Harmans

Fair enough,

Glad to hear it's public water. So I'd assume floaters can come through, and waders have access so long as they stay below the high water mark. Then I have zero moral issues with it.

I am indeed strongly considering bringing my family down this summer. No big beach trip in the cards for us this year. And we still want to do a partial week or something. The wife and I both love the mountains, and we have a 2 year old who is starting to show interest in the outdoors. A nice comfortable cabin in a great location would be perfect.

As for the fishing, no, it's not capable of humbling me. It's an artificial fishery. Don't get me wrong, artificial fisheries are capable of offering enjoyment, and I would take part with a smile on my face. It merely would not mentally register as a "serious" fishing trip.

By that I mean that fishing offers me two levels of enjoyment. 1 is being outdoors, in pretty surroundings, casting a line, hoping for a tug on the other end. The relaxing, pastoral aspect of it. Stocked fisheries can deliver that, and I fully expect Harman's would.

The other half, for me, is self improvement. I strive to be a good fishermen. Every time I'm out, a mental gauge goes on which is using my successes and failures to tell me what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, what I can improve on, etc. Stocked fisheries cannot offer this for me. That mental gauge just gets turned off before I enter the water. If I catch a 25 incher, it's because they stocked 25 inchers there, not because I'm any good. If I catch 50, it's because they stocked a lot of fish there, and not acting like what a trout should act like. If I catch 0, it's because there either isn't many fish there, or else they are acting nothing like what a trout should act like. There can be no sense of personal accomplishment or failure.

Sometimes it's nice to turn off the gauge and just go out and enjoy oneself. The pressure's off, even if it was always self-applied pressure. But for me, anyway, if that's all there were the sport would get boring pretty quickly. Climbing an endless learning curve is what changes fly fishing from a simple form of recreation into an obsession.
 
Customers cannot keep trout per our private property access rules. It is managed as a catch and release fishery.

 
That is what I assumed.

Thanks

I'll be checking out your website.

 
Magi, how's the smallmouth fishing down there when the river gets too warm for trout?
 
Down stream of us is 9 miles of catch and release black bass fishing on the south branch river. This is between Petersburg Gap Bridge and Moorfield Fisher Bridge. Only accessible via float. Also Smoke Hole has good small mouth fishing. Our stream is good, but not great. I'll be on the south branch this weekend with kids and wife. We are travelign home from Northern VA. I will probably will not get to fish at cabins..
 
pcray, if you're seriously looking at a trip with the family and want some 'real' fishing, you could stay at Harman's then fish some of the smaller waters that have already been mentioned, or head over to the other side of North Mtn and fish the Smokehole which has plenty of decent water for a day long escape...or head furthur south towards Slatyfork/Snowshoe Resort and spend some time exploring the Elk, which some say is the best trouting in WV (and it was pretty dang decent when I hit it last year). There's also supposedly good fishing at Holly River State Park (cabin rentals in the park), but I've never been that far west in WV...both of those are another 1.5-2hrs south from the Seneca area. Similar 'nightlife' as what you'll find around Seneca.

There's also some good fishin' around Davis in the Blackwater and various smaller streams in the area, the Dry Fork looked inviting also as my girl and I rode our bikes along it. Lots of places to stay and plenty of things for the family to do in the Canaan Valley. Bit more of a social scene in the valley wrt music and places to eat than you'll find at the other spots.
 
I apologize if my comments were perceived as negative, I wasn't trying to say anything negative about Harmon's or anything that they do there.
 
All I can say is that my wife loves going to Harman's. She says it has been the most relaxing vacations ever. If she's happy I'm happy and if I get to go fish I really can't complain. We'll be back this fall. Really looking forward to it. Almost forgot to mention there's no cell service there. Awesome! The office can't reach me.
 
tom,

yeah, I'm serious, but not yet to the point of getting serious about it, if you know what I mean. It's one of the options. I'm not really the one who's gonna end up making the decision, either.

The wife and I used to love going to the mountains somewhere and camping for a week or so. But then we had a kid. From pregnancy through about now, the whole tent thing was really tough, and all activities in the mountains weren't really appropriate. Can't really hike, can't really fish, can't really bike. I mean, you "can" do those things, but it certainly changes the nature of those activities when you're scheduling around nap and snack times, carrying diaper supplies, etc.

We switched over to doing a big beach trip each year. Just easier. Kid loves water and sand. You got an oceanfront house and rarely go far from it.

