Fishing Report

Arrived at noon, sunny morning, soon blanketed by heavy clouds for the rest of daylight. Pre-Christmas snow of 16-18” mostly gone. Strong rains during Dec-early Jan long had the river very high, eventually dropping to 151s cfs, and at 159 cfs on this fishing day. Air up to 46-48 F today, water <40 F. Brownish filamentous alga cloaked river stones; Didymo not detected. Anticipated midge hatch didn’t happen; a few adult midges noted aflight; a medium-size stonefly in flight seemed to have come off the river; one tiny baetid dun afloat. Five sips or itsy-splashy rises noted, probably rather small fish. Fish generally not in evidence, notably by the cabin where I had ample looks through the water and made numerous good casts likely before any fish that may have been present was disturbed.

Fished a nymph singly for 2.0 hr in Pine Row area, and for 1.0 hr about the cabin flat and in the deep run and shallow west bank of lower Beetletree Lane; quit at 1630 hr. Had 3 takes: 1 of ~10” lost, an 8" Rainbow and a 13" Brown landed; fish fight was weak in such cold water. No trout were caught by two other anglers in the upper short section I fished.

Fishing just three hours seems insufficient reward for a three-hour round trip from Salem, but it was good to get on-river, my first time since late Nov.

Anke and I visited the Special Reg area of Smith River Sunday, Nov 8. Anke said, as has been said many times before; if I don't catch a trout today I'll never come back to this place.

After seeing just a trickle of water during off-generation periods all year we were pleasantly surprised to see that the water flow was just about perfect. So was the weather and though we did not see many insects coming off and not many rises the trout would take BWOs early to mid afternoon below the Trestle pool. Another fly-fisher said he had been catching trout on a sulfur pattern. Around 4:30, as the sun started to settle, the Mirror pool started to come alive with steady sipping, probably taking spinners.

No more strikes on the BWO pattern, my spinner box was in the car, and we were ready to leave, but we had had a good day. I guess we will always come back to the Smith River. Hans

Smith River Fishing Report, May 19, 2009 - Hans Loberg

It never fails, - you can always tell when the late afternoon, early evening, Sulfur hatches are on at the Smith River in Henry county; - they pretty much coincide with the Philpott dam schedule change, by the Corps of Engineers, to start generation at 12 noon and ending at 8pm!

Well, Anke and I headed down today, Tuesday, May 19, to see if anything was happening in morning, until 1:30pm, when the water level would come up.

On the way to the river, Anke fell and broke her wrist, so she could not fish. She had to sit on a rock with her hand in the cold water to keep the swelling down. The fishing was lousy anyway....

Hans

Jackson River, Smith Bridge-Falling Spring, 6-8 Mar 2009 (Fri-Sun) — Bob Jenkins

Sights and songs of the weekend affirm spring has sprung, attuned to a major rise in temperature, following Tueday’s low of about 20°F. Harbingers included calling by Spring Peepers, Carolina Wrens, Phoebes, and Titmouses; Honeybees gathered on just sprouted Crocus. Likely northward migrants were Black Duck, Bluewinged Teal, and a Common Merganser. Some 100 Canada Geese fertilized some pools. Although fields and woods along the Jackson tailwater remained brown, snow of the previous weekend had fully melted, and buds of certain bushes and trees were swollen. Forsythia had begun to bloom by Monday morning in Salem. Weather in Covington and the entire Jackson River tailwater usually parallels that of the Roanoke Valley, whereas Hot Springs above Moomaw Lake tends about 10°F cooler.

Phenology concerns natural calendars. It’s the study of timing of natural events, of periodic plant and animal life-cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate (Wikipedia). In my series of fishing reports to the Roanoke Valley Chapter of TU starting in 2006, records of trout-food activity are dated and sometimes coupled with flowering of plants, serving as rough keys for anticipating hatches.

Which of several reaches to fish was again mused. Three were decided upon but as often happens, much time astream was taken with recon, wading without fishing to learn the distribution of habitats. Hence I didn’t divert from the 1.0 rivermiles (rm) from the mouth of Falling Spring Creek down to the (New) Smith Bridge (NSB) and the contiguous downstream 0.4 rm from NSB to Old Smith Bridge (OSB). Except for the too short public access at OSB, this reach is privately owned; posted signs have been lacking but new ones are up. Still I could fish it as an associate member of the new Jackson River Flyfishing Club.

