Rapidan River, Shenandoah Nat. Park, Virginia 4/28/2012

[STONEMAN]

Fished the Rapidan River, in Shenandoah Nat Park, Virginia on April 28th. Weather was cold and damp. It may have hit 50 mid day. The river (a creek really) flows down the steep eastern slope of the Park. We fished what is called the canyon section. A four wheel drive vehicle with good clearance was a must for access. The creek is extremely high gradient. You fish up stream climbing over boulders all the way. Not sure if I would want to do it in snake season. My legs ached the next day. Wild brook trout are in every pocket and pool ranging from just a few inches to 10-12 inches in the deeper pools. The fish are beautiful and very fast. We fished a range of bright top flies (orange parachute adams, the rapidan caddis (a local tie), and baltz para-nymph) with a 10-12 inch dropper of a BH prince nymph. The trout indiscriminately hit all the flies. Every pocket, corner and pool rewarded you with a strike no matter what size. Hooking them was another story and of course you only get one chance. My ratio was maybe one hookup to 6 strikes. I got better as the day went on. A short 6 foot hand tied, stiff leader worked best to enable all the line to be kept off the water to lessen the drag and quicken your response time. I would love to go back for a weekend and pitch a tent in one of many beautiful sites along the road that follows the creek up the mountain. Any takers?

 

[Tiogadog]

10 minutes from my house... water levels are pretty low for this time of year and it is already snake season..

 

[YoughnessMonster]

Beautiful place. I'm about and hour from there. Haven't been able to fish the Shen Nat'l Park streams but have hiked along side a good bit of them. Worked in the park 2 summers trapping bears so I had a lot of time to explore. I recommend checking out Hoover's Rapidan Camp (President Herbert Hoover's retreat).

 

[lv2nymph]

I'm up for some camping, I'd love to go there and fish sounds like you guys had a good time. When are you thinking? Did you stop in Murry's fly shop and see Harry? He's a good guy.

 

[PhilC]

Nice report.
I've only fished in the SNP once. I'm from Va. and I always tell myself I'm going to hit up the park again on my way back home.
I think I'll have to make it happen this year...

 

[troutbert]

I was only there once, but we had good fishing on some of the other, non-Rapidan streams. There are quite a few to choose from.

It is a long hike down to the streams from Skyline Drive, and a tough hike back up. There's a lot of elevation difference there. More than you typically find in PA.

 

[lv2nymph]

From what I've been told and read it's worth the effort.

 

[troutbert]

lv2nymph wrote:
From what I've been told and read it's worth the effort.[/quote

It was worth it, and I'm glad we did it. But people should be aware of what they are getting into, and be realistic about their physical limitations. It's good to look at the topo maps carefully before making a decision.

Many of the streams can be accessed from the bottom, which is much easier than hiking down from, then back up to, Skyline Drive. If you have physical limitations that is probably a better choice. We fished another stream walking in from the bottom and also had very good fishing.

 

[Swattie87]

troutbert's right. Haven't fished this area but have researched it extensively and studied the topos quite a bit. Right now it's probably #1 on my regional/driveable fishing destination list.

The mountains in that part of VA have some of the largest prominence of anywhere in the Appalachians. In PA, most ridges have relative heights of about 500-800 ft. Sure there are probably some spots that top 1000 ft, but that's the exception. In that part of VA relative heights of 1000+ is common, and probably up to 2000 ft (or more) in some spots.

 

[midgeman]

dark hallow = awesomeness!!! I believe the stream is called the hog camp branch of the rose river. Closest camp area/ hotel is Big Meadows. Beautiful area, great food at the restaurant in Big Meadows, and even serves Starbucks coffee.

One thing that is really disturbing about the park, is that you can keep up to 6 brookies. I believe they must reach over 7 inches in lenth. Visitors can't pick flowers, pick berries, up root plants, feed the animals, but yet can harvest wild brookies....pretty sad.

 

[barbless]

Important: The Rapidan and Staunton are C&R "single barbless hook only" exceptions to the catch and keep SNP rule.

