Fall has been a blur for me and dealing with the hardest thing I have ever gone through. At the end of September my father got ill suddenly and was admitted to the hospital. I was of course still very busy guiding so after every trip I was spending my evenings there with him. After 33 days in the hospital we got him home for 24 hours before he left us. He really wanted to come home and glad we were able to get him there. A lot of my clients knew my father, he ran most of all my shuttles on the James River when I was guiding near Lynchburg, VA. Appreciate the clients that understood my troubles and rescheduled during this hard time. He taught me to love the outdoors and was a great father! There wont be a day I don't miss him.
Now thats out the way lets talk fishing. It has been a interesting Fall with low and clear conditions. Our small mountain streams and medium sized trout waters have been to low to fool with. The Jackson River near Covington, VA has been the place to be with steady flows coming out of Gathright Dam. Even with low flows there I am still able to float the river with success. The wild browns and rainbows have kept my anglers happy. The brown trout should be finishing up their spawn this week so the bigger browns will start eating more often and get off the tailouts and their redds. Its been a warm Fall with a few cold fronts here and there but had some days I fished in flip flops. Cooler temps are on the way which means cooler water temps. When water temps get below 45 degrees its time to work a little harder for bites, you have to cover the water more thoroughly since the trouts metabolism is down and not willing to move as far to eat. So mainly nymph fishing now till Spring but we will see midge and blue wing olives hatch this Winter which will give us dry fly opportunities.
The Fall smallmouth bass fishing was great with the warmer temps. Baitfish and crayfish patterns got the job done for me. The water is starting to get pretty cool now but if we see a warm front in the near future I will likely try my luck again with smallmouth before the end of the year.
Is that time of year to start thinking about musky fishing as well. Ran my first couple trips of Fall last week. The low and clear water doesn't make it any easier but we did move several fish over two days with the fly. Thankfully we received a couple inches of rain yesterday that we really needed. Flows have bumped up so now is a good time to get out after the fish of 10,000 cast.
Happy Thanksgiving and hope to see you out on the water!
