Current Local Conditions

7/4 Bob Cramer with an Independence Day Musky! 41 inches on the fly rod in the early morning. What a way to start the day!

James and Shenandoah Rivers: We will be on the Shenandoah again today and all day tomorrow! Stay tuned for reports. The fishing on the James and Shenandoah is really starting to turn on! The fish on the James should finally be making their way to the bank structure in the next week. Popping bugs and big white streamers and baitfish patterns have been producing well. Clawdads in brown, tan, and black have also been taking nice fish. We expect the topwater action to really turn on big time if the weather stays hot. The James is super low for this time of year and has been very clear. Hopefully we will get some rain though as we are already dragging bottom and it is only the end of JUNE! The fishing has been excellent on the Shenandoah if you enjoy catching loads of fish! We still haven't found a lot of fish over the 17 inch mark, but there are few smallmouth that size out there. Plus the largemouth fishing has been excellent. So where the smallmouth lack in size, the largemouth certainly make up for that. Fish up to 5-6 pounds have been landed so far this year and we have seen some MONSTERS that make those look small! The musky fishing has turned on as well and we landed 2 nice fish today and had 4 other follows! 1 fish was a fat 37 inch fish and the other was a really thick 42 inches! If you are lucky enough to hook and land one of these incredible fish use caution as to not harm the fish (or lose a finger!!!). These are very hard fighting creatures and heavy gear is necessary to bring them quickly to the boat for a prompt release.

Mountain Streams: Our mountain streams could certainly use a drink of water! Drought in the Valley seems to be back and we desperately need some rain to continue our trout season. A few of the larger drainages like the Rapidan, Dry River, and Rose River still have fishable amounts of water, but we need a few inches to bring flows back up. The delayed harvest and special reg areas are getting low and warming up, so take advantage of them now before the trout move out in search of springs for the summer! River Bend has been fishing very well and water levels are holding. We were happy to host Gordon England, The Deputy Secretary of Defense, out there this weekend for some fabulous trout fishing. He managed to land a few LARGE rainbows in the riffles. We will keep an eye on the weather and water conditions this week and post reports as they come in!

Spring Creeks: Susie Q has been fishing very well recently. Pressure has dropped and the fish are now readily taking terrestrials off the surface. Brian guided Gordon England, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, with a few of his fishing buddies out there on Friday and had an excellent day. Fish were sipping ants, beetles, crickets, hoppers and just about any streamer you could find in your box! There is plenty of availability out there right now so book a day before it's to late! We have still been getting good reports from Beaver Creek. Get your permits early and enjoy a fabulous trico hatch! Mossy is clear and the topwater action is heating up! We will be out electrofishing with VDGIF this week, so stay tuned for reports! Thanks to everyone who helped with the Mossy Creek Invitational on Saturday! Your support helped us raise over $83,000 for our wounded soldiers. Everyone had a wonderful time and some very large fish were landed. The winning teams tied for first with a total length of 96 inches of scored trout! A special thanks goes out to our local Massanutten Chapter of Trout Unlimited for all of our volunteer support, Bob Cramer, Shane Maybush, and Ryan Briscoe, our Mossy Creek Guides, for pointing our soldiers to the fish, The Mayor of Bridgewater, our caterers, our local community support, The Daily Grind for the coffee that kept us going all day, Bob Fitch, Stump Wenger, and Dr. Gotwald for the use of their property for the event, and John Miko for organizing such a perfect tournament for our soldiers! Thanks again to everyone who came out and help lend a hand for the 1st annual Mossy Creek Invitational!