River clear, low, 100 cfs as in months before and through the weekend (acc. to USGS website, despite another angler thinking the river had risen slightly on Sat). The three days were occasionally windy; mostly sunny, some partly cloudy or hazy, but still warm, almost hot (!) on Saturday afternoon; nights were mild. Highs, or the range of air and water temperatures (°F, at 1630 h on Fri; 1130 and 1500 h on Sat; and 1045 and 1630 h on Sun) were respectively: 74 and 50.2; 76 to 83, and 49.1 to 53.7; 71 to 80, and 50.3 to 53.0. Didymosphenia generally seemed absent, rarely a small piece drifting; it was common in a small, shallow, rapid area, forming small clumps (not mats) atop very rough-surfaced rocks.

Good trout habitat is limited between the OSB and NSB, and somewhat so from the NSB to Falling Spring Creek. Much substrate is outcropping, rough-edged bedrock (“ripplerock”). Some large areas are shallow flats, and one large and mostly shallow “pool” was dominantly floored by sand and gravel. Good to excellent habitat which during previous visits yielded notable fishing success produced well on the current visit. But even in some other good-looking areas there were no risers and I had no take. However, my experience especially in the usually trout-abundant Natural Well vicinity is that during no-hatch and no-beetle-drop times, fish tend much less revealed and thus at best, little is indicated of the actual population — cursory inventory can provide worthless data on the trout population. And, perhaps certain “fishless” deep or large-structure areas are resided mainly or only by one or more large Browns...

Rising was limited to much localized sipping at least mainly midges; many spots seemed right for rising but had none. Exceptionally, 10–12 fish steadily rose in the small area of a pool tail and contiguous slow run; only one of them could be fully seen, of 14–15” and head-and-tailing; the scene was too cool to disturb so I didn’t fish it. Adult small to tiny midges were sparsely aflight and often seemed absent. A 10-min “burst” hatch of Early Brown Stonefly (see below for emergence; see Roanoke River report 3–6 Jan 2009 for color description) happened on Saturday at OSB, one to a few flies aloft at a time. One day a few baetid duns lifted off and I pickled one (#19). A few looks at undersides of riffle rocks showed dense populations of very small (early instar) mayfly nymphs.

I was on-stream for 17¾ hr, in mid to late Fri afternoon and from late morning to early dusk on Sat and Sun, including much habitat recon and note-taking. Each day’s departure of the river had sufficient light to ease the major river-edge walkout around slick boulders (to avoid repeat of up-to-neck dousing in early Feb ’08). Two evenings included trudging the road to my parking place, and bush-whacking the other evening.

Fished a 5-wt and 5x. Nymphed the whole time as when starting each day, no risers were obvious; trying to cover the full reach, time was saved by not rerigging for intermittent dryfly midging. Nearly all fishing was by double-nymphing in tandem (not “dropper”) — AnatoMay nymph at point, Nitro Caddis pupa above (rig soon lost to a tree); AnatoMay at point and Isonychia nymph above; and Creek Grubb at point, Iso above. These flies or my presentations were scorned by risers; they halted their business. But hey, only one rig in a tree for the three days, no breakoff, no wind knot!

Catch was modest, 20 fish landed overall —16 Rainbows, mostly 9–11”, the largest being 14” and spent; 3 Browns of 13” and 1 of 11”. Fish fought better on average than equal-size fish in the colder water of the previous week.

Early Brown Stoneflies — During earlier 2009 and recent years, from noting adults of the moderate-size Early Brown Stoneflies aflight over streams, crawling about stream banks, and alighting on anglers, I’ve been curious whether the nymphs emerge (“hatch”) from the surface of streams, rendering the adults readily available to fishes and useful to imitate. To transform to adults, nymphal (larval) stoneflies, order Plecoptera, are generally thought to first crawl onto dry land, emerged rocks, and bridge foundations. Seeming too firm a declaration, Voshell (A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America, 2002) stated: “All stonefly larvae must crawl out of the water to transform into adults.” In Season’s First Stoneflies, Mason (Fly Rod & Reel, Apr 2009), parroted that “…stonefly nymphs don’t ascend through the water column…” Whereas Schwiebert, in his new two-volume, intensively detailed Nymphs, may have been cautious; the Plecoptera chapters have nothing about habitat of stonefly emergence.

