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Last Updated: October 21,
2009
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Date:
10-20-09
Time: 9:30 - 4:00
Water:
Clear
Water temp: 51
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 70
I got back to the SP2 trip, from
the State Park to Karo Landing. My last two trips were from
Karo to F.R.C.C.'s landing. I prefer fishing the SP2 trip, little
bit better fishing in my opinion. The water level was up just a
tad from the rain last week. I made the whole trip without having
to get my feet wet. Always a bonus when the water was a chilly 51
degrees. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to catch too
many fish, based on my last couple of trips and the cold water
temp. WelI I was wrong. The fishing was pretty
good. Didn't take too long to get my first bass, a
nice 14" smallmouth. I was using a #3 Mepps inline spinner
(gold blade). It turned out that was the only lure I
needed, all day. Throughout the day I tried different
lures, including several types of soft plastics. But the
spinner was the only thing that worked. However, I
did have one problem with the spinner. Algae. Although
the grass through this section is not as choked up as it was a few
weeks back, slimy nasty algae has moved in big time. I don't know
where it all came from, but its a total pain in the butt. I
had to pick it off my lure half a million times.
Darn near every cast. The big trick to
fishing yesterday was finding an algae free zone. But
like I said, the fishing was pretty good, so I'll just quit whining
about the swamp muck. I was fishing a very clear pattern
almost all day long, working the pools around the rocks. No luck
around the banks and not much luck on the flat areas unless I
was working the edge of a grass patch. The bite was so so in
the morning, not bad, and then it picked up a bit in the
afternoon. Size was good all day long, the
majority of the smallmouth were around a foot, a few a little
bigger. My best was 17". Didn't get a single bluegill all
day long. Didn't get any bluegill last week either.
What's up with that? Again, no complaints, 'cause I was
pretty happy with the fishing yesterday. Especially since my
last couple of trips have been a little bit on the slow
side. Topping off the good fishing, it was a nice warm
day. By noon I was down to shorts and t-shirt. Not a
soul on the river 'cept me and the smallies. Quiet and
beautiful. Doesn't get much better than that. If
you are fortunate enough to get out on the South Fork next week,
good luck with your fishing.
Ed T. Date: 10-13-09 Time: 9:30 - 3:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 60
Weather: Partly
sunny
Temp: 68
My friend Tom came out to try
some fall fishing yesterday. The river was the lowest its been
all year, so I decided to spare him dragging the canoe all day.
So we opted for the stretch from Karo to Front Royal Canoe's
landing. It was a fairly easy paddle, but the fishing was not
real good. The water is quite cold now, down to 60 at its warmest
point. I think that was the main reason the bite was so slow
yesterday. After weeks of good bluegill fishing, we didn't
catch a single one yesterday. Nada. We saw bluegill
swimming around, but they just weren't biting. The smallmouth
fishing was pretty slow as well. I caught a grand total of ten
bass yesterday and not a one was over a foot. We caught most
of our bass in the pockets around the rocks, working right at the
edge of the faster moving water. Moving water was the
key. We were using #3 Mepps inline spinners (gold
blade). I also managed to catch three suckers on the Mepps in a
little pocket right past a nice ledge we were standing on. Are
those things from this planet or what. They're so weird
looking. I also managed to catch a couple of
smallmouth bottom fishing some slow stretches with a 4" senko
(green pumpkin). When we got down to the deeper water just
up from F.R.C.C.'s landing, we saw all kinds of nice size smallies and
largemouth slowly swimming around, but we had no luck at all with
them. Just one of those kind of days you know. Slow
fishin', but still fun to be out on the river. No
complaints. We are at the point where the fish are slowing
down because the water temperature has dropped. Starting to think
about winter. Its a transitional period, so some days are good
some days are not so good. I heard some guys were out in the rain
and funky conditions last Saturday and had a pretty good day of
fishing. I'm sure there's still some good days of fishing left,
but this late in the game there's a good bit of luck involved.
Well, you know how I feel. Its hard to go wrong with a day on the
South Fork. I'll take another shot at it next week. Hope
you get a trip in this week and good luck wiith your fishing.
Ed T. Date: 10-6-09 Time: 9:30 - 2:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 65
Weather: Partly
sunny
Temp: 72
A nice cool fall day on the
South Fork of the Shenandoah. Well, all my joy at the higher
water level last week was rather short lived. The river dropped
back down faster than a Redskins' winning streak. Yesterday it
was back to the same shallow level it was two weeks ago. I was
feeling a bit lazy yesterday, not in a canoe dragging mood, so I
decided to do Karo Landing to the F.R.C.C.landing. First
time this year for that trip. The water level through
that stretch was a little better than my usual SP2 trip and not
as choked up with grass. The bluegill bite has slowed some
from what it was a few weeks back, but they were still hitting pretty
good. I caught most of my bluegill yesterday with a
Rapala Floating Minnow, F-9 (shad), twitching and short dives on the
retrieve. Must say, I caught some fairly big bluegill
yesterday. They were biting pretty steady all day. One
thing about fishing for bluegill, they're never timid about hitting a
lure. When they hit a lure, they hit it hard. I caught
about half my smallmouth on the Floating Minnow, about half on 4" Zoom
Dead Ringer worms (green pumpkin), Texas rigged on 1/8 oz.
weights. The smallmouth fishing started off real nice. I
was twitching the minnow near a trashpile just down from the Karo
rapids, near the right bank in shallow water.
Kawhomp!!! Nice big 18" smallmouth nails it right on the
top. Second bass of the day. Turned out it was sort of
a con job, 'cause the bass fishing was kinda slow the rest of the
day. I caught about a dozen bass over the next four
hours and none of the rest were over 14". The
smallmouth were somewhat scattered, couldn't see much of a
pattern. Worked the holes around the rocks, worked the trashpiles
along the banks. A fish here a fish there. Had to take them
where I could find them. Lots of searching around. After
noon I was mostly just working the holes with the worm, catching a
decent smallie every so often. In truth, not that bad of a
day. But not a real good day either. Not fishing wise
anyways. But it was so nice and pretty,
a warm fall day on the South Fork. Good for the
spirit. I caught enough fish to make it worthwhile. Anytime
the weather is half decent a trip on the river is fun. Its
peaceful and quiet and it puts my mind in the right place. I'm
already wondering about what I'll do for a substitute when
F.R.C.C. closes shop in a few weeks. For a nice fishing trip
without the summer crowds, now's the time to get out on the
South Fork. Good luck with your fishing.
Ed T. Date: 9-29-09 Time: 9:30 - 2:00 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 69
Weather: Partly sunny,
very
windy
Temp: 72
I fished the stretch from the
State Park to Karo Landing. Good news. The water level has come
up a lot, to the point where it was pretty easy to get down this part
of the South Fork. Not a single bit of canoe dragging
yesterday. The water is up over almost all of the grass as
well. Big improvemant in conditions. Only problem yesterday
was all the loose grass and debris floating in the water. But
that was mainly because the rain running out of the mountains had just
surged down through the river and stirred it all up. It will
settle back down in a few days and the water will clean up a lot.
