Mossy Creek Fly Fishing Forecast 10/16/2023
Nick brings us the forecast this week. The leaves are starting to change around the Valley and the weather will be beautiful. DWR has been out stocking some water in the region. South River in the catch and release and down in Grottoes, Jackson River, Jackson Special Reg, Bullpasture, Spring Run, Cowpasture, Back Creek, Tye, Hawksbill, Roanoke, and some lakes like Mint Springs and Sugar Hollow have been stocked. West VA DNR is about to start their fall stocking program this week. They will be releasing over 40,000 pounds of trophy trout this fall and water flows west of us are more average for this time of year. Now is a good time to stock up on attractor nymphs and streamers if you are fishing these stocked areas. On the spring creeks you will still find tricos hatching in the morning hours. Spinner fall is later this time of year and you could see fish taking advantage of these bugs 9am-10am. BWO's can also be around in the afternoon and evening hours. Hoppers and crickets are still out in good numbers and we should be able to enjoy a few more weeks of that action before the cold nights end it for the year. As the leaves change and drop there will be a lot less moisture being soaked up by the vegetation and hopefully we will get some quality rainfall in the next few weeks so we can get back to some of our favorite trout fisheries this season! Smallmouth are still eating right now and fishing should be good this week. We have seen many of the bass vacating their summer lies and moving and grouping up in the deeper ledge holes. They will still take bugs on top but the cooler weather will likely slow down the topwater bite. Leaf litter can create some issues with the topwater bite on the windy days. A good tip for where to fish your bugs would be to focus on where the leaves are traveling down a run. Most of the food and bugs will take the same path so big smallmouth will usually be near the lanes where the leaves are floating! This is a great time of year to fish big baitfish patterns. As minnows school up and as the vegetation dies back minnows become more easily hunted and the bass will gorge on them in the fall. Make long casts, cover water, and fish aggressively and you can trigger some big fish to eat! Musky fishing should be good this week if you can avoid the leaf litter. Now through mid November is when we generally see the most leaves dropping. With low flows many of our favorite pools can become choked with suspended leaves. Keep this in mind when you pick a day to fish. The calm days will be the easiest to fish and avoid the 'leaf hatch'. Check out the video for all the details and stop in and see us on your way out to the water!
BEST SMALLMOUTH FLIES THIS WEEK:
BEST SPRING CREEK TROUT FLIES THIS WEEK:
- Tags: fishing report
- Colby Trow