If the topic of stonefly emergence is broached at all (often it’s not in relevant treatises), most magazine articles and fishing books state that it happens upon exiting water. I’ve doubted that many such blanket statements apply to all genera or species of the group/s addressed, partly because much of this literature seems based without verification (nor credit) on earlier general statements. Many statements about aquatic insects are too broad, founded on careless observation, or baseless.

During Saturday’s brief early afternoon burst-hatch (see above), Blane Chocklett and I watched numerous medium-small stoneflies flying upward over midriver and heading to land; Blane caught one and I pickled it. We saw some of them take flight from the surface. On Sunday mid afternoon I observed three stoneflies, the approximate size of Saturday’s flies, flying above the river well away from any bank; at least one had flown off the water. A fourth was spotted on the surface in a shallow near-shore area, with wings abuzz and “running” or scuttling toward shore; it climbed atop a partly emerged rock, quickly reentered the water surface, and resumed toward shore, until I intercepted it for the always ready collecting vial.

Both preserved adults key to family Taeniopterygidae, which includes Early Brown Stoneflies; one adult is clearly a Taeniopteryx, the other of a different genus not presently identifiable by me.

Water-surface emergence of individual stoneflies may not preclude on-land emergence by others of the same species. And, nymphs bent on land-emerging may be available to fish during movement toward shore. Keen observations of our aquatic insects and responses to them by trout are needed.

Field notes — My writing of fishing reports seems becoming more detailed. This report marks the first for which I made notes in the field.

Stretching; wading staff — With advancing age (69), reduced locomotor balance, and mild osteopenia, I’ve become cautious of falling. Stretching arms, legs, and trunk before fishing helps to attain comfort and maintain upright posture. So too does my increasing dependence on a wading staff, especially for traversing cobble and boulder fields. My Folstaff was lost or stolen in 2007; the Joseph staff broke in 2008; and now my Simms staff can become unjointed in use owing to a fault with the in-tube cable. I’m considering another Folstaff.

Logistics — America’s Best Value Motel in se. Covington has ample-size rooms with one queen bed, alllowing floor space for spreading flylines to dry overnight; TV reception sucks.

Musky — A 42”, 47 lb, very deep-bodied Musky was landed and released in James River near Gala (above Eagle Rock) the previous week; the weight indicates a prespawning female. Fishing was mainly for Smallmouth Bass, none caught.

As usual I’d been scoping 7- and 10-day weather forecasts in The Roanoke Times and on The Weather Channel. Thursday looked opportune, air temperature to be in the high 50s or low 60s and rain possible only late in the day. Weather projections for following days were iffy or worse. And I hadn’t fished in three weeks and then only briefly (and poorly). So after working some in morning and recalling the Cash and Carter song Go’n to Jackson, I headed north. I anticipated hatching of midges and maybe baetid mayflies, thinking it might be too early for emerging caddisflies.

Debating during the drive about where to fish, the start of hatching of any particular species of aquatic insect is apt to happen in the lower tailwater because it warms soonest; too, the lower section probably has the most diverse invertebrate fauna. Instead I opted for an upper tailwater reach at Natural Well where I and others have much more experience and often good success; partly I wanted further info for comparison with other reaches and seasons.

Arriving at 1115 hr, 3♂ and 3♀ Hooded Mergansers lounged on a much emerged, large midstream rock, fleeing upriver as I approached the bank. Water was clear and low (99 cfs), much lower than flow for the same date averaged over many years of dam operation. Air was 55 and water cold, 41.1 F (5.1 C) at 1120 hr, and 56 and 43.9 F (6.6 C) at 1715 hr pre-dusk. Heating of the river by 3.2 F (1.8 C) occurred with exposure over the 3.3 rivermiles of flowing from Moomaw Dam to Natural Well Bridge. Sky mostly overcast, sun rarely peeking. Air temperature remained mild into dusk owing to partly shrouding clouds. Didymo was thankfully scarce, mainly as mats only on some bedrock in fast water. Much of the bottom had a brown floc; some mostly dead filamentous algae was common.

