which pulled like a big dog. Great day of flyfishing
Friday August 23, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: River has nearly bottomed out, weather was pleasant in the high 80's. Fishing: This is Mike's third day out and we agreed the fishing was the strongest today. Most flies worked to some degree if we were patient. We threw a bunch of big bugs today and cuaght nice fish on top. The highlight of the day came after we pushed the grass into the right channel through the Brunswick Pool. I don't think it has been fished much this summer and the fish were wild - it felt like they got a bite on every cast.
Thursday August 22, 2002 Taught Flyfishing for LL Bean's Walk On Program
Tuesday August 20, 2002 Rappahannock River Joint trip with Blue Ridge Kayak Fishing Conditions: River was severely low and Jeff Little and I walked and Kayaked parts of the Rappahannock. I watched and took pictures of Jeff catching four 19-19.5" fish. I received an education today in how to fish from a Kayak. All fish were healthy and strong - despite the drought
Monday August 19, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: It was seasonably warm today with a breeze Fishing: A father and young daughter came fishing today. Mom met us about half way (around 2:00 PM) with the car just in case. Both dad and the young lady caught tons of fish, we worked different colored stickbaits all day, some on conventional hooks some on circle hooks. The young lady really started getting into it just as the day was ending - which means she'll want to go fishing again.
Saturday August 17, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Warm and sunny day today Fishing: We had to work some to catch fish today but once we locked in on the pattern we caught fish. Threw mostly white stickbaits. Torpedoes took some fish too.
Friday August 16, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Warm and Humid day but not as bad as it has been. Fishing: Another good day of fishing and the second time this client has fished this week. The size of the fish we caught today were bigger than Tuesday. We worked a lot of black and white lures and flies today with good results, mostly middle of the water column type stuff. Big fish of the day was 18.5" and came from a hole in the grasses down in the Brunswick pool. We had to push and creep the raft through the grass to get to each hole but they were all worth it.
Thursday August 15, 2002 Float Cancelled Due to Low Water and Client Expectation of Fishing the Rappahannock River which is flowing at 8% or its normal summer flow
Tuesday August 13, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Hot and Steamy, low water levels making running this float very physical Fishing: The fishing was excellent today, we worked fast water to find fish with the fly rod, purple baitfish seemed to rule the day - despite Mike's surprise at the bright color. We fished the grasses of the Brunswick pool thoroughly, tons of baitfish and plenty of bass in the openings within the stargrass.
Wednesday August 7-Sunday August 11, 2002 Teaching flyfishing at Colonial Williamsburg LL Bean Factory Store Opening
Saturday August 3, 2002 M Stem Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: Uhm, Hot. River is low, clear and choked with stargrass and it's getting thicker. Fishing: All of our best fish today came on Senkos, any color did the trick. Fishermen both landed 16 and 17" fish. Lots of big fish spotted where heavier current pushed though stargrass, pay attention to rocks in those areas. Fish were swallowing the soft plastics very quickly today.
Friday August 2, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Hoooooot, again approaching 100 degrees, humid and no wind Fishing: River was very low and falling making stealth a real issue. Lots of nice fish were caught mainly with flyrod on poppers and Clouser Floating Minnows.
Thursday August 1, 2002 M. Stem Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: The weather was very hot and humid, very little wind. The river had a beautiful light tea colored stain that yelled sighfishing. Fishing: Big fish were on the prowl today and they were not spooky. Father son team caught some huge fish and I think the 13 y/o son came out ahead. Big fish measured 21", 21", 18.75", 17". The young man also lost a 21-22" class fish which swam through a lava rock cave to cut the line - craftiest smallmouth move I've seen all year.
Tuesday July 30, 2002 M. Stem Shenandoah Two Anglers Conditions: We fished a PM float and it was hot but very enjoyable Fishing: Fly angler took big fish of the day with a 19.5 athletic fish taken on top with one of my large sliders. A few adult beverages rounded off a memorable sunset and made the one hour row in the dark enjoyable.
