1 week of fly fishing bliss

[flyrodder]

Hi group. I have the last week of May off and would be delighted to do some guided fly fishing tours/instruction throughout. Can any of you recommend some good stuff in the Virginia area? Preferably northeastern Virginia including the Potomac/Chesepeake and/or Shenandoah area's. I have always been a UL and 5wt floating line guy and have had a simply amazing fishing year for 2012 thus far fishing Trout, Bass (large and smallmouth), panfish of all kinds, etc.. I have no experience with Striper or any Potomac/Ches Bay stuff. Walleye is also very high on the fly fishing to-do list just because I have never done it and I hear they are perhaps one of the best tasting fresh water fish out there. Also high up on that short list is Salmon. A trip to Alaska and/or Pacific Northwest is on the radar but not for this session. Anyway, your expert opinions are very much appreciated and all will be thoughtfully considered.

[Matt Geiman]

This is a little farther away,  but I'f I had a week for some guided fly fishing, I'd head to up to fish the upper Delaware. It's around a 5 hour drive from DC. They guide for trout in drift boats, which is unique to the east coast. You'll be in the peak of the hatches/dry fly season.  The fishing can be technical; however a week with a guide and you'll definatley learn alot, and get shots at nice fish.  Your 5 weight floating line will work perfect!

One popular outtifiter up there is http://thedelawareriverclub.com/ they provide lodging as well.

[flyrodder]

Appreciate the tip. Think I might check out some of the big browns up there. Anyone tried Big Bend farm out?

[flyrodder]

As a followup, I ended up hooking up with Gordon English out of the Orvis at Charlottesville. We did a day of Smallmouth fishing at the Shanendoah stretch near Shanendoah (the town). The day capped at about 42 Smallmouth and 2 big Largemouth. That particular stretch of the river is pretty much only accessible by boat and it had not had too much pressure over the weekend prior. Attached is a 17" Smallmouth caught on a Helios 6wt with a blue popper, which after many different types ended up being the real winner of the day. On a side note, those blue poppers are really doing well right now as I have fished many colors and many different ponds and rivers since then and the blue seems to be the preferred color.