Small to tiny midge species were hatching next to the parking area; pupae and empty shucks were aplenty; adults of the largest and more common species had a very narrow, black body of fly-size ~#20. The one mayfly seen was a ~#16 dun, probably Baetis. No caddis and stoneflies were observed.

Thinking to skip fishing by the parking area as I saw no rise, I rigged a 4-wt with a #16 Olive Nitro Caddis pupa as the in-line upper fly and a #16 dark AnatoMay nymph at point, 5x tippet. During 1145-1530 (3.75 hr, partly spent line-greasing in a field) I fished a ~200-m stretch whose lower end is just above the pine row, this stretch being the middle to upper two-third of the first major pool-like run plus the next upstream run-riffle. Obvious while approaching via a field, a fair frequency of rising by numerous fish was on; apparently they were eating midges, which held until ~1400 hr. Despite the rising, I went with the sunken flies as they were already rigged and I was curious whether risers would take them. They worked well so I stuck with the originally tied-on flies all afternoon. No fly breakoff happened; I once retied the point fly owing to tippet abrasion. The Nitro was durable, the nymph lost several of its parts but took the last fish, a very fine one.

Thirteen trout were landed, others lost, in the ~200 m; all captors were wild (as for the whole tailwater) and released — 11 Rainbows of 9–13” (mostly 11–12”), and 2 Browns, 16” and 18”. Eight of them took the AnatoMay. No dinky trout were caught. I was thrilled! Far better results than my early Feb outing to the Jackson when in 3 hr only 1 fish was hooked.

Returning to fishing by the parking area and working downstream ~200 m during 1600-1645 hr, very few midges were aflight, no rise was seen, and no take happened. I considered that this unusual situation might owe to predation by mergansers, but they couldn’t eat trout larger than 6”; too, the ducks’ rest rock had very little poop on it, evidence of transient occurrence.

Reentering the river to the fast riffle at the head of Bridge Pool, both spots having often fished well, during 1650-1700 hr I saw no risers and had no takes in both places nor in the westside run entering the pool, until I was about three casts from quitting. On drifting the nymph through a shallow part of the run, just below a bankside deep eddy, the indicator twitched; hooked and landed was another 16” Brown — a fitting way to end fishing before dusk.

Considering all hooked fish, fighting stamina was weakish to moderate, perhaps reflecting cold water. Equal-size fish hooked in slightly warmer water of mid and late afternoon seemed to have the most vigor.

This was a banner afternoon, my best day ever of landing really nice-sized, wild Brown Trout, and Rainbows greatly contributed to the sport. All 3 Browns were carefully measured relative to the 16” inner edges of the hoop of my Grateful Dead net — lengths weren’t upped from a ½-inch category. They were handsomely, deeply colored, flanks very golden to yellow, the sides with red-orange general hue or much red-orange spotting; the 18” Brown had a mostly red-orange tail. All were well-built but not robust, not deep-bodied. When on-line well away, one could tell they were Browns especially by that shade of the back. Rainbows when online in the river can often be perceived as Browns by the yellowish glint of the sides at certain angles.

Why such great fishing? Fish were distributed among riffles, runs, and pools, and were closely spaced in some places. Many spots housing fish that took, including shallow to moderate runs where the Browns were hooked, were not especially appealing habitat. Many fish were on the bite, despite cold water, and weren’t locked-on to midges. Casting practice helped, learning to accurately (sometimes not) cast and properly drift flies using reach casts and aerial and surface mending. Still, numerous bites probably weren’t perceived as my on-leader take-detector, a short piece of decored orange flyline, was almost always sunken or distant from the flies. “Strike” indicator often is a misnomer, when takes are not overt.

The day had an indecent number (3) of unintentional foul-hooking. A Rainbow was hooked in white tissue on the side of an eyeball. Another was pierced through the skin just behind a shoulder girdle. The 18” Brown was hooked in a pectoral fin near the base of the strong leading ray. None of these fish bled; they departed the net in haste.