Monday July 29, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Two Anglers Conditions: Hot, Hot again, river was on the rise from a plug of water coming down the N. Branch Potomac Fishing: Good bite in the morning. Anglers were catching fish on suspending minnow patterns on fly and spin. The trash, muddying water and wood debris marked the end of fishing at about noon.
Thursday July 25, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services One Angler Conditions: Hot, Hot 100 degrees Fishing: I regret that we did not take a big fish today, which was the angler's focus. We did catch some walleye and good numbers of smallmouth. Oh, and we drank a lot of water.
Monday July 22, 2002 Susquehanna River Lower Float One Angler Conditions: Same as July 20 Fishing: Excellent fishing today, consistent topwater action throughout the day, specifically skidding superflukes on top. We ducked into the braided islands for relief from the floating algae and found just enough water to get through. By targeting exposed structure we caught huge numbers of smallies on top, most in the 12-15" susky porkchop range. Great day topped off by an 18.5" fattie taken on a very large tube in slow deep water.
Saturday July 20, 2002 Susquehanna River Upper Float One Angler Conditions: Great water levels for fishing ledge structure, 3.3 at Harrisburg. River was clear but there was a prolific organized floating algae which made fishing subsurface very frustrating. We fished swimming worms most of the day with good results. We targeted moving water foam pockets and slow deep wood for our big fish landing an 18.5" and 21" smallmouth.
Monday July 15, 2002 Potomac River Mather Gorge One Angler Conditions: River is reaching severe drought level fast. Today was hot and humid approaching 97 degrees and humid Fishing: We caught all of our fish today in current or right on seams. Best fish came on dark tubes in moving water where in the past we caught fish on rock bluffs in slow water-not the pattern today.
Wednesday July 10, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Eight Anglers Conditions: Warm and humid, river was slowly falling and green Fishing: This four boat husband and wife trip was a hoot. All anglers caught at least a dozen fish, even the "casual" anglers.
Wednesday July 3, 2002 Potomac River Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Two Anglers Conditions: Hot and hazy, approaching 100 degrees, just like this father son team had last year. River was in good condition but as warm as bathwater. Fishing held up most of the day and anglers caught fish on green tubes and senkos. The father caught two walleye today, contradicting anectodes of overcast cold weather walley fishing, the fish measure 14" and 18", both caught jigging green tubes off the bottom in deep water. The young angler had grown about six inches and it was nice to see he had matured by leaps and bounds.
Tuesday July 2, 2002 Potomac River Brunswick to Point of Rocks Two Anglers Conditions: Hot and very hazy, high near 95 degrees. This was the only piece of river left fishable after heavy rains the two previous days Fishing: I was proud to have a Flyfisherman from England (a blacksmith) and his American friend. Each angler caught 15-20 fish, by far the strongest pattern was a tan crayfish. Most fish came from subtle openings in the stargrass caused by ledges.
Tuesday June 25, 2002 Potomac River Below Great Falls Conditions: River low and clear, very hot and humid day, highs near 94 Fishing: This trip was hosted as a tribute to a friend of the client who was lost in an accident, the friend loved to fish. Couldn't have been a better day, weather and fishing and company was superb. The Potomac really showed off today with big fish and topwater and you name it. We caught catfish and walleye and smallmouth. Biggest fish of the day was lost and would have measure about 21". We even caught fish in places I'd given up on. PM superfluke bite brought fast action for the two miles at the end of the day.
Monday June 24, 2002 NF Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: Low, clear and warm. Highs today near 90, sunny and humid. The river is filling with grass Fishing: Father and Nephew flyfished all day and caught pretty good numbers of fish on crayfish patterns. Big fish of the day was a 19" smallmouth caught in a fast line of current through stargrass, the bass actually jumped on the fly as it landed.