That fell through this year, and we won't have a full week anyway. Choices came down a shorter beach trip, or the mountains. The kid is 2 1/2 now. Still need to watch him like a hawk, but starting to show interest in outdoors pursuits and the capability to enjoy them, and also capable of skipping nap time.
 
tomitrout, did you say nightlife and Seneca in the same sentence?? haha!! yes, more to do socially around davis/Thomas.

for those that are ditching on harmons, for one thing, at least they ALLOW fishing, the place could simply be a posted farm or residence, allowing NO access at all. It's not on nat forest land or state land, it's private land, stocked by it's owners, not the state. It's nothing like Donnie beavers places, not even close. besides, didn't we have this argument last year??
I loved the fact I could wake up at my usual early hour, walk down to the stream, fish for a couple hours, then walk back to the cabin and find my girlfriend making breakfast! afterwards, we would jump on the motorcycle and explore the wonderful WV roads, returning in late afternoon, fix some dinner, then fish till dark, bugs in the air, fish rising, and nobody else around, yeah, that was just awful!! we would then walk back to the cabin, crack some beers, and relax in the Jacuzzi, oh what a tough weekend it was!!
Sure, we fished for stocked fish, which I seldom do, but what the hell, it's a beautiful creek in a beautiful canyon, that normally doesn't hold trout, AND, my girlfriend, who might fish twice a year, was able to catch fish (big fish at that!) and have a great time doing it, which made the visit that much better. I'm not saying the fishing was entirely easy, there were still moments of frustration, but it was great to see her figure out what they were eating, choosing the right fly, and catching fish. I also love being able to walk from where I'm staying to fish and not worrying about loading stuff up and so forth, heck, our rods stayed strung up all weekend, just left them leaning on the porch.
 
tomitrout, did you say nightlife and Seneca in the same sentence?? haha!! yes, more to do socially around davis/Thomas.
Click to expand...

yeah, I know, lol.....but you can usually at least find a couple of folks hanging out and picking some tunes if you ask around.

 
Judging by the ad in the right corner of my screen, the place promotes their "fishing".

Fishing for pelletheads, especially paying to fish for pelletheads (who are hand fed once a week... like pets), is not my thing.

If other people want to pay to "fish", have at it. There are plenty of doctors and lawyers who pay to shoot deer in pens.
 
The_Sasquatch wrote:
Magi, how's the smallmouth fishing down there when the river gets too warm for trout?
Click to expand...

I use to float that section of C&R river a lot back when i was younger...a lot of great small mouth fishing and a few nice ones to boot
 
Pcray,
Our core business is family vacations. Our cabins are not "tents", they are log cabins (homes) and have hot tubs, flat screen tvs, wifi, complete kitchens.

The river is 100s of feet away. The region is awesome, and you can access some of the best views, by car with easy walks..

Its the easiest time to take kids.. Your activity will be walk to the river, skip rocks, walk back to the cabin.. take a nap.. jump in the hot tub.. You could go to fishing pond nearby if you want 2 year old to catch fish and keep for dinner..
 
Yeah, I didn't mean to imply your cabins were tents. Just that, pre-baby, we used to tent camp a lot and enjoyed it.

If we choose to go the mountain route, renting a cabin from you guys is high on the list.
 
We've been to Harman's a few times and really enjoy it. I don't know if I could go as a family trip and do some fishing on the side because the fishing is THAT good! I'm usually fishing from sun up to sundown when we are there. I've noticed that many, if not all of the skeptics, have not been there. Once you try it, you may have a different opinion. There's been nothing but praise from those on here that have been there.
 
I am with bikerfish on this one for many of the same reasons. I have been a primarily a wild brown specialist for over 45 years, and in our early days my wife paid her dues by doing things like getting up early and wading tough streams and rivers for trout and bouncing around on the front of a small flats boat in the blazing Florida sun all day fishing for tarpon, permit, and bonefish. At this point she appreciates vacations in a beautiful area, surrounded by mountains, in a comfortable cabin, and a chance to catch nice fish on her schedule. I certainly will fish and enjoy it, but when it comes to a family vacation it is not all about me. If I want to challenge myself and do outward bound trip for wild browns on the river of pain I have fishing buds that are into that, but not my wife. One of the reasons my wife still occasionally fishes with me for wild browns is because I have developed some appreciation for how special she is and how lucky I am that she has put up with my fishing mania all these years. It is worth the investment to give back and indulge her because she deserves it and I am happy to see her happy. I was tough on her in the early days and the fact that she still loves me and indulges me is worth a lot. A comfortable family vacation in an area she likes is a small price to pay.
 
I just returned today from a 5 day stay at Harman's Cabins. This was my fouth trip there. My wife doesn't fish, but bugs me to take our vacations there. No, the fishing is not like the Little J, but it can be a challenge (even for pellet fed once a week trout). If that's not your bag, fine. I can fish morning and evening with a nap in between and never start the car up. The scenery is great and this week, with the higher flows, there was an added challenge to finding fish you could cast to. I also agree, those that look down on the fishing there have never been there. I'll keep going back. I enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and everyone of Harman's employees have been more than friendly. The best fly for the hog pellet head rainbows was an olive crayfish tied by fellow forum member and guide Mike Heck.
 
A crayfish huh? Thats pretty neat, what size?
 
@ timmyt: comes in a 6 or 8. I use the olive size 8 here's Mikes linkhttp://www.fallingsprings.com/fallingsprings_005.htm BTW they're great on the smallmouth bass too.
 
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