Well i know that most people think that we have not really been keeping up with posts! Well that is because we have been fishing!! So I figured you all wanted some pics and a good write up… well here you go…
Shenandoah River North Fork(9/5/09)South Fork(9/6/09)
Day:1
The Water was really low and the fish were very spookish so it was not our regular smallmouth fishing trip. Most if not all of the fish were over a rock bottom with cover over them providing shade. The Biggest fish 15″ was in a back Eddie that had a tree over it that provided shade. When i hooked him he ran downstream in the riffle and then ran up and down again into weeds. Next cast into there provided a 13″ fish. There is a 21″ smallmouth in that back Eddie that my friend has caught before. Those two fish were landed on a Shenks White Streamer. Caught some other fish also including one that had some narly lesions on it from the bad fish kills that went around a few years back. Later in the day we went to a different spot but noting really was working and the water was so low. The one fish i caught in the other spot was on a hopper pattern fished under a fallen tree
shenks white streamer
Day:2 (pics included!)
Woke up early that morning, packed the car and we went off down the mountain to fish the South Fork of the Shenandoah River! We arrived planning to float the river but it was running so low that most of the spots the outfitter was not going to float. So we threw on our waders and rigged the rods and wade fished near a put in. The water we was fishing was a 4ft. deep run that emptied into a large pool. Throughout the run there were some “lanes” that were between the grass that there were some fish. I fished throughout most of those and then decided to wade down along the shore and then cut across to fish the big pool from behind. Around this time(5:00pm) the fishing was starting to turn on and fish started rising. after a few casts with a walts white popper i landed this one!
After a few more casts i was able to land this nice 7″ smallmouth bass on the walts white popper.
I was landing some smaller fish and having more rise but mostly bluegills. I figured that the popper was not interesting the big smallmouth that i knew were in this pool because of some really nice underwater features that i saw such as a big under water ledge! I tied on a shenks white streamer and casted it upstream and stripped it down. Had one big hit but no hookups after 15mins. I figured i would try a walts blue slider. I had been getting some small smallmouth bass and some bluegill. Then I saw this big smallie rising every few minutes so i waited a bit and then cast the slider upstream and started stripping. Strip…..Strip…..Strip…..SET!!!!! the fish was on and he raced upstream but was not getting very far because i was fishing an 8wt. Then he raced down stream and i pulled him in more. Next run he went upstream again and into weeds. This is when i could really use the 8wt to muscle him out of the weeds. Then he ran downstream jumping several times. Now i just put the pressure on him and brought him in.
(not the best shot)
Well after that i had some other decent fish rise for the slider but no solid hookups. We decided to wade back so we could go back to the cabin in time for dinner. It was just such a great time fishing the Shenandoah river. This was a very different smallmouth trip than i usually do because if often fish the Potomac river.
This is all for now. Hopefully there will be some fly patterns by the end of the day today.
The Barbless Hook 