Middle River Dispatches

A gumbo of fly-fishing, conservation, politics and days afield, for what it is worth....

Support Proper Menhaden Management In Virginia

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Menhaden, often called the most important fish in the sea, need your help.

Right now the Virginia General Assembly is considering legislation that will put management of menhaden where it belongs, in the hands of the professionals at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC).

If that sentence took you by surprise, you are not alone. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, fishing for menhaden is regulated by the General Assembly. It is the only fish in the Commonwealth managed by elected officials and it has led to a crisis.

Last year, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) found that Virginia was not complyingwas not complying with the coast wide management plan for menhaden. Virginia must come into compliance by June 17, 2020 or a fishing moratorium will be imposed.

In order to bring Virginia into compliance, the General Assembly must act in this session. The best approach to achieve compliance is to pass legislation, HB 1448 and SB 971, transferring management authority to the VMRC.

Please take a moment to send emails to your Delegate and Senator asking them to support this important legislation.

Thanks in advance for taking action today!

EPA throat punched the Clean Water Act

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EPA is wrong, so very wrong.

You can bet on gravity every time. Whatever is in our headwaters will ultimately end up in our own backyards. Headwaters and wetlands are some of the most important components to our network of streams and rivers. They’re like the capillaries in our bodies. If they’re unhealthy, so is everything else. Americans should not, and will not, allow our water to be jeopardized in this way.”  -Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited

Source: EPA final rule unravels Clean Water Act protections  | Trout Unlimited

This is a final rule, so options to fight it are pretty limited. I expect we will see this headed to the courts.

Stay tuned.

Umpqua's innovative packing material

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I am always on the look out for companies that do what they can to remove plastic from the waste stream and when a recent shipment from Umpqua Feather Merchants arrived I was delighted to see the were an innovative packing material.

My friend Brent Bauer director of product at Umpqua explained how it came to be:
“we have long had a policy against re-using boxes for shipping orders and would just recycle old boxes.  A few years ago a supplier offered a machine that would turn our old boxes into packing material so now most of our used boxes end up inside a box.“

The scourge of plastic waste is daunting, but when companies like Umpqua look for, and implement alternatives to plastics they deserve applause and support.

Guide's Day Off – Skidmore Fork

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The weather report said 60 degrees and clear and I didn’t have any pressing obligations, so I grabbed my gear and headed to Skidmore Fork to see if I could scare up a brookie or two.

Side note, I actually left my rods at home and only realized it when I was three quarter of the way to the water. My patient and understanding wife was kind enough to meet me half way and bring me my rods…

I hit the water about 12:30 p.m., starting at a hole not too far from the parking area. And sure enough there were a couple of fish ready to pound a nymph.

a Skidmore Fork native
Another Skidmore native.

I had a couple of places on the stream I wanted to fish so I moved on, hitting likely pools as I went along. In some spots I was a bit surprised that I didn’t move any fish but I didn’t switch flies or tactics, being content with the occasional take. If fact, I managed to fish the same two flies and rig all day.

The first place I wanted to see was upstream aways so I jumped out and went up the fire road to see how good my memory was. It had been a couple years since I been to that spot.

Surprisingly, my first shot landed me 20 yards above where I wanted. But it was quick work to get there.

What the tenkara rod saw…

I managed to miss a nice fish in a small back eddy, that took a whack at the dry just as it landed. I fished up from there, with little action for the effort.

My final destination was just above the second ford. Years ago I had been fishing with a good friend. As I recall, it had been a bit frustrating of an outing. Rising fish but spooky. Pre tenkara, which made it worse.

As we were scouting the run, a nice fish rose in a tricky spot under some overhanging limbs. My friend fired a picture perfect cast, got a good drift and landed a the fish. It was one of those experiences that keeps you coming back.

I was thinking of that day, as it was my friend’s birthday the next day and I wanted a fish to commemorate the memory and his birthday.

Sometimes you get lucky…

-30-

My 12 “go to” trout flies in 2019

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During this post Christmas, pre-New Year lull I started working on reorganizing my fly boxes. It is a semi seasonal ritual that I undertake as my days on the water guiding start to reveal the flaws in my previous attempts.

As I contemplated the various organizational options, my mind wandered off and started thinking about the flies I used the most often. Before that fleeting recollection vanished, I wrote them down here.

These are what I used in no particular order or frequency other than I grouped them, dries, streamers, and nymphs. The sizes, weight and colors varied depending on location and conditions. And there were other patterns that I used as location and conditions dictated a change from my “go tos.” But day in and day out, these were the patterns I turned to, because they consistently caught fish for my clients.

On the Wet Fly Swing podcast

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In September of 2019, I was a guest on Dave Stewart’s Wet Fly Swing podcast.

Dave is great host and we chatted for over an hour. It was a wide ranging conversation and we covered a lot of ground!

Give it a listen and take a moment to like and share on your podcast deliver vehicle of choice!