Saturday June 22, 2002 M. Stem Shenandoah Four Clients Conditions: Low and Clear Fishing: I think all four anglers and both guides had a great day today, thank you John Hayes for guiding with me. We had a pretty good day - until we broke out the superflukes at about 3:00PM. The clients had never fished topwater with these plastics and we worked on skidding them across the surface for about three hours The bite was huge with this technique, giant strikes and flipping fish and chaos. When the smoke cleared we'd gone through thee bags of darks superflukes and the anglers wrists were done. Very memorable day. Each angler caught good numbers of 16" and 17" fish, no giants today but the average size was excellent.
Friday June 21, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: River is low but the conditions were good, grass is emerging and will be thick in a month Fishing: Fishing was OK today, husband and wife celebrating their anniversary on the river. They did so by throwing flies all day and were rewarded with some fish. I was hoping for a better bite, or dumber fish or something. We caught a good mixture of smallmouth and redbreast. Linda (wife) came home with a unique prize, a watermelon shaped wood sphere sculptured by the Winchester sheet flow dam. This thing had been in the river for a couple weeks spinning in the wash of the dam, see picture gallery if you want a laugh.
Thursday June 20, 2002 Potomac River Below Great Falls Two Clients Conditions: River was hazy but very fishable Fishing: A discouragingly slow start today, fish were very negative for the first four miles of the trip. I think the clients would tell you that the last two miles more than made up for it though. We had a great bite in down through the faster water which dominates the last two miles of the float. We had topwater, we had bigger fish, we fell out of the boat laughing. Big fish of the day came on the last cast and was 18.5" - and the fish got in every kind of conceivable trouble but we got her in the net.
Friday June 14, 2002 M Stem Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: River was slightly hazy from carp action and rain, bright and sunny highs near 85 degrees Fishing: Rains from the previous day made for fairly cloudy river conditions and the river was rising. We had to work for fish today and I think it was a bit lackluster out there. We kept things lively with some good humor, building on jokes from the previous day - including something about the ass of one of my flies that I worked so hard to paint and tie.
Thursday June 13, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: N. Fork is nearing the cutoff point for being too low to guide, rain and thunderstorms all day Fishing: Husband and wife team fished fly rods all day and caught about 80 fish including panfish. We caught fish on crayfish and baitfish patterns but the micro-popper got the call for most of the day and drew consistent attention. Great species day by the way with 6; smallmouth, largemouth, green sunfish, bluegill, redbreast, rock bass.
Tuesday June 11, 2002 Potomac River- Dam 3 to Brunswick Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Nice green stains and slowly falling river levels, warm and humid Fishing: Especially strong PM bite, and fish were popping in the Brunswick pool. Anglers may have caught the most fish all year. White plastic stick-baits drew the most bites and our big fish of the day was 17.5"
Saturday June 8, 2002 Potomac River - Dam 3 to Brunswick - Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Conditions: Nice river level with good clarity, sunny and warming Fishing: One client flyfished and the other spinfished all day, absolutely awesome bite all day, fish were caught in the middle of the water column for the most part. Borger crayfish, CK Baitfish and CK Rolex's did the trick on the fly side and we fished Senkos all day on the spin side.
Friday June 7, 2002 Potomac River-Dam3-Brunswick - Guided for Mark Kovach Fishing Services Ten Anglers Conditions: Nice moderately low river level with good clarity. Fishing: Satisfying bite today, slow and steady for most of the day and then it just broke lose at the end of the day. White was the color of the day. Awesome PM bite, one of the first really noticeable PM bites.
Tuesday June 4, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah - Short Float Two Clients Conditions: River is low and falling but there was still quite a bit of stain on the river due to tailing and mudding carp Fishing: we ran across a strong carp pattern today, find carp and you found smallmouth. The carp were rooting and mudding heavily in gravel/shell flats. Each carp had a smallmouth partner hanging just in back of it's gills, darting in every once in a while to pick up a missed meal. Smallmouth were easily targeted this way, we cast upriver and beyond the heads of the carp to get at the bass. Then we tried to catch a carp but they weren't budging. Fun day of fishing and interestinng carp thing happening. Otherwise fishing pretty good with good numbers of smallmouth caught.
