SF Shenandoah today -- fail

[TurbineBlade]

Hey - quick report on the SF.  We took a really early trip to float the SF from Guest to Karo rapids.  I tossed a 5 weight with a sink tip, using mostly clouser minnows and heavy woolly buggers.  Bethy tossed an 8 weight with a floater and some heavy white shenk streamers. Oh!  And the stupid factory loop on the floater had cracked where it is welded, forcing me to tie a uni "nailess nail knot" to attach a new leader butt loop.  Pain in the arse -- I hate those premade loops.  Every one I've had has cracked within a trip or two.  

We didn't have a bite -- no luck whatsoever.  The only fish I even saw was a huge carp under the canoe and he swam away quickly.  I did however manage to feel my way into working a sink tip line some....which I've been needing to learn.  I was toying with using a really long leader and split shot on a floating line, then working a sink tip with various weighted flies, shortening the leader, etc.  I see the benefit of using the sink tip with a pretty short leader (like literally 12-30" max).  I managed to hang on the bottom and had to break off 5-6 times.  The flow was pretty good today according to the front royal canoe guys, so getting hung up while trying to focus on managing the canoe is sometimes "exciting"  ;) (point the rod straight at the fly, break off, don't rock the boat, etc.) The best part of the trip was seeing all the phoebes, cormorants, and a blue-gray gnatcatcher.  We heard eastern wood pewees too.  Oh, and we had a big box of donuts -- that was awesome.  Beth always packs so well on trips -- she's really good at that.  

I've decided that I don't like fly fishing from a canoe on rivers much.  I really just like the fishing and though we've paddled a lot -- I suck at it and it's more annoying than enjoyable to me.  I think I might start looking at pontoons for SLOW water areas for lazy fishing.  I prefer wading rivers.  Canoes stress me out and rapids just mean I have to reel in and try not to die ;).  

Take it easy folks!  I hope you're killing the shad in the good weather (figuratively) ;).  

Gene

[michael.d...@gmail.com]

I can tell you from experience that fishing from a kayak is far more comfortable, less effort, and more maneuverable and stealthy. Some people can stand up in them... I don't.  The seat is as comfortable as sitting in your living room, I've never had any back discomfort in a kayak the way I do in a canoe. 

I havent float fished the south fork since before the big fish kill, but it was a hoot back then... Would like to do it again sometime later on when the water temps rise some and the levels go down some...

Sometimes the  best way to float fish...is to not float and fish...  Park the boat here and there and get out and wade fish a good looking location....

Best wishes... Mike Vance

[Eric Kruel]

I floated from Karo to Front Royal in a kayak two years ago and had a great time, landed about 20 smallies on spinning gear (before I started fly fishing).  None were trophy size but it was steady action for most of the float.

 

I have not tried to fly fish from a canoe but have spin fished out of one and I can say I would rather be in a kayak.  last summer I started fly fishing out of my kayak and It was definately a big learning curve since I was just learning how to cast a fly. 

This year I plan to fly fish out of my kayak the majority of the time. I learned that I need to make some adjustments to the kayak to make it more user friendly for fly fishing.  I basically need to make it more bare bones so my fly line doesnt get caught on tie down points, fish finder, ect...,  I am thinking about getting a stripping basket to wear as well.  I also need to get myself two fly fishing rod holders, I tried to just sit it in the kayak last year but was not a big fan.  I think I am going to go with RAM mounts since I have slide rails,  I really like not having to drill to mount them.  I can also say that for me standing in my kayak is a must, I feel alot more comfortable casting while standing that I do sitting down.  That was a major reason why I bought the kayak I did.