Fishing Report

Earlier this week my son and I fished the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.  The water temperature was right around 60 degrees. I caught a very nice bass on the Murray's Heavy Hellgrammite. --as you can see in the photo. As the rivers are getting warmer the sculpin minnows are becoming active and the bass are feeding on them as they dart along the stream bottom. A Shenk's Black Sculpin size 4 and Murray's Madtom Sculpin in size 4 would also work well here. Fish these across stream by stripping them 6 inches every 5 seconds so they swim...

There are excellent hatches of March Browns and Light Cahills and the trout are feeding heavily upon them. The March Brown Dry size 14, Murray's Yellow Drake size 14 & 16 and Light Cahill Dry size 14 & 16 match these hatches.  I have a few close friends that stick with nymphs even when the drys are on the surface. An excellent ploy is to fish a dry with a dropper.  The Mr. Rapidan Soft Hackle (Brown) Nymph size 14 and Light Cahill Nymph size 14 are excellent nymphs to match these hatches.  The native brook trout streams are in...

The local stocked trout streams are clear and the water levels are perfect. Big Stoney Creek west of Edinburg was just stocked this week. The trout are feeding heavily on minnows which are well matched with a Murray's Black Marauder or Olive Marauder in size 12. Fish these upstream right below the riffles and across stream deeply in the large pools. 

Update for May 8, 2021   The North Fork of the Shenandoah River has returned to normal levels from the heavy rains this week. The water temperature has dropped some with the cooler nights that we have had over the last few days. The South Fork of the Shenandoah River is clear and fishable. Once the extra water runs through I would fish with a Murray's Crayfish size 6. Wade or float down the river 50 feet out from the bank where there is a cobblestone stream bottom. Cast the crayfish in close to the river bank and crawl it over...

The Mr. Rapidan Parachute size 14 and the Mr. Rapidan Olive Delta Wing Caddis size 14 are both very effective now. Often the trout feeding on caddis will appear to be feeding on the adult caddisflies when they are actually feeding on the emerging caddis pupa. An effective technique which will catch both the dry feeders and the pupa feeders is to fish a dry and a dropper. Fish with the Delta Wing Caddis on a Classic 7 1/2ft 5X leader and the Olive Caddis Pupa on an 18 inch dropper below it.  The localized heavy rains from last evening...