But it was pretty bad yesterday. The water was so full of crap
that it was impossible to use search baits like a crankbait or a
spinnerbait. The minute the lure hit the water it would get
caught up in some trash. So I fished 4" Zoom Dead
Ringer worms (green pumpkin) on a 1/8 oz. split shot
rig. The bass were hitting the worm pretty well, bluegill
were hitting it fairly often too. I was fishing my usual
pattern, working the holes around the rocks. I was also fishing
the banks a good bit. The banks were producing smallmouth up to
fourteen inches. A lot of times I get mostly smaller bass when I
work the banks, but that certainly wasn't the case
yesterday. However, my best fish, a fifteen incher, was caught
out in the middle near some rocks. The bite in the morning
was a tad slow, but not bad. I was catching decent
size bass and bluegill and the fish were pretty
aggressive. So I was fairly satisfied. The only
problem, other than the trashy water, was the wind. It was pretty
fierce. About one o'clock the bite slowed way down. For the
next hour I wasn't catching squat. Normally I'd just light up a
cigar, settle in and wait for the bite to pick back up. But about
the same time the bite was slowing down the wind was picking
up. Getting ugly you might say, up to about twenty-five mile
an hour gusts. It was kicking my butt. I felt like it was
time to call it quits. With the wind at my back, thank
god, I paddled on down to F.R.C.C.'s landing and called it a
day. The fishing in the morning was pretty good, so I didn't
feel short changed or anything about having to get out a little
early. It had been a fun day. I almost always have a
good time on the Shenandoah. The river is up at a nice level
now and should remain reasonably high for the rest of the
season. The fishing was pretty good in September, so I'm figuring
its going to be good for the next month. In past years I've seen
some outstanding days during the fall season, so I've got my fingers
crossed. Next month is all
that's left, Front Royal Canoe Co. will close 'til next
April. So I hope you get out for a trip this week.
Good luck my friends.
Ed T. Date: 9-23-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 71
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 84
I did the SP2 trip again, from
the State Park to Karo Landing. The water level is pretty
low. I would have preferred to do a little less canoe dragging,
but I've seen it a lot worse. This stretch is really choked up
with grass. Combine the low level with the grass choke and you
get less than ideal conditions. But for me, the fishing made it
worth the effort. The bluegill are still biting like crazy.
The bluegill bite has been real good for weeks now. It wasn't
quite as hot yesterday as it was last week, but still darn good.
I wasn't getting many big ones yesterday. Most of them were small
to medium size, but I got a lot of them so it made for some fun
fishing. I was using the same lure I've been using for several
weeks now, a Rapala F-9 floating minnow (shad), twitching it and
keeping it on the surface most of the time. Good topwater
fishing. I also caught a few bluegill on soft plastic grubs and
worms. The smallmouth bite was pretty good as well. Not red
hot a bass every five minutes fishing, but they were biting
pretty steady all day long. I got a couple on the Rapala, but the
vast majority were caught using 4" worms (green pumpkin). Also
caught a few on 4" grubs (green pumpkin). I fished the worms and
grubs on a 1/8 oz. split shot rig ( weight above a swivel). The
split shot rig seems to get hung up less when there's lots of
grass. Although I caught bass along the banks and on the flats,
the best fishing was in the deeper holes around the rock ledges.
The big fish were usually lurking along the edges of the
grass. I would cast into a good hole, work it along the
bottom, then work it into the edge of the grass. A good
percentage of the smallmouth ran about ten to twelve inches, a
few thirteens and one fourteen. Around two
o'clock I cast the worm into a nice hole and got a hard
pullin' smallmouth. Within seconds it zipped off
and burrowed into the grass. I couldn't budge it at
all. So I paddled over, reached in, and pulled out a big
old wad of grass and bass. Well worth the effort, it was a
seventeen inch smallmouth. Best bass I've caught in weeks.
Good hot weather all day. And good
fishing. Caught quite a few by day's end. Just
can't beat a good trip on the South Fork. Only a little over
a month left before F.R.C.C. closes up for the winter, Good
time to get in some fall fishing. Good luck.
Ed T. Date: 9-15-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 73
Weather: Mostly
sunny
Temp: 82
Back on my usual stretch of the
South Fork, the SP2 trip from the State Park to Karo Landing.
I've spent the last month complaining about the low water level and the
grass choke through this stretch. Well, its still about the same
conditions, so be prepared to drag your canoe a few times and deal with
the grass best you can. If you like to fish, its worth it.
Like last week, the bluegill were knocking each other out of the way to
get to a Rapala Floating Minnow, a three and a half inch F9
(switching between a silver and shiner). Throw it out, twitch it,
and watch 'em go. I'd usually get about three or four little
splashes on it, small ones taking a run at it and missing.
Then a nice solid splash when a bigger bluegill would get a
piece of it. This is a real fun way to fish for bluegill
it and gets you some nice size fish. You can use other small
crankbaits, like a Crickhopper or a small Rebel-Craw, for this kind of
topwater twitching. Its maybe my favorite way to catch
bluegill. The smallmouth weren't cooperating as much as the
bluegill. Very slow bass fishing in the morning. Slowly
picked up and by about eleven I was catching a few on bottom fished 4"
worms, Zoom Dead Ringers (green pumpkin). Ended up fishing the
worm all day long. A few smallies hit the Rapala, but about 95%
fell to the worm. The bass bite got a little better as the
day went on, but it remained on the slow side. But at least I was
catching mostly decent size smallmouth. About half of them were
around 12". My best two were 16". My only pattern was
trying to find holes in the grass. The banks were fairly
productive, but a lot of the bigger fish came from closer to
the middle. Working the worm in the deeper flat areas and
along the grass line made for the best bass fishing. The
bluegill were just about everywhere, but particularly in the
deeper pockets around rocks. Some of the bluegill were even
hitting the worms. I didn't catch a whole lot of bass, but the
ones I did get were aggressive and hard fighting. They were
hitting the hook hard and pulling like a son of a gun. Some of
the foot long fish felt like they were lunkers 'cause they were pulling
so hard. And if they managed to bury up in the grass, look
out. I broke off on more than one. Between the good
bluegill fishing and the quality of the bass I caught, I had a
pretty good time. In spite of somewhat slow bass fishing, it
was another fun day on the South Fork. Warm, Indian Summer
kind of day. Of course, I hit some rain on the way home, which
throughly dirtyed up my beautifuly polished motorcycle. Oh
well. Not the first time that's happened. I'm
optimistic about the fall season. The fishing this year has been
quite good and I know for a fact the river is loaded with bass,
including more than a few lunkers. Hope you manage to get out on
the river this week and have a little fun. Good luck with your
fishing.
