I have wanted to fish White Oak for some time. I have been hiking this area for many years with my family and Scouts. Christmas Eve day was a beautiful day for fishing. My family, my brother and sister in law and my fishing buddy headed to White Oak for a day of hiking and fishing. Fishing in the Shenandoah Mountains is difficult, the fish spook easily and at White Oak you have to be patient as the trail runs right near the river.
White Oak is easy to get too: Follow 211 out of Warrenton to Sperryville. Turn onto 522 South toward Culpepper. Just out of Sperryville turn right onto Rt. 231 and follow to Etlan. In the middle of Etlan (its all of 5 buildings) turn right onto 643 and follow to the dead end. Now at the dead end is the Robinson River which is stocked but I have not fished here yet. Turn right and follow to the parking area for White Oak Canyon. Park in the lot and start heading up the trail to the falls. I here that the fishing is best above the first and second falls, but I have yet to go that far and fish.
We jumped in the river after hiking in about a 1/2 mile. I started fishing with a nymph but had no luck after an hour. Just afternoon I noticed a hatch starting so I switched to a blue winged Olive 16. On my second cast I caught a beautiful 9-10 inch Brookie. It was great. He was down in a hole about 4 foot. I cast just to the side of a water fall and I watched him come right up and take my fly. It was worth the entire day to catch this nice fish. No camera in sight, what a bummer. Less than 2 minutes later I see my wife on the bank with a camera asking me if I caught anything. Where was she 2 minutes earlier. We continued fishing and caught a couple more small Brookies. It was a great day and a place I would recomend to anyone.
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Passage Creek is one of my favorite close to home trout fishing places for both Rainbow and Brookies.I fished Passage last Saturday - another great day for fishing - and somewhat suffered the same problem. I started fairly late in the day and it seemed like there were fishermen about every 50 yards along both sides. I did finally find an area where there was no competition but that required a hike down a fairly steep and long drop from the highway. Obviously the hike was the reason for no competition as most areas for fishing here are easy access from the highway. I caught a very small rainbow (4") but the fish that made my day was a 10" rainbow coming up from a deep hole. I was using a blue olive just under the surface and this fish put up a heck of a fight. Needless to say that was the end of the fish catching for the day.
I believe that due to the mild weather this winter, Passage Creek has been stressed and over fished. I have been to Passage several times this past Fall and Winter and for the most part have come away empty handed. My fishing buddy, while not being skunked like me, is only doing somewhat better. Hopefully Passage will recover and return to its good fishing (including red eye bass)this spring.
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