Thursday May 30, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: This river is losing water fast, low and clear conditions left fish spooky for sure Fishing: Clients did well when they fished out in front of the boat, where they got to the fish before they felt our presence. Tubes and jig and pig worked equally as well today. The superfluke came on strong though once again. Two big fish were hooked and lost on the superfluke. Both times big fish ate the fluke was being steadily pulled through the water, not deadsticked and not twitched.
Tuesday May 28, 2002 Potomac River - Brunswick to Point of Rocks Two Clients Conditions: Mild weather, high in the 80's, bluebird sky. River was high and muddy from recent rains upriver Fishing: The clients were happy and I guess I was too considering the poor conditions. I ran Brunswick to Point of Rocks because it was the only stretch of river that didn't get local tributary run-off, and that the high water from upriver hadn't reached yet. Clients fished hard and worked for their fish but were rewarded with willing fish. The two biggest bass of the day were 17" and 18". We caught most of our fish today on Jig and Pig.
Saturday May 25, 2002 Rappahannock River Two Clients Conditions: Relatively low river level, river had a tea colored stain. Fishing: Fish were active through most of the day today. One of the clients was a young boy who had never flyfished, but we worked with his casting early and he became proficient by the end of the float. The young man caught more than 20 smallmouth, his partner did well too. Other fishermen on the river that day were complaining of a slow bite, I guess my anglers worked harder.
Friday May 24, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah-Long Float Two Clients Conditions: Hot and Sunny, high's in the mid 90's, river was in excellent condition, fairly clear with green stain. Fishing: Average fishing day, clients learned to "limp-line" superflukes which made their first strong appearance of the year. Clients nice fish in moderate depth water with current. Big 20" was hooked below a ledge about mid-way through the float, fish was already in trim summer condition. Most of the big fish are spawning again. They were spawning behind mid-river isolated boulders showing 4-6" of current flowing over their tops. Spawning fish would not bite.
Thursday May 23, 2002 Potomac River- Dam 3 to Brunswick Client cancelled the float last minute
Wednesday May 22, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah-Long Float Two Clients Conditions: Just about ideal levels on this river, with good green clarity. Fishing Summary: Clients flyfished all day and caught great numbers of fish but the big fish (over 16") were elusive. I suspect another spawn is beginning on the river, and the big fish are involved.
Tuesday May 21, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah-Lower Stretch Two Clients Conditions: Adult father and son team today made for a very fun trip, these two got along well and were great company, plenty of jokes all day. The father was very inexperienced but worked hard today on his Senko fishing and caught a lot of fish-all day. The son was a little more experienced and fished Superflukes-limplined and fished jig and pig most of the day. Big fish of the day was 19.25" in a jig and pig caught by the son, another big fish 19"ish was hooked but was lost on the Superfluke. Fish today could be caught by sightfishing, I noticed that we floated by the 19.25" fish and had the client cast back upriver to him-and he ate. The river was at that perfect stain where fish are not weary of the boat but we could still see them. Fun day.
Tuesday May 14, 2002 Potomac River-Lower Stretch Two Client Conditions: River was in excellent condition today with tame spring levels and greenish color. Fishing Summary: Clients caught fish steadily today, no huge fish were encountered but plenty of 13-16" fish showed up. Clients caught fish today on tubes and senkos, dark colors were the most successful.
Saturday May 11, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah-Lower Stretch Single Client Conditions: Steadily falling and river color improving all day from tan to green, moderate level Fishing Summary: The client today really fished well, hit all the spots and did the right things when he got in there. Jig and pig accounted for most of the fish today, including three large smallmouth measuring 19", 19" and 19.75". Proud to be a guide today, all three big fish came from places where big fish were caught in the past with the same river conditions.
Thursday May 9, 2002 Potomac River Lower Stretch Took Alexandra Steele - Weatherwoman for Channel 7, her producer and cameraman out to film for the CBS Discovery Series. Fun day and not a fish to be found, in all three casts she took that is!