Ed T. Date: 09/09/09 Time: 9:30 - 5:00 Water:
Clear
Water Temp: 73
Weather: Overcast, partly
sunny
Air Temp: 75
Once again I fished the SP2
trip, State Park to Karo Landing. Low water level through this
stretch. Hopped out for a litlle canoe dragging a good ten or
twelve times. And don't get me started about the grass
growth. Whole big sections are choked. Most of the
challenge in fishing this part of the river was finding grass free
spots. That said, the fishing was pretty good. They were
biting all day long. I caught some good ones right off in
the park and it never slowed up. I caught most of my fish
with a Rapala F09 Floating Minnow (Shiner) - a 3 1/2" floating minnow
crankbait. I twitched it on the top, jerking it under for a
shallow little dive, then letting it float up to the
surface. Most of the time they hit it just after it
got back on top. Caught lots of big bluegill, lots of decent
smallmouth. I also did ok with Zoom Super Flukes (green pumpkin)
and 4" Cabin Creek tubes (green pumpkin) bottom fished on a 1/8 oz.
Texas rig. I didn't follow much of a pattern other than
looking for deeper spots with no grass. Kinda fished all over the
river. Nice little pockets near the banks were quite
productive. I got so many nice explosions right on the top, truly
fun fishing. The bluegill fishing was top notch. The
last time I was out two weeks ago the bluegill bite was real
hot. They had not slowed down a bit as of yesterday.
The Rapala was attracting the bigger bluegill and the best went
8". I caught a lot of smallmouth around 10-12", a few
13 and 14's, two 15 inchers. The bass were hitting hard and
aggressive. A solid day of fishing. Steady bite all day
long and lots of topwater action. If yesterday was any kind of
indicator, fishing this fall should be pretty fine. I saw
lots of eighteen inch or bigger bass cruising around. Didn't
get any big smallmouth yesterday, but they're out there. Sooner
or later... As the water gets colder, the bass will get hungrier
and more aggressive, fattening up for the winter. Don't miss
out. Good luck with your fishing.
Ed T. Date: 8-25-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 78
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 88
Summer is just about over.
Too bad, 'cause days like yesterday are magic. A pretty summer
day, the South Fork of the Shenandoah and a nice canoe
trip make a very special combination. I went down my
favorite piece of the river, that stretch between the State Park and
Karo Landing. If you read my reports the last few weeks, there's
no need to tell you how shallow it is. Wear some shoes you can do
a little canoe dragging with. The grass is a pain in the butt,
its all over the place. There's still plenty of places you can
fish, but there's also a lot of spots so choked up that finding a
grass free area is darned near impossible. A big part of
fishing this stretch involves finding the open areas of water.
The big surprise yesterday was the bluegill fishing. It was by
far the best bluegill fishing I've seen this year. Right off the
bat, I caught a bunch of them in the park using a #3 Mepps Aglia
inline spinnerbait (gold blade). And they just kept on
coming. The bluegill were biting hard all day long. I
caught bluegill all over the river, but really cleaned up around
the rocks. They were even hitting grubs and tubes. I caught
tons of bluegill yesterday, a fair portion of which were big enough to
feel right at home in a frying pan. I always enjoy good bluegill
fishing, and yesterday they were just punishing that spinner. The
bass fishing was nothing special, but not bad. Just typical
good summer bass fishing for this place. They were
hitting the #3 Mepps pretty well all day. I was also
using 3" grubs (green pumpkin) and 4" tubes (green pumpkin) on 1/8 oz.
weight, sometimes Texas rigged, sometimes jigheads. I would hit
an area with the spinner first, to get the more aggressive smallmouth,
then switch off and work it slowly with the soft plastic for the bottom
feeders. For the smallies, I think the soft plastics got
about one out of three. My usual pattern of working the slack
water around the rocks was working ok for the smallmouth, and working
killer for the bluegill. I also had good luck working the two to
three foot deep flat areas with the spinner. Some nice
aggressive bass were cruising the flats. I caught a pretty
fair number of smallmouth yesterday, but the size was certainly not
outstanding. Lots of small fish. the majority were ten
inches or less. I managed one decent bass, a little less than
seventeen inches, with the Mepps. My next biggest fish was
fourteen inches, and only a couple of bass were over twelve. I
caught a reasonable number of fish yesterday, but the size was a little
shy of what I like to see. It was a good day of fishing,
considerably better than my trip last week. The bluegill fishing
was a little slice of heaven. The weather was top notch. I
had a real good time on the river yesterday and I hope you can get out
and get your share of the fun. There's plenty to go around. In
parting, I will leave you with instructions on my personal
way to rig soft plastic lures. I use 8 pound mono line
on my reels. So... Tie on a small swivel.
Keeps the lure from twisting your line up. Tie a 10 pound
lead on the swivel, about 10 inches of leader. I finish it with either
a 1/8 worm weight and a worm hook, for a Texas rig, or I go with a
1/8 oz. jighead. Hook on whatever soft plastic lure seems
right for the occasion. For finesse fishing, I put the worm
weight on before the swivel, creating a split shot rig (like
a scaled down Carolina rig) instead of the Texas rig. Sometimes I
go with a small jig instead of a jighead. Many variations to
choose from. Good luck with your fishing.
Ed T. Date: 8-18-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 80
Weather: Hot 'n sunny,
showers after
three
Temp: 92
I did the Sp2 trip, fishing the
area between the State Park and Karo Landing. Its shallow through
this stretch now days. Had to drag the canoe through several
spots and there was a lot of grinding and rock and rolling to get
through quite a few other tight spots. Grass growth is
heavy, really choked up in some areas. We're at that point where
finding grass free areas becomes the key to getting some fish.
Its possible to fish through the grass, but its a whole lot less hassle
to fish the open spots. Morning fishing was so sloooowww
yesterday. It was very hot and I wasn't catching squat.
Only caught a few bass before noon. I was using 4"
grubs (green pumpkin) on 1/8 oz. Slider jigheads and 4" senkos (green
pumpkin). Caught mostly smaller fish, most all of them under
a foot. I was also caught a few bluegill on a #2 Mepps (gold
blade). Most of the fish I caught in the morning I got by fishing
the shadows next to the banks. I saw plenty of fish out in the
river and around the rocks, but they sure weren't biting. The
bite picked up a little bit in the afternoon. Slow fishing senkos
in the deeper spots started producing a few more fish. Size was a
little better as well, ocasionally getting twelve to fourteen inch
smallmouth. I worked the deep area out in front of the
houses for over an hour, slowly drift fishing the senko, and got
several decent bass. That big stump and trash pile next to
the bank and right in front of the houses gave me a good 15 inch
largemouth, my best bass up to that point. But it was still very
slow fishing. I wasn't getting a lot of fish and most of
them were ten inches or less. Hot sunny day, and it was good to
be out on the South Fork, but it certainly wasn't a banner day for
fishing. Around three o'clock a storm rolled in and it
started to sprinkle. Here's a tip. For some reason,
when it first starts raining, tie on a topwater. Nine out of ten
times you'll start getting hits. Especially the first five or ten
minutes after it starts raining. So I tied on a Zoom Super
Fluke (smokin' shad) and nailed a sixteen inch smallmouth just
down from the ledge by the twin islands. After the storm rolled
in the fishing picked up. It was still somewhat slower than it
was the last few weeks I've been out here, but it was reasonable.
