Passage Creek in Front Royal

Passage Creek is easy to reach from Northern VA. Because of this Passage Creek can be very crowded and unpredictable fishing. I had a few hours to kill this past Sunday and what a better way to spend some time then fly fishing.

However, I immediately new I was in for trouble. Lot's of traffic heading out Rt 55 from Front Royal to Fort Valley Rd. I first stopped at the fish hatchery but several fisherman were already fishing both up and down stream. I talked briefly with a guy just getting ready to head in the river moving up stream and found that he was having a slow day. 4 fish in 4 hours. He also told me that he was very disappointed to see so many worm containers, power bait and other forms of live bait on a Artificial lure stream.

I started heading south on Fort Valley Rd. to find one of my other favorite sites. Unfortunately I had to head up stream for quite a while. I finally found a location that is hard to get too but I have always wanted to try and with all the other locations taken by more than one fisherman I decided to rough it. Turns out the hike was not as bad as I thought. Once I got to this remote part of the river, I saw some great fishing holes, but unfortunately the water was too high and too fast for my limited skills. I caught 1 six incher by pure luck, snagged it.

I had one great experience on the river though. I am standing in the middle of the stream, at peace with nature, completely relaxed. I look up to enjoy the scenery and a beautiful Mink walks up to the stream takes a drink, looks at me for a minute then runs away. This animal was beautiful.

As for the fishing, too many people, too many rules violations. I am going to give it one more try during the week and if I have no luck I am going to eliminate Passage Creek from my fishing list.