Tuesday May 7, 2002 Potomac River Lower Stretch Two Clients Conditions: River was at normally high spring level with heavy stain due to recent rain. Fishing Summary: Awesome big fish day. We caught both big male and big female fish today. Most of the fish were caught in the last two miles of the float. Plenty of 14-17" fish and one client landed the following four big fish 20", 20", 19.5", 17.5". Most fish today were caught on jig and pig.
Saturday May 4 through Sunday May 5, 2002 Taught LL Bean two day flyfishing school in Front Royal
Friday, May 3, 2002 Potomac River - Dam 3 to Brunswick MD Two Clients Conditions: Potomac predicted to rise from 6.5 up to over 8 feet on the Harper's Ferry Gauge bringing the level over the DANGER stage on the river for recreational boating. Client understood the predictions and wanted to fish for big fish-the conditions were possibly ideal. Fishing Summary: Great Big Fish Day. Fish were isolated in the occasional eddy/current break or island that remained at this level. Client fished exclusively with oversized tubes and caught lots of nice fish, the four longest landed were 19", 19.25", 19.5" and one that measured just about 20". Two huge fish were also lost-and predictably-we think they might have been the biggest. Typical isn't it?
Thursday, May 2, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah-Lower Float Two Clients Trip Cancelled due to marginal fishing conditions topped off by a tornado warning in the county we planned to fish. It is not the norm to reschedule due to weather forecasts, but are considered if dangerous conditions are predicted.
Wednesday, May 1, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah-Upper Float Conditions: High, but with some green stain Fishing Summary: Fishing was acceptable considering the high river level, anglers caught a bunch of fish apiece and had a great species day (smallmouth, largemouth, redbreast, bluegill, green Sunfish, fallfish). As expected the better sized fish were landed near the end of the float. Both anglers caught their largest smallmouth to date with a 17" and 18.5" fish. Decent number of 14-16" fish too.
Tuesday, April 30, 2002 Float cancelled due to high muddy conditions throughout all local watersheds
Monday, April 29, 2002 Potomac River-Congressional Casting Call Summary: Took a Wyoming Senator fishing today for Shad out of Fletcher's Boat House. The outlook was not so good with a two foot rise in the river from local rains and visibility of about 2 inches. This spells trouble for shad - we did catch one and I think it was the only non-catfish brought to the boat by any of angler's at the event. The Senator caught the fish on a Newell's Shad Fly (Proprietor of Angler's Lie) in Red.
Saturday, April 27-Sunday April 28, 2002 Taught LL Bean Flyfishing Schools in Front Royal
Thursday, April 25, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: Moderately High but with a nice green stain. Fishing Summary: River dropped from 9 feet from it's high on 4/23 leaving excellent conditions on the river and fish in very predictable locations. Plenty of nice chunky N. Fork Shenandoah fish today, fish were mostly located on or near bank structure, some were holding to wood. Best two fish were 19" and 19.5", each client caught one and that made the guide very happy.
Tuesday, April 23, 2002 Below Great Falls Stretch Single Client Conditions: Very poor-muddy and very high for flyfishing Fishing Summary: Without mincing words the fishing was very poor today. I prepared the client when we met in the morning for the poor conditions and recommended that maybe he reschedule. However, the gentleman wanted to go fishing and didn't mind duking it out. Next time I might be a little more adament, this is early to be going flyfishing anyway on the Potomac.
Friday, April 19, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah Two Clients Conditions: Same Fishing Summary: Two flyfishermen duked it out for about half a day with some very uncooperative fish. They did manage to catch a couple smallmouth and some redbreast, one of the smallmouth was quite nice. We cut the day short because severe thunderstorms with hail and high winds were descending on us.
Saturday April 13-14, 2002 Taught LL Bean's two day flyfishing school in Front Royal
Friday April 12, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah River Two Fishermen Conditions: No change low and clear Fishing Summary: These two clients had tremendous river skills, knew exactly how to present baits and get them off the bottom when they snagged, great accurate casters too. They worked very hard for about 15 fish apiece, and considering their skills that was about as many fish this river was going to give up today. My complements to these guys. Big fish of the day was a very healthy 19.5" 3 lb - 10 oz smallmouth. This fish came out of deep slow ledge structure. We did also leave a monster smallmouth in the river, brief encounter but there was agreement in the boat about how big this fish was. I'll be looking for her this year that's for sure! The client thinks it would have been his big fish to date. Oh, we made visuals on the first couple bedding fish of the year.