I got some good bass with the fluke, but I had better luck
fishing 4" tubes (green pumpkin) on 1/8 oz. Slider heads. Both
lures were occasionally getting decent size 12 to 14 inch
fish. Overall, it was a rather slow day. I didn't catch a
whole lot of fish. The majority of my fish were small. But
that's fishing. Not every day is a winner. It changes every
day. Slow one day, red hot the next. If you know fishing,
you know a good part of it is luck of the draw. And the bottom
line is I had a good time out on the river
yesterday. Fishing has been good in the South Fork this
summer, so I'm not going to complain about one less than great
day. If you hit the South Fork this week, I'd say you stand
a reasonable chance of getting some fairly good fishing. My
only advice is that you'll probably have better luck with soft plastic
lures. The water is warm and the bass slow down. Go with
soft plastics and slow down. When the water is pretty warm,
it's hard to beat slow fishing on the bottom in the deeper
areas. If its bluegill you're after, go with small inline
spinners, ultralight crankbaits (like a Crickhopper), or good old
nightcrawlers. There's also plenty of catfish around. Saw a
big school of good size catties yesterday. Lots of fish in the
South Fork. Get out and catch a few. I'm looking forward to
hitting it again next week.
Ed T. Date: 08/12/2009 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water Temp: 80
Weather: Overcast morning, sunny
in the afternoon
Temp: 84
Once again I fished the SP2
trip, from the State Park to Karo Landing. This stretch of the
river is pretty shallow right now, but not bad for this time of
year. I had to drag the canoe through a few spots. Comes
with the territory. Lots of grass, some areas are choked.
Lots of loose grass in the water, constantly cleaning off lures.
I'm not complaining, these are normal summer conditions in the South
Fork and the overall situation is better than its been in years.
I hit the water with a light drizzle coming down, a good time to try a
topwater. Tied on a small spook, a 3" Heddon Zara Puppy (G-finish
Shad) and got several nice smallmouth, the best a nice fifteen
incher. The rain soon stopped, and so did the topwater
bite. Spent the rest of the day fishing 4" grubs (green
pumpkin). Most of the time I was fishing the grubs on 1/8 oz
Strike King Bitsy Bug Jigs (green crawfish), sometimes on 1/8 oz black
hair jigs. I was bottom fishing the jigs, just dragging them with
small hops along the bottom. Morning fishing was somewhat
slow, kinda typical. It improved as the day went on. The
bass weren't as concentrated around the rocks as they usually
are. Fishing around the rocks was still a good idea, but there
were lots of fish in the flat non-rocky areas as well. Fishing
the little clear strip next to the banks was also productive.
Fished it all, anywhere I could find grass free water.
Caught a fair amount of small bass, but about half my fish were right
around 12". Caught a few larger fish, several 14's and
15's. The bite improved in the afternoon. I started
throwing some 4" Berkley Power worms (green pumpkin) on 1/8 oz jigheads
and occasionally throwing the 4" grubs on jigheads instead of
jigs. In fact, my best bass for the day, a 16" smallmouth, hit a
grub on a a jighead. Caught her in a little pocket near
the bank. It was late in the day and a nice way to finish things
off. The fish were biting good the last couple of hours.
Typical summer fishing for the South Fork and the sort of thing that
has this old boy driving out here week after week. For some of
you not as bass fixated as me, there are lots of good sized
cafish. Saw 'em all over the place. Plenty of bluegill as
well. I caught a few bluegill on grubs and worms. Most
likely a small spinner or some nightcrawlers would catch plenty of
bluegill. Whatever kind of fish you're after, good luck with your
fishing. Get out to the South Fork and wet your line. It'll
put a smile on your face.
Ed T. Date: 8-04-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 79
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 90
Hot steamy day on the
Shenandoah. I did the Sp2 trip, State Park to Karo Landing.
Shallow summer level, lots of rock showing. I didn't have to get
out to drag the canoe but a couple of times, so it wsn't all that
bad. We're getting a lot of grass growing in some parts of
this stretch, and there's lots of grass floating in the water, but not
much of a problem in either case. As I said, it was pretty steamy
yesterday. But if you gotta be out in hot weather,
can you think of a better way than fishing a nice
river. The fishing was a little on the slow side. Not real
bad or anything, but not quite as good as it usually is. It was
really slow in the morning, got better as the day went on, but it
never really took off. From noon on, the bite was good enough, I
was catching a decent number of fish. But it wasn't as many as I
usually get on a typical summer day on the South Fork. Chalk it
up to the really hot temperatures the last couple of days. The
water temperature is fairly high as well. When the water
temperture gets high, and shallow and clear, soft plastics are usually
the best bet. I caught a few bass and a few bluegill on
spinnerbaits and crankbaits, but about 95% went for soft
plastics. I fished various soft plastics through the day, 4"
grubs, 4" Berkley Power Worms, Zoom Super Flukes, and Yum
Wooly Hawgtails. Most of my fish were caught with the
Hawgtail (green pumpkin) on a 1/8 oz. split shot rig. The
Hawgtail is another "creature" bait, somewhat resembles a
crawdad. Found them at K-Mart. Get that sucker down on
the bottom and reel it in pretty slow like a Carolina Rig. A
good way to go for slow summer fishing. I worked my usual
patterns, fishing the slow water around rocks and the deeper
pools. The deeper water seemed to be the best
bet. The best fishing yesteday was in the deep area in
front of the houses, especially the area out from the little
stone wall. I fished that area real slow for quite a good little
while. Managed to nail a nice 18" smallmouth with the
Hawgtail. Later in the afternoon I caught a nice 17"
smallmouth while tossing flukes just below that big set of rapids
a bit upriver of the twin islands. Those were my two biggies for
the day. Most of the rest of my fish were all kinds of
sizes, from sardines to a fair number of ten to twelve inch bass to a
few twelve to fifteens. Pretty much ran the whole range in
size. All in all, not the best day I ever had on the South fork,
but certainly not half bad either. I didn't catch
the numbers I usually get, but I managed to get a couple
of fairly large smallmouth. For the most part I
consider any bass over fifteen inches a bonus this time of year, 'cause
its usually a bit harder to get the big ones in the summer.
But this summer has been outstanding in that respect. I caught a
real lunker last week and two fairly large bass yesterday. And
I'm seeing lots of very big bass cruising around. I'm also
seeing quite a few big catfish in the deeper holes. I saw a
couple of catfish yesterday that I thought were large carp 'til I got a
better look at them. Lots of big fish in the river, lots of
oppurtunity to get big smallmouth even now in the summer. My
tip for the big ones - fish soft plastics or jigs on the
bottom. And the big tip - slow down. Don't be in a
hurry. Take your time and fish slow. More often than not
that's one of the keys to good summer fishing. Final and most
important tip - fish as often as you can. Therein lies the
true key to success. Or to happiness. Either way,
hope you get out on the South Fork during the upcoming week.
Nothing like a summer day on the river.
Ed T. Date: 7-28-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 78
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 88
Well guys, I finally got back in
the Shenandoah yesterday, after a 9,300 mile motorcycle ride out
west. Saw a lot of beautiful rivers out there, but the South Fork
sure did look sweet. So good to be back. Last time I was
here, about a month ago, the river was still up pretty high. Not
anymore. We are at summertime water level now, lots of rocks
showing. Belly button level or less through most of the river.