The case of the 18” Brown was bizarre. Drifting the nymph from a somewhat long cast to a 2-ft deep run, a ~6” apparently rising Rainbow was hooked, felt to be small, and was so judged when briefly seen on-line alone. A few seconds later the line slackened as it moved obliquely upstream toward me. Tightening, weight and strength were felt, and eventually I saw the Brown with about half the Rainbow extended from its maw. The Brown continued upstream for about a minute; next the Rainbow vanished, the Brown still on, suddenly resisting much more strongly as it wasn’t mouth-hooked (and could freely gill-breath). It surged downstream twice and further doggedly fought. I interpret the following. The Rainbow probably was loosely hooked in a jaw; struggling enticed the likely nearby Brown to grab it; it escaped both hook and Brown; whereupon the leader appressed the Brown and the dropper fly stuck its pectoral fin. Okay, foul-hooked, but the 18” Brown surely would have taken the fly had not the upstart Rainbow done so…

Long ago while fishing I had two other unusual instances of sizeable fish taken by Brown Trout. Fishing a small stream near Cornell University in 1967, I saw a 15” Brown grab a ~6” White Sucker; the sucker writhed and escaped; immediately I threw a nymph to the Brown, which grabbed it; the pool had lots of log cover so I applied the butt of the cane rod, which broke at the lower ferrule; the Brown was hand-lined in and made breakfast, and the rod was repaired a few years later by the Uslan Company. In middle Barbours Creek ca. 1980, dead on the bottom was an extremely emaciated, long-jawed 17” Brown with a 13” Brown stuffed head-first through the oral and pharyngeal cavities, such that breathing by both fish was impossible; both fish apparently were wild; the larger fish surely was hungry, but that a such emaciated fish could catch and so swallow an only somewhat shorter fish in seeming good condition is notable. Both fish appeared fresh-dead, preserved by early spring cold water, so they were cooked; the smaller fish was fine fare; the first (last) bite of the larger one was spit out!

Gravel and cobble continue to be bulldowsed from a shoal in the Jackson and piled high on the adjacent bank at Natural Well, despite that the landowner knows the illegality of this practice and my telling him the deleterious ecological effects. At least, the head of the connected pool has become excessively sandy and silted; the downstream reach probably will degrade.

Fished ~3 hr within noon to 1730 hr; also sampled drifting bugs and chatted with another angler and a local fellow checking whether I had permission to fish the reach. Sunny day; river low (101 cfs), crystal clear, cold, ice at pool margin. Lake Moomaw must be at or below the temperature of maximum density, ~39 F (~4 C); where I fished, water was 39.4, 43.1, and 44.1 F at 1200, 1600, and 1730 hr; air rose from 54 to 64, dropping to 49 F, at 1200, 1600, and 1800 hr.

Only bugs on water were, sparsely, small midges (chironomids); 1 adult, 2 pupae, and several pupal shucks were collected. Only one or two rises seen. Only one take perceived, on a #12 rootbeer Creek Grubb, the pretty 12” Rainbow landed. Stubbornly I fished entirely this weighty caddis imitation, in riffles, runs, and pools; I should have tried other flies. But it was nice to be on river for a relatively warm afternoon.

Roanoke River, eastern Salem DHS, 2 Feb 2009 (Mon) — Bob Jenkins, Isaac Coffey

Another brief visit (no fishing), the day after a 60 F day. Today the air reached 54 F, before rapidly turning cold in late daylight, and water was 43.3 F at 1630 hr. Collected small to tiny, pupae and adults, of midges, mostly the same types as in the last few weeks, the larger of these being a ~#32, having a mostly olive abdomen, gray to black thorax, gray to black legs, and clear and pale gray wings. Also collected 3 adrift Sulphur nymph instar exuviae (shucks) – these bugs are growing toward April-May emergence!

