Throughout Virginia and the surrounding states the DWR are taking advantage of the cool streams to start stocking many large trout. This provides us with some excellent fly fishing in October.
There are beatis hatches on many of these streams right now and a Mr. Rapidan Dry size 18 will take many of these trout. The duns start coming off about 10a.m. on some streams, while on others they emerge about 2p.m. Basically, I’m always on the look out for rising trout. Sometimes I just cover the water with a Mr. Rapidan size 18. My fishing partner had one of his all time best days when the beatis hatch was sparse. He just covered the water with a Mr. Rapidan Dry size 18.
A tactic which has often given me some excellent fishing is to fish a Murray’s Flying Beetle size 14 just at the very beginning of the beatis hatch before they get thick and the trout become selective. This also works at the tail end of the beatis hatch when the duns are sparse but there is a trout willing to take just one more fly.
Many of these large trout feed heavily on the large nymphs just below the riffles which are composed of basketball size stones. Effective large nymphs here are the Murray’s Olive Road Kill Nymph size 8, Murray’s Black Hellgrammite size 8, Mr. Rapidan Olive Soft Hackle size 10, and Casual Dress Nymph size 10. >>>Listen to the podcast.
Bass Fly Fishing in October
Many of the large bass are feeding on the natural hogsuckers and madtoms found in the river. The Murray’s Magnum Hog Sucker and Murray’s Madtom Sculpin are two of my best big bass flies.
The Magnum Hog Sucker is most effective at dusk. Fish it where the gravel bars drop off into the deep water closeby. The Madtom Sculpins are effective throughout the whole day. Fish these across stream, below and through the large stones below the riffles. The large bass still feed heavily on these natural minnows and we catch many of them on these streamers. >>>Listen to the Podcast
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