I did the SP2 trip, from the State Park to Karo
Landing. Its a fairly shallow stretch of the South Fork,
but the fishing makes it worth it. It wasn't that bad
yesterday, I had to get out and drag the canoe over rocks a couple of
times. That's not bad. The water level is better for
this time of year than I've seen it for the last few years. There
was a surprising amount of loose grass floating in the water, but
not enough to cause any cussing on my part. There's also a pretty
good crop of star grass growing in the lower end of this section, just
above Thunderbird Farm, but again, not enough to be a
problem. The fishing started out pretty slow in the
morning. I only caught a few fish during the first couple of
hours. I was getting most of them on a 4" senko (green
pumpkin), fishing it pretty slowly, mostly just drifting it on the
bottom. Also caught one or two bass and a few
bluegill on a #3 Mepps inline spinner (gold blade). Got
one 15" largemouth in the first creek on the senko. Most of the
bass were small, a couple were up to a foot. Not bad
fishing, just a little slow. I was fishing my preferred
pattern, working the slack water around the rocks for the most
part. After a couple of hours I decided to try fishing the banks
with a 4" Yamamoto grub (green pumpkin) on a black 1/8 oz.
jighead, rigged open hook. Your classic grub on a
jighead. I started getting smallmouth pretty good that way,
working the banks. So I flipped the grub out into the middle
of the river, and got a bass on the first cast. Not bad! I
was in a shallow ( about two foot deep) area just in front of the
first midriver island. Cast the grub a couple of more
times. Wham, an outstanding 21" smallmouth. On a grub
in shallow water. A complete fluke, catching a big smallmouth
like that in shallow flat water. In over fifteen years of fishing
the South fork, that was only
the second smallmouth over twenty inches I've caught. So I
fell in love with the grub and relied pretty heavy
on it for the next few hours. The fishing picked up a little
in the afternoon. I was catching a lot of little guys, but also
getting a decent number of ten and twelve inch bass, one or two
that went thirteen or fourteen. I also started using a Zoom Super
Fluke (green pumpkin) and getting a few bass on the top. At about
three o'clock the bite got pretty good, I was getting bass at a
good clip and more of them were in the ten to twelve inch range.
I switched off to mostly throwing a 4" Berkley Power Hawg
(pumpkinseed), a "creature" bait, Texas rigged w/ 1/8
oz. Put it down on the bottom and slowly drag it along, real good
crawdad imitation. Last couple of hours with the Power Hawg was
some real fine fishing. A super nice day on the river.
Hot sunny day, beautiful day on the Shenandoah. Caught one of the
biggest smallmouth I've ever caught. Heck of a
nice welcome back to the South Fork. If you've never fished
the South Fork you just have no idea how much fun you're
missing. If you have fished it, all I can say is you need to
get your butt back out here. 'Cause there's some good fishing
going on out here this summer. See you next week.
Ed T. Date: 6-23-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water: Light
stain
Water temp: 75
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 84
Summertime fishing, what can I
say? Pretty darn hard to beat. I did the SP2 trip, State
Park to Karo landing. The river was still a bit higher than
normal, but the lowest I've fished it in several weeks. Still a
fair amount of grass floating in the water, gotta clean your lure off
fairly often. Pretty good conditions for nice fishing and yet
still easy to get down the river. The fishing was good all day
long. Caught a pretty fair number of bass and bluegill all the
way down the river and for a short period of time, in the afternoon,
the bite went into overdrive. I started out fishing a Strike King
Mini-King spinnerbait ( chartreuse body, modifed with a gold
blade). I was also using a 4" Cabin Creek tube on a 1/8 oz. Texas
rig, but throwing the spinner most of the time. I was getting
lots of nice size bluegill and a fair number of smallmouth. Most
of my bass yesterday were good medium size bass, most were around
11 or 12 inches. Didn't catch as many small fish as I did
the last few weeks. I was fishing my usual patterns, working the
slack water around the rocks, occasionally working the banks with the
tube. The fish were active and aggressive. The big bluegill
pulled like a miniture freight train and the smallmouth were really
clobbering the spinner. So many smallmouth came to the top
and did their little air time and tail dancing. Good, steady
fishing through the morning. I fished the creek across from the
houses and managed to get one 15" largemouth. Got her right at
the mouth of the creek, no luck up further. Didn't have much luck
fishing the deep areas in front of the houses with the tube
either. Mostly just getting fish around the rocks with the
spinner. About two o'clock I started fishing the tube in
some of the deeper holes near the ledges and started to score
some good sized bass. In one little hole I took out a
14, a 15, and a 16" smallmouth in about fifteen or twenty
minutes. Very nice! I was fishing the tube real slow, just
put it in the hole and just let it drift around. The bass really
inhaled the tube, it was way down in their gut and pretty hard to
extract with the needle nose pliers. Anyway, from that point on I
fished the tube most of the time, switching to the spinnerbait only
when I felt like catching a few bluegill. For about the next hour
and a half, I could do no wrong with the tube. It's hard to beat
soft plastic when it's working right. Lots of nice bass, a lot of
them a foot or better, three more went 15". Next to the twin
islands, right up in the little hole to the right side of the right
island, I nailed a really nice bass, a big old honker. It hit the
tube right on the drop. Came out of the water with a nice big
leap. I got a short look at her, and she snapped that line off in
a flash. Forget the drag, it was over in a heartbeat. Score
one for the bass. Beautiful. For some reason, it
seemed like that was kinda the end of the game. The fishing
seemed to slow down a bit after I missed that big one. I
caught fish, mostly with the tube, for the rest of the afternoon,
but it was a little slower bite and the size dropped down just a
bit. The rest of the afternoon was pretty much your average
summer fishing on the South Fork. Which, as I've said many a
time, is nothing to sneeze about. Everyday average fishing on
this stretch of the South Fork is darn fine fishing. You won't
find many places with the level of smallmouth fishing you find in the
South Fork of the Shenandoah. Even with the high water levels and
all the cool weather and storms we've had this year, there's been
a lot of excellent fishing. The fish population is the
best it's been in years, no question. Take a look at the fish
board in the office. You can pretty much bet on having a good day
out here. Listen,do yourself a favor. Come out
and take a nice float. Get a line wet. You'll
have a blast. In parting, I'm sorry to say I won't be writing
this report for the next month. My better half and I are riding
our motorcycles out for a little 7,500 mile jaunt. We're
heading out to ride a bit of the Pacific Coast and see
about a half dozen of those wonderful national parks in the
western half of this beautiful country we live in. God bless
America. I sure as heck wont miss my job any, but I will miss my
fishing. While I'm gone, the staff at Front Royal Canoe Co. will
put the reports together. By the way, most of
F.R.C.C.'s drivers fish all the time. Anytime you have a
question about fishing, those guys can give you some good
solid advice. Good luck with your fishing. Enjoy.
