South in Virginia - Wild Brook trout expectations 2024

[JeremyW]

Not sure how many people pass through this way, but I've noticed a sharp decline in the numbers from last years drought, and size of Wild Brook Trout in Shenandoah NP, and along the blue ridge parkway are much smaller than this time last year in the same waters.

If you come through this way this year, I suggest finding a spring creek, tail water, or other fishing option, otherwise you might be disappointed.

 

[wildtrout2]

That doesn't sound very encouraging at all. Sorry to hear that.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Not sure how many people pass through this way, but I've noticed a sharp decline in the numbers from last years drought, and size of Wild Brook Trout in Shenandoah NP, and along the blue ridge parkway are much smaller than this time last year in the same waters.

If you come through this way this year, I suggest finding a spring creek, tail water, or other fishing option, otherwise you might be disappointed.

Did you fish any in Western Augusta, Highland, Bath, Alleghany Counties?

 

[JeremyW]

Augusta County yes, two different days out there on a well-known trail / river one fish under five inches. There are fish there, but I think there was a fish kill from last years drought.

 

[Tiogadog]

There have been droughts the last two summers with 2023 being worse than 2022 but both forcing stream closures. Water temperatures are still pretty cold so I don't expect the fishing to get going for another two weeks or so. That said, I am less than optimistic about fish populations.

 

[Old Town]

I fished a had full of streams in the area 2 years ago and was very disappointed. The only stream I caught fish in was the limestone creek ( Abrams creek ?). We started our trip on the north western side near Gatlinburg and ended up in Cherokee. About 15 years ago we did the same area and I caught fish every place we stopped. Some were only 3 - 4 inch brookies but there were trout everywhere.

 

[nd1001]

Anyone have a fishing report from SNP to share from the last month or so? I was hoping that as things start to warm up, the fishing will improve.

Usually we take a spring trip to fish the Rose and Rapidan drainages, but the possibility of a recent fish kill is unfortunate.

 

[JeremyW]

There's still fish around, IMO the fish I've been catching have been smaller than last season... you may catch some depending on the drainage, those two are pretty popular though.

I've been sticking to dry river / skidmore out by Harrisonburg as it's more of a tail water, and was not hit as hard from the drought. Nice thing out there is also you can hit mossy creek, and beaver creek as well as the fly shop.

 

[Tiogadog]

Bigger streams in the SNP are fishing well. I fished the Rapidan ten days ago and it was a good outing. Echoing Jeremey's sentiments that the fish seemed to run a little smaller but, fortunately, the fish were plentiful and willing to eat dries.

Don't cancel your plans...

 

[nd1001]

Good to know! Glad to hear the populations aren’t wiped out. I’ll have to fit a trip in at some point this year after all.

 

[Mike]

Fish running smaller may or may not have anything to do with a drought or two. Alternatively, this could just as easily be related to a good year class that produced an abundance of larger fish some yrs ago that may be missing now due to age rather than drought. Additionally, low flows in fall often produce good year classes of ST, so if larger fish are missing now and if their abundance is related to a previous year class’ strength, then you’ll see them again in the future. This happens in Pa too, although anglers often seem to blame these natural occurrences on harvest. As I have mentioned before, lousy year classes are generally and often followed by good ones in wild trout populations.