I had a big test (unfortunately not THE big test) on Saturday and wanted to unwind with a little fishing on Sunday. I had to be back relatively early to pick my wife up from the airport though so I decided to go to the Conway river where you can pretty much drive up to the stream and park to cut down on hiking time. I was using an old book I have on fishing the Shenandoah National park and a PATC map as sources. I left bright and early and two hours later pull up to the stream parking area, only there are no parking signs everywhere. Apparently the property abutting the park is now under new ownership. I had to drive back around to the next river north and hike a ways in to get back to the Conway. So much for easy access.
Finally though, on to the stream. The Conway is one of the bigger streams in the Shenandoah National Park. It's a beautiful, stream with a good gradient and a large number of big pools. The water was unseasonably low on Sunday though and the Park needs some rain or summer is going to be hard on the fish. I saw a number of yellow stoneflies flying around the stream but only two or three fish rise to naturals the whole day. It was slow fishing but I managed a few, all on the surface, and missed a few more strikes. Any fish hitting a dry fly is a blast though and a bad day on a beautiful river always beats a good day studying.
The Days Stats:
ReplyDelete5/2/2010
Water temp 57 at about 10:45 hrs.
Water temp 62 at 14:30 hrs on the way out.
The air temp was about 77 in the morning and hot and muggy for the walk back to the car.
Streamflow Data, Rapidan River near Ruckersville, VA:
Gauge Hgt - 1.95 feet
Discharge - 75 ft^3/sec
Saw a few yellow sallies flying around and two to three rises to naturals. Caught 3 brookies and 1 brown on size 14 yellow stonefly imitations. Missed at least three other good strikes and fowl snagged a fish that tried for my fly after it had sunk. May have gotten one of these on a size 14 Mr Rapidan.
The access from Rt 615 out of Graves Mill leads to a parking lot at the end of the paved surface but you can continue driving on a gravel road. The road is steep and/or rutted in places so bring the Subaru. You can drive all the way up to the Conway itself and there are pull offs near the stream. You are getting close when you see a sign for the Devils Ditch Hunter Access Trail (a big brown sign).