Ed T. Date: 6-16-09 Time: 10:00 - 5:30 Water: Mild stain Water temp: 74 Weather: Overcast Temp: 78 Missed last week due to high water. Yesterday I did the SP2 trip from the State Park to Karo Landing. The water level was still higher than normal, still had some stain to it. With the level as high as its been, there's some grass and debris floating about. Sort of used to that at this point, so its not really much of a bother. Started out using a Rebel Craw crankbait ( the Wee size, in natural brown). The morning fishing was a little bit slow, as it often is. I was catching mostly smaller bass, most were around 8 to 10 inches, some even smaller. I was catching a reasonable number of bass, but mostly small stuff. I was catching most of them around the rocks, but also getting some by tossing a 4" tube (green pumpkin) on an 1/8 oz. jig head around the banks. I stuck with the Craw and the tube most of the morning. The pace never picked up much, but I did start seeing a little increase in size. Some of the bigger smallmouth were lurking up close to the banks. The trick was finding a large area of slack water near the bank, behind a current break, and working the tube slowly. I was looking forward to fishing the creek across from the houses. One of F.R.C.C.'s drivers, Ryan, scored an impressive largemouth there last week. Look for it in the center of the top row of the "fish board" at the F.R.C.C. office. So I naturally assumed I would bag me a big one in the creek, too. Hah! I never got so much as a nibble in the creek. Back out in the river. As it so often does, the bite started picking up around one o'clock. Started getting more bass and better size. Also started catching lots of good sized bluegill. Excellent bluegill fishing for the rest of the day My first biggish bass was a 16 " largemouth caught near some midriver rocks with the Rebel Craw. In the afternoon I spent most of my time fishing the middle part of the river around the ledges. I was using the tube as well as the crankbait, and the tube was catching some nice fish. In fact, slow fishing the tube in deeper holes seemed to get the larger fish, eventually getting me a couple of 16" smallmouth. By about three o'clock I lost my second Rebel Craw. The only one I had left wouldn't run right, kept popping to the surface. So I switched off to a modified Shad Rocket spinnerbait (chartreuse w/gold blade), and it seemed to work about as well as the crankbait. In fact, it worked great for the bluegill. I started catching tons of perch (as they like to call 'em around here). It was fun to be catching some fairly big bluegill. Its truly amazing how hard a large bluegill can pull. I found one nice honey hole where I kept nailing one bluegill after another, fish after fish, 'til I finally got tired of it and moved on. So I spent the last part of the afternoon mostly working the tube for good smallmouth and tossing the spinner for lots of bluegill and the faster, more aggressive, bass. On the whole, the afternoon fishing was pretty good, about what I consider an average afternoon on the South Fork. Not red hot, like it can get, but plenty of fish and a few decent size girls in the mix. That's why I fish the South Fork week after week. An average day of fishing here would be an exceptional day at most other places. Once again, I pulled in at Karo a very happy camper. Come out for a trip. You'll have a great time. The South Fork is amazing. Ed T. Date: 6-2-02 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Stained
Water temp: 67
Weather:
Sunny Temp:
84
Most of the time, for me,
fishing is a quiet, meditative, form of recreation. I enjoy the
peace of being outdoors in a beautiful environment. It centers
me, gives me a sense of perspective, a foundation for dealing with the
rest of the week. As such, I almost always fish alone. I
just like it that way. No talking, minimal thinking, just
fishing. But occasionally I enjoy good company while I'm out on
the river. So my buddy Tom came by fairly early yesterday on his
Kawasaki. I hopped on my bike. We tooled on out
to Front Royal Canoe Co. for some good fun on the South
fork. We did the SP2 trip from the State Park to Karo Landing, my
usual trip. My favorite section of the South Fork. The
river is still up pretty high, still stained and still a pretty fair
amount of grass and floating debris. Almost identical conditions
to when I was here last week. I got a small bass on my second
cast with a Rebel Wee Craw (natural brown). When I
reached for my needle nose pliers to get the hook out, I noticed I'd
left my tackle box at the landing. So we had to paddle back to
get it of course, and the guys at the landing got a good laugh of
course. We had pretty good luck in the park. Got a few on
the Rebel Craw, mostly fishing it around the rocks. Also
caught a few fishing 4" tubes (green pumpkin) on 1/8 oz.
jigheads near the banks. The fishing in the morning was a
little slow, but steady. We were getting them here and there and
never had to go real long between fish. We were fishing the
patterns I mentioned before, working the Craw or spinnerbaits around
the rocks, tubes or grubs along the banks. We were getting lots
of small to medium bass, most of our smallmouth were under a
foot. Some of them were true sardines. I can tell we're
starting to get into summer fishing when I start getting more small
ones, less of the bigger guys. Tom started getting experimental
and started trying out a fair portion of his tackle box, with varying
degrees of success. Since that involved numerous lures, I'm not
going to attempt to list the lures he used through the rest of the
day. The important thing is he was catching bass and having a
heck of a good time. At one point I mentioned how I see Bald
Eagles fairly often on the South Fork. And sure enough, a little
while later we spotted one near the river. I caught my first
large bass in the creek across from the houses. I slow bottom
fished a tube to get a 16" largemouth. We stayed in the creek
awhile, but that was the only fish we got. After noon we mostly
concentrated on working the rocks. The bite picked up a bit, and
we also started getting a few bigger bass, some 13's and 14's
occasionally. Still getting a lot of small ones as well. We
started getting a few medium size bluegill. Eventually, I nailed
a 16" smallie on the Craw. Although the bite picked up some in
the afternoon, it still wasn't what you would call "hot". I mean,
we were catching fish at a fair rate, but not bang bang bang!, like it
was last week. Anyway, we were catching plenty of fish and having
a real good time. In the late afternoon, after three, it
picked up a little more. It was getting pretty good. Tom
was scoring on a pretty regular basis, and it being his first time on
the South Fork and all, he was a happy boy. A nice way to
end a very enjoyable trip. Another person no doubt hooked on the
South Fork. The whole day was sunny weather with a mild
breeze. We caught a fair number of fish and shared a fine
day. I tell you, folks, it's really hard to beat a good day on
the Shenandoah. Had a good ride home. I'm looking
forward to next week.
Ed T. Date: 5-27-09 Time: 9:00 - 5:00 Water:
Stained
Water temp: 70
Weather:
Overcast
Temp: 78
Wow! What a fun day on the
South Fork. I fished the SP2 trip, from the State Park to Karo
Landing. Once again the river was up pretty high. Still
getting plenty of rain, seems like about four days per week for the
last month or something. But it wasn't as high as the last couple
of times I went, so I'm not going to complain. Still a fair
amount of grass and debris in the water, but not enough to get upset
about. I heard the fishing last weekend was pretty good. I
can tell you for a fact the fishing today was pretty good. Got me
a decent smallmouth on my second cast this morning, using a Rebel Craw
crankbait (the brown color Rebel now calls "ditch"). Got a few
more by the time I got to the bottom of the park. Also managed to
get a couple on a 1/4 oz. hair jig (black) with a Paca Craw trailer
(green pumpkin). I was using the jig in the slack water next to
the bank. Most of the crankbait hits came in the slack water
below rock ledges. The morning fishing went pretty well, not
"hot" by any means, but more than satisfying. About the best
morning bite I've seen in awhile. I was getting most of my bass
with the crankbait, a few with the jig. There were a couple of
guys from F.R.C.C. fishing near me in the park. Bones
(one of F.R.C.C.'s drivers) fished near me all morning.