Today’s visit was a brief check of the river (no fishing), partly as the last two days were relatively warm, with air temperatures in the low 60s (Fri) and mid-50s F, whereas about the previous two weeks were moderately to very cold. Today was cold, air 41, water 42 F in late daylight; water clear, low-normal. Some midge shucks were adrift in a backwater (perhaps left yesterday by emergers), and an angler reported few rises, and had caught a few Rainbows on sunken, larger flies. He and a few other recent anglers reported little fight by the fish; this probably is related to low water temperatures.

Roanoke River, eastern Salem DHS, 3–6 Jan 2009 (Sat–Tue) — Bob Jenkins

Sat — In late afternoon I stopped to look along the upper one-third of the e. Salem DHS, seeing quite frequent rises — essentially continuous rising, mostly sipping, apparently to midges, in the slower part of the run leading into Rope-Swing Pool and for ~50 m into slow upper parts of the pool, not quite down to the rope swing. These fish were spurning medium and small midges being cast to them by a skilled fellow who in some previous days had good success in catching fish, some up to 2.5-3.0 lb. I vowed to give it a try the next day.

Sun–Tue — I had slight fishing success in the three days, only on Sunday, despite continued much rising to midges in the short area noted above. Some risers probably were in the 15-20” range. Scouting most of the DHS, I saw no rise elsewhere, as also reported by other anglers. I fished a total ~6 hr in afternoons (clear to partly cloudy sky, air 55-61 F; water 45-46 F, low, clear). I had only two takes from risers, both on 7x, both on Sunday, both on a ~#22 (short shank/wide gap) midge — grayish, slightly sparkly body, short CDC-puff wing, tailless, no-hackle. Landed one riser, a 12" Rainbow, and landed another 12” Rainbow on a nymph in the medium-fast part of the first run above Rope-Swing Pool.

During these three days other flyfishers pounded the risers, but I didn't see anyone catch one or hear of takes (I asked widely), except for the skilled angler noted above, who had 3 takes on midges. I saw two of the takes; one was on a tiny live midge impaled to an artificial midge fly; I’d bet that movement of the stuck fly elicited the take! Another angler had good success by fishing nymphs/pupae in riffles and runs, landing 10 Rainbows on Sunday and 11 on Monday. I believe that having the outer one-foot of tippet sunk and lacking microdrag are much of the key to catching the midging fish.

For many days up to late hours of 6 Jan, Roanoke River was low, although flowing well at 50-60 cfs. Rain (which was needed) on 6-7 Jan rose the river to 2000 cfs and rendered heavy turbidity, so there’s no fishing for awhile. Looking forward to the March stocking, which last year was mostly or all Browns.

Insect collecting—On Monday in early afternoon I collected small to tiny midges (chironomids) adrift on and in the surface film to 4” below, by a small fine-mesh net, and preserved them in 80% ethanol. Empty translucent, pale tan shucks, others mostly light gray-banded, were abundant in a run and backwaters, and black ones were less common; surface-adrift adults were common; relatively few pupae were caught, likely because of sampling only the surface and just below. Most adults when adrift were quiescent but some of them and pupae wiggled slightly, slowly. Some adults were snared with its glassy mostly clear pupal shuck attached posteriorly. The most common adult midges had a pale olive abdomen (flies described under 2 Feb 09); uncommom minute, thinner-bodied adults had a black bod and legs. Collected from climbing on an angler’s jacket while standing on a bank was a #13 stonefly adult: head and thorax blackish; abdomen brown(wide)-and-pale(narrow) banded; legs dark gray; and wings clear, black-veined.

River low-normal, 56 cfs, very clear, 46 F; sunny day, up to 62 F. Fished 2.5 hr during mid-afternoon in the riffle-run leading into Take-A-Number Pool, through this pool, and all of Picnic Pool and its upper riffle-run, having only one take and landing the 10” Rainbow, on a #16 Anato May nymph at point (while having a bright green-bodied, dun soft-hackle fly in-line above). No other trout were seen, despite looking hard under good conditions of visibility; no rise was seen despite midges being aflight (sparsely). Now about three months after the early Oct stocking, few trout seem to reside in the GHP DHS, the population being quite depleted, having emigrated and/or been poached-out. Perhaps Brown Trout would show greater fidelity to the park reach, as seemingly occurred in winter and spring 2008, additionally so in the eastern Salem DHS.

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