Spinning tackle is allowed- the first few times I fished the place in the 70s, I used a UL spin outfit. But it's much more practical and effective to use fly gear, especially with the water as low as it is.

It's a great place. Like everywhere else in the region, the water is quite low for this time of year, although a few fronts have moved through with thundershowers recently, with a few more on the way. The entire region could use a few days of ground-saturating cloudbursts, for best results.

I was up once three weeks ago, for my first trout outing in almost a year. While spring was well underway down in the Va. flatlands, up in the hills it still seemed quite early. Everything was just beginning to bud. Not a whole lot of bugs- some caddis, a few March Browns, and some yellow sallies. It was on the cool side, and the water was only 49 degrees at that point in mid-April, so the fishing was slow on top. But I got a few nice fish on soft hackles, with about the same 1:6 hook/strike ratio as Stoneman.

The canyon section is indeed very tough. Even though it's a relatively short stretch, there are pools I've never fished, simply because it's so difficult to access them down the nearly vertical grade that leads to them from the sides, and it's so tough to pick a way through the boulders going upstream or down. Some of the boulders in the canyon section are the size of a small house, and they can be very effective blockades. I have definitely been taken on rod-chucking rides from slips on the slopes, and been scared when crossing the rocks- especially when crossing solid boulders that are wet and atop waterfalls into plunge pools.

Also, the road is rougher than I've ever seen it. I don't know if the SNP road crews ever grade or fill the potholes up there, but if so, they obviously hadn't done so at that point.

 

[barbless]

Upper Rapidan River headwaters, above the canyon, 4/17/2012

 

[lv2nymph]

I gotta get down there!

 

[Tiogadog]

I guess it is funny what we take for granted. I can literally be on several of these streams in 20 minutes or less, but still (as in yesterday) find myself driving 3-4 hours to fish in central PA.

We have had some thunderstorms lately but the streams continue to be really low. Our winter was basically void of any precipitation. The fish are still there; they are just ultra spooky.

For anyone heading down, aside from Skyline Drive Route 231 provides some of the best access to the east slope streams.

 

[troutbert]

midgeman wrote:

One thing that is really disturbing about the park, is that you can keep up to 6 brookies. I believe they must reach over 7 inches in lenth. Visitors can't pick flowers, pick berries, up root plants, feed the animals, but yet can harvest wild brookies....pretty sad.

In PA you can keep 5 brookies 7 inches and over per day. Is that equally disturbing?

 

[lv2nymph]

Yep, I think it is. When I camp on the stream I keep one for dinner, but any more I feel bad about that. I'm really torn with that because I've always loved doing it, nothing better than a fish fresh from the stream.

 

[Swattie87]

Don't wanna derail the thread...but that's a tough one. On the one hand, sure I'd love to see PA change the regs for Brook Trout to make it a 10" minimum with 3/day limit or something. This would essentially mean that 99% or so of catchable sized wild Brookies are now sublegal and must be released. Most stockers are that size or bigger, so it won't result in a bunch of stockers having to be released as would be the case if you went up to 12" or 14" as the minimum size. Keep the existing sizes/limits for Browns and Bows...this may even deflect some of the catch/keep pressure away from Brookie streams because guys could keep more Browns/Bows...why not fish in streams that have those species if that's your goal?

On the other hand though, I understand, respect, and probably would even consider myself part of the group that would maybe once in a while want to harvest a couple wild Brookies for the campfire on a backcountry trip. It wouldn't be 5/day, but 2 or 3 for one night of the trip should be ok I think. I guess I'd be willing to give that up and pack in an extra can of cornbeef hash for the preservation of the species though.

 

[midgeman]

Troutbert,

Yes I find it disturbing that it is allowed. It's only my opinion since brook trout habitat is decreasing. I do not harvest trout for consumption. In the times I deep hook a trout, I will leave it in a shallow area. I also will throw browns out of the stream as required by the national park. I don't enjoy eating trout as much as walleye, perch, calico's, and sunfish.