Everybody seemed to be having pretty good luck, in spite of the fact
that we were all fishing different lures. Bones was fishing
mostly Yamamoto Skirted Double Tail Grubs. The other guys were
using big jigs. I met some guys late in the day that
had real good success with Rooster Tails. So, you know,
when the fish are biting, its whatever works for you. The
smallmouth came in all sizes, plenty of dinks, some middle
size, some nice foot longs, and a few a little bit longer.
But no big fish in the morning. Got my first fairly good size
bass in the creek across from the houses, a nice sixteen inch
largemouth. Got her with a 4" tube (green pumpkin) on a 1/8
oz Texas rig. The only bass I got in either of
the creeks. Just a little while later, I was
fishing the Rebel Craw near a ledge and got my biggest
fish for the day, a seventeen inch largemouth. That was
a little after noon, and the bite was starting to get
cooking. For the next three hours they were biting like
crazy. I continued to get most of my fish throwing
the Rebel Craw in the slack water around the ledges. I
also had pretty good luck fishing a Rebel Wee-R (brown
crawdad). The Craw caught more fish, but the Wee-R seemed to
get the bigger bass. I ended up losing both of my Craws
to break offs, so the last part of the day I used the Wee-R
exclusively. I got some bigger smallmouth in the afternoon,
including two sixteen inchers. However, they were still running
the whole range in size. I caught a lot of sardines, let me tell
you. I only caught a few bluegill today. Sure wish the
bluegill would start hitting more, 'cause I love fishing
bluegill. At the very end of the day I caught a few
using a Beetle Spin (gold blade with chartreuse trailer).
Really, you could have used just about anything today, especially
in the afternoon. The smallmouth were hungry and aggressive, a
foot long fish could give me a pretty good workout.
Like I said before, I lost two crankbaits to a couple of scrappy
smallmouth. Slammed that sucker and tore it off. Man, what
a good day of fishing. I was a very satisfied boy by the time I
pulled the canoe out today. It was overcast and threatening all
day, but not a drop of rain. Now days that's a minor miricle
by itself. And when I think of the ton of smallmouth I
caught this afternoon. Well, lots to be thankful for. I
talked to a couple of guys getting out at Karo, who had just made their
first trip on the South Fork. They had just about as good of
luck as I did. Back at the shop I heard them talking about
their next trip. Its so easy to get hooked on the South
Fork. You won't find many places with the kind of easy fishing
you get in the Shenandoah. I'm looking forward to my
next trip. The water has warmed up, the level is
dropping, and there's plenty of smallmouth just waiting to get
caught. Summer weather and summer fishing, mighty good stuff.
Ed T. Date: 5-20-09 Time: 9:30 - 5:00 Water:
Stained
Water temp: 62
Weather:
Sunny
Temp: 68
I fished the SP2 trip, from the
State Park to Karo Landing. The water level was up real high
again, about the same level as it was last week. I'm beginning to
wonder if it will ever get down to normal level again. Pretty
much the same conditions as last week, high, stained, cool water.
Lots of grass and debris in the water. Hard to keep your lure
clean. The morning fishing was pretty bad. Only caught
about five bass before noon. Got most of those by flipping a
4" tube (chartreuse) on an 1/8 oz. worm weight. Got most of them
in slack water areas near the banks. Had no luck in the creeks,
but I did get a couple of reasonable bass in the deep area in
front of the houses with 4' senkos (green pumpkin). Around one
o'clock I started getting some nice size smallmouth on a big crankbait,
a Lee Sisson 2 CB (summer craw). The pace started picking up
pretty fast, almost like someone hit the switch or something. It
was later pointed out to me that it was most likely the result of the
water having warmed up a few degrees. Anyway, the fishing
sure turned around. I switched off to a Rebel Wee-Craw (brown
crawdad) and it just got better. They started tearing that
Wee-Craw up. Caught tons of smallmouth the rest of the
afternoon. Classic pattern, just working the slack water
around the ledges. The current was pretty strong, so most of the
fish were holding pretty tight to the rocks. The area of rocks
and pools just above the ridge where the twin islands sit
was hot. I just kept getting nice bass and
bluegill, fish after fish. Stayed there for quite awhile,
catching lots of nice 12 to 14 inch smallies. Finally
managed a nice 18" honker, my best fish for the day. But not the
biggest fish for the day, strangely enough. I paddled down below
the ledge, across from the islands, and tossed out the Rebel
Craw. I got a massive strike. I figured I had the bass of
a lifetime. Then I got a look at it, and surprise,
surprise. It was a big old catfish. A big old cat hit my
crankbait. Weird or what. When I got it in, it was a 24"
catfish. Put her back and went back to catching bass and
bluegill. The next five or six sets of rapids down from the twin
islands were very productive. This stretch of the river has been
really good to me this year. The afternoon was pretty good
fishing. Geat weather. Had a real good time
today. The morning was somewhat painful, but the afternoon
went a long ways in making up for it. When the water comes down
and warms up a little the fishing should be top notch. Heck, its
been pretty good fishing the last couple of weeks in spite of less than
ideal conditions. Take a look on the photo board at F.R.C.C. at
all the lunkers that have been caught this year. Folks have been
getting some nice big fish this spring. Do yourself a
favor. Come take that fishing trip you've been thinking
about. Life is short, don't waste all of it on work. Have a
nice relaxing day on the South Fork.
Ed T. Date:
5-13-09
Time: 10:00 - 3:30
Water: Stained
Water temp: 62
Weather: Mostly
sunny
Temp: 68
I fished the SP2 trip, from
the State Park to Karo Landing. I missed last week because
the river was super high. It was still pretty
high today. Almost no rocks showing. Strong
current. I really wasn't all that sure about making a trip with
the water that high. But then I thought oh well, why not go for
it. The water was stained, but not near as trashy as I
expected. There's some debris of course. I
spent plenty of time cleaning lures. But it wasn't a huge
hassle or anything. The trip started off pretty nice. I was
tossing a spinner in the creek at the State Park. You
know, just trying it out before I launched the
canoe. Sure enough, I managed to get a smallmouth and a
bluegill right off the bat. Turned out to be the only
bluegill I got all day. Got a few smallmouth in the park, most
of of them with a #3 Mepps Aglia spinnerbait (gold blade and
chartreuse skirt). I also got one on a Rebel Wee-R crankbait
(brown crawdad). Down at the lower end of
the park one of the guys from F.R.C.C. and his buddy
were fishing with big jigs. I watched them pull in
a heck of a big smallmouth. So of course I tried using jigs
myself, but I had rather limited luck and only caught a couple of bass
with them. When I saw the guys later on, near the end of my trip,
they said they caught a ton of fish with jigs. Guess I need
to learn jig fishing better. The fishing was pretty good through the morning. The
fish were somewhat scattered, but working the slack water around the
rocks was productive. Working the eddies and slack water near the
banks was another good way to score. I got most of my morning
fish with the spinner, a few with the crankbait. Most of the
bass were around twelve to fourteen inches, a few a bit bigger, and a
few little guys as well. I pulled into the creek across from
the houses and scored three nice size largemouth with the
spinner. The biggest went eighteen inches, the best fish I
got all day. As is so often the case, the bite picked up in the
afternoon. I was getting most of the afternoon fish with the Wee-R, mostly by working the rocks. Once
again, the area that really shined was around the twin islands and
the series of ledges past them for the next quarter mile or
so. Some pretty decent fishing through that section. The
biggest smallmouth I got today were a few fifteen and sixteen
inchers. No lunkers. But still, not bad.