Monday April 8, 2002 Main Stem Shenandoah River One Fisherman Conditions: Low Clear and still full of snot grass. Fishing Summary: The client caught a fish of a lifetime which measured 22" and weighed 4 lbs 7 oz. He also caught about five more fish in the 14-16" range. Congratulation on the big fish, I still wish I could have helped get a few more fish in the boat though..
Friday April 4, 2002 N. Fork Shenandoah River Two Fishermen Conditions: The river is at summer low today, I find this quite alarming. The bottom of the river is covered with filamentous algae which prevents clients from presenting baits correctly, fouling hooks constantly. The fish in this river are conditioned to begin looking for spawning sites at this point but many of them are high and dry. We had a tough day of fishing. The catchable smallmouth were in many cases in deep water only. The fish that were shallow were very shallow and spooky.
Friday March 22, 2002 through Tuesday April 2, 2002 New River Block Booking Conditions: The river fluctuated between drought level and flood stage following the huge rain events inundating Southwest Virginia. Water temperature hovered in the low 40's for half the trip then climbed slowly to about 50 by the final days. Fishing Summary: I feel as though the trip was very successful. People have the opportunity to catch world class fish in this river and many did so. I was very dissapointed in the low river levels though, typically spring finds this river with at least half a bank full but many of the floats suffered from low summer like conditions. When the river is low I expected a slow to non-existent bite with the big fish. When the big fish were biting w caught at least three or four in a day. Each day I had to decide whether or not the clients would really be satisfied with a couple big fish or that they would rather catch numbers of nice fish and a big fish would be a bonus.. There were two very distinct types of structure that held smallmouth uring the two weeks. The first structure type had the majority of the fish in the river but nothing over 19.5", the second is where EVERY giant came from. I'm not going to talk about the difference because I have to have some secrets. There was one truly poor day of fishing, we had drought level conditions and a MAJOR cold front. The high that day was in the 20's, winds were out of the Northwest from 15-35 mph steady. Instead of committing to an entire float which might have been dangerous, the single guest and I let the wind blow us upriver from what is normally a takeout point, to a ledge and fished that for most of the day. The one fish we caught that day just missed 20" and was nice and chunky, it came out of 1' of water. Big Fish Summary: 9 smallmouth were taped at 21" or longer weighing: 23.75" - 6 lbs 1 oz, 22" - 5 lbs 10 oz, 21" - 5 lbs 2 oz, 21" - 4 lbs 12 oz, 21" - 4 lbs 9 oz, 21" - 4 lbs 6 oz, 21" - 4 lbs 5 oz, 21" - 4 lbs 5 oz, 21" - 4 lbs 2 oz. 12 more smallmouth between 19" and 21". The New River is awesome.
January, February, March Drought conditions have left the rivers in poor guiding condition. Low clear water has left a thick layer of filamentous algae on the bottom which makes slow playing artificials on the bottom very difficult. Smallmouth are concentrated with carp, and together they usually detect you and spook before you can make a single cast to their area. All floats cancelled. I ran a good number of floats on my own to scout the river and learn what I could while the river was so low and clear. Very educational process, though not a ton of fish were caught. Praying for rain.
Sunday January 6, 2002 Potomac River - Warmwater Influence Area Two Fishermen Conditions: There's no water in the river Fishing: Poor, this was a scouting trip to prepare for several January guided trips and after the practice float I cancelled them all. Until we get rain the river is way too low for successful float fishing, the waders are actually better off. Piles of fish in very tight groupings, sounds great but all it takes is for one of them to spook and you're done. Forget catching more than one, catch one, move a quarter mile, hope to not spook the next school, boo hoo.