Mossy Creek, VA
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I fished Mossy today. The water level was up after the recent rains, and its temp, at 48 degrees, was a bit warmer than the ambient temp. It was mostly cloudy, with a scattered, brief moments of sunshine. There were a few periods when midges were in the air, and a rare riseform was seen. The trout were feeding just under the surface on emergers, and I fooled a couple of them! Otherwise,I fished subsurface, mostly with nymphs, to no avail, but a small wooly bugger brought a few more fish to hand- nothing big though.
With the temperature in the low 50’s, I headed for Mossy Creek this afternoon. The water level was ok, and only a little off color; the skies were cloudy and a fog came off the snow-covered ground. Unfortunately, the only robust hatch was the fly fisher hatch! There was a scant midge hatch, the bugs substantially smaller than my size #22 flies; the hoped for olive hatch never happened. I saw no rising fish, and deferred fishing streamers, so it was a few hours of practice in preparation for spring, which surely must be just around the corner here in Virginia!
I just returned from an evening on Mossy Creek. I went over to see whether the sulphur hatch has started- it hasn’t.
the water level remains good, although a little off color. I caught one nice fish on a wooly bugger.
at dusk, a sparse caddis hatch and spawn occurred, which brought a few fish to the surface. i caught several 10-12 inch browns on a black caddis pattern.
suspect that the sulphur hatch is a week or two away.
I went to Mossy last evening, and fished from 7 pm until dark. I was fishing the section that VDGIF restructured. If you haven’t been, they breached the old dam, narrowed the stream, stabilized the banks with rocks and hemp mats, and created deep runs every 100 feet or so, with large rocks at the head. The water looked great, like a real trout stream, although all the mature streamside trees were removed, probably to allow them to get heavy equipment to the stream.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see any sulfurs, only a few tan caddis in the streamside brush. Does anyone know whether the sulfurs have shown up on other sections of the stream? Perhaps it’s still early, but I wonder whether the work done on this section of the stream has disturbed the aquatic bugs, and will need a few years to recover.
I fished Mossy last evening; arrived streamside about 7:30, and fished into darkness. I fished upstream from the parking area near the church. Conditions seemed perfect; sunny day, no wind, fairly clear water. Only one thing was missing- the sulfurs!
According to my fishing log, the sulfurs hatch on Mossy from mid-May through June. Yesterday I saw NO sulfurs, only a few tan caddis in the streamside brush. Consequently, there were no rising fish until near-dark, when an occasional fish could be spotted.
All was not lost, as I did catch several browns, running 10-14 inches, BUT, something is wrong with Mossy. The sulfur hatch used to be robust, both morning and evening.
I usually don’t like to fish Mossy on Mondays, now that I’m retired, as it gets pounded on the week-ends. But it is supposed to rain the rest of the week, so Monday it was!
Weather was cloudy and cool. I hoped for an olive hatch, but it didn’t happen; no midges either. So it was subsurface- steamers, soft hackles and nymphs.
I fished two sections, from 10 am to 1 pm. The restructured lower section was dead. The section above the church parking lot was loaded with recently stocked fish, mostly browns but a few rainbows (? a shift in stocking management). The water was low, and crystal clear, and even the new fish were spooky. They responded best to long-line nymphing. Caught a bunch of fish in the 8-10″ range, and two measuring 12-13″. Didn’t see any of the big boys!
Hopefully the expected rain will raise water levels, and some cool weather will settle the stream into a winter nymphing pattern.
I returned to Mossy Creek today. We are having very warm temperatures, into the mid 50’s, and rainfall has been good, maintaining excellent water levels.
I arrived shortly after 3 pm, trying to catch the evening midge hatch, and found the water level to be good, but off-color, never a good sign on Mossy.
The midges were abundant, with the peak hatch about 3:30 to 4:30 (I’ve posted some pictures in the photo gallery), but there were no trout noses pushing through the water surface. Nor did they respond to subsurface offerings. Bad day- and won’t improve until the water clears.