Considering I almost blew the trip off. It was a pretty
good day of fishing, better by a good shot than I expected. When
the water drops down and clears up during the next few days, I'm sure
the fishing is going to get pretty hot. Looking forward to next
week. There are plenty of nice size bass in the river this
year, Come out and catch a few.
Date: 4-28-09
Time: 9:30 - 5:00Ed T. Water: Slightly stained
Water Temp: 66 degrees
Weather: Sunny
Air temp: 91 degrees
Just a really fine day on the
river. Hot sunny day, decent fishing. What more could you
want? I fished the SP2 trip, from the State Park to Karo
Landing. The river was at a nice level. Its
dropped to a point that's good for fishing but still high enough
to get down the river with no effort. Still some debris
in the water. You gotta clean your lures a lot, but its not a
major hassle or anything. Had my first luck down in the
lower end of the park, fishing a 4" senko (green pumpkin) in a slow
moving eddy up near the bank. Got a couple of nice size
smallmouth. They were the only fish I caught on soft plastic all
day. I switched over to a #3 Mepps inline spinnerbait (gold
blade) and started getting a fair number of smallmouth working the
pools below the rocks. The bass were holding pretty tight to the
rocks or in the fast moving water. Got some decent
size, in the twelve to sixteen inch range, but every so often I'd
get a little guy. It wasn't real fast paced fishing, a few
fish per hour, but I was pretty happy. Pretty good
fishing. Then it kinda died down in the early afternoon. I
started using a Rebel Wee-R crankbait (brown crawdad) along with
the Mepps, and it was actually getting the better fish, including the
best fish of the day, a seventeen inch smallmouth. I pulled
up into the creek across from the houses to see if I could find any
more of those largemouth I found in there last week. I did get
one nice sixteen incher with the spinner. She was obviously
bedding, had a scraped up tail. I ended up losing several
spinners and both of my Wee-Rs because I was still using old line
from last year. Can you believe it, lazy boy or what. So I
finally gave up, took the new spool out of my box and put new line
on. Well, the fishing had kinda slowed down and now I'd lost the
lure that had been working. Great! So, I tried a Rebel Wee
Crawdad crankbait (brown). Bam! Started getting
some good hits immediately. Working the pools below the rocks
with the Rebel Craw was bringing them in pretty
good. I even caught a bluegill, the first one I've caught this
year. From three o'clock on the fish were just nailing
the crawdad. The area next to the twin islands and the next five
or six rapids down from there were really producing well. It felt
like summer. Hot weather and the smallies were biting good.
As I said earlier, what more could you want? Feels like things
have kinda' fallen in place now. The water level came down
and the water temperature has risen. The fishing is
kicking into gear. So far this year I've caught fairly good sized bass, so I'm
optimistic about getting a few more big ones. Get on out to
the South Fork and take a shot at it yourself.
Ed T. Date: 4-22-09 Time: 9:30-1:00 Water: Stain
Water
temp: 56 degrees
Weather: Cloudy and
breezy
Air temp: mid-50's
Howdy folks. My second
trip for this year. and I must say it was a rather unusual
outing. All that rain we had on Monday found its way down to the
South Fork, so the river was quite high. Running well over the
three foot level. Very pushy stuff. Fairly dark stain and
lots of stuff floating in the water. Grass, sticks, limbs, you
name it. Not what you call ideal fishing conditions. Sure
was easy to get down the river though. Practically ripped the
paddle out of my hand. Well, it wasn't really that bad, but it
was moving along at a pretty good clip. I intended on doing my
usual SP2 trip from the State Park to Karo Landing, but I ended up
going on down to the FRCC landing. Took me all of three and a
half hours. My plan was to throw big noisy lures and hope some
big aggressive lunker might nail one. That's worked for me a few
times in the past in high water conditions. I was throwing a big
3/8 oz. Bomber Fat A (dark crawdad) and a #3 Mepps Aglia inline spinner
(gold blades and copper blades) and some hairpin style spinnerbaits
(gold blade and chartreause skirt). The crankbait was pretty much
a waste of time because it always immediately got balled up with
floating grass. The spinners weren't quite as bad about picking
up debris, but they also didn't catch any fish. I tried all sorts of
spots all over the river, but never got a bite. The only
luck I had today was in the big stream across from the
houses. I got six nice largemouth on the copper Mepps. The
smallest was fourteen inches. The biggest was a nice lunker,
twenty-one inches, with a massive gut. And I got the thrill of
showing her to two guys who were fishing on the bank nearby.
Naturally, they said something to the tune of yeah, whatever. No,
actually, they were pretty amazed. I was pretty thrilled about it, to
say the least. That was the biggest bass I ever caught in the
South Fork. About ten years ago I got a smallmouth a half inch
longer, but today's largemouth was a much bigger fish, by a long
shot. Yeap, the biggest bass I ever got in the South Fork.
But the guys fishing on the bank weren't doing too shabby either.
They had a stringer of some nice largemouth, and several crappy as
well. So one would have to say the creek was the hot spot to be
today. So then I paddled back into the river and never got
another bite the rest of the day. I was pulling the canoe into
the FRCC landing about an hour and a half later. A rather strange
day on the river. At one point I was pretty sure I was going to
get skunked for sure. Then I end up getting the biggest bass I
ever got in this river. I was expecting some cool rainy weather
today, but except for being kinda breezy, it was a pretty nice
day. All things considered, I had a darned good time. Very
interesting trip. Last week and today I didn't catch very many
fish, but most of the bass I caught were pretty big fish. I
have good reason to believe that once the weather and the water levels
calm down there's some real good fishing in store. There are some
nice big fish in the South Fork this year. I think its going to
be a good year.
Ed T. Date: 04/15/09 Time: 9:30 - 5:00 Water: slightly stained
Water temp: 50
Weather: Rainy
Air temp: 52
Ed T. Date: 04/01/09 Time: 9:30 - 5:30 Water:
Clear
Water temp: 50
Weather: Cloudy - a little
rain
Air Temp: 52
Clyde reports that fishing has improved a lot since the middle of March. With good river flow and warming water temperatures, the fishing is only going to get better from here. Ed T. will be on the river starting next week and will submit reports the rest of the season. Get out here and wet a line! Don R. |
Guides And Links We Recommend
River Hawk Tours - Tom McFillen - Main Stream-Shenandoah River
Eastern Trophies - Bill Heresniak - South Fork - Fly and Spin Fishing
