Shenandoah National Park

The Park provides an entire region of incredible wild brook trout streams, extending from Front Royal to Waynesboro. Most streams within the Shenandoah National Park are open to fishing, some of which are designated as catch and release only. Most streams within the park contain good populations of native brook trout. Some years certain streams will fish better than others do to more favorable water flows during the summer or fall. The eastern slope streams are typically larger streams do to the elevation drop into the piedmont. The western slope park streams are shorter do to the high elevation of the Valley floor. Larger streams such as the Rapidan, Conway, Rose, Robinson, North Fork of the Mormon's, and Hughes tend to get more traffic do to their proximity to Charlottesville and Northern Virginia. The smaller western slope streams such as Madison Run, Paine Run, Jeremy’s Run, Big Run, Meadow Run, and Naked Creek don’t get as much attention. These, however, also hold very strong populations of large fish! The Quill Gordon is the first major mayfly to emerge in early spring. They usually start on the eastern slope of the Park and slowly work their way across the mountain to the cooler western slope. You can expect the hatch to start in mid to late March. You will then find March Browns, Cahills, then Suphurs hatching in April and May. Once the fish start feeding on the surface they don’t tend to be very picky. Large attractor dries such as Adams parachutes, Royal Wulffs, Humpies, and Stimulators are extremely effective in size 14-18. When the fish aren't looking up, standard attractor nymphs such as hare's ears, pheasant tails, copper johns, black stoneflies, and prince nymphs will do the trick. Small muddlers, buggers, black dace, mickey finns, and golden retrievers should also be in your box for any anglers that like fishing streamers. With hundreds of miles of wild trout water, the Park has everything for the small mountain fisherman.