South river Waynesboro Virginia 12/13/20:

[AndyS]

Headed over to Waynesboro Virginia to see a good friend of mine and decided to hit the South river near his house. I got there around noon and it was already a balmy 65* so needless to say the area was a bustle. I donned my waders and grabbed my rod and walked over to the first hole by the parking lot, 5 wand wavers, all casting into the same hole !!! This looked like Saxton Falls on opening day, who would have thought that downtown Waynesboro was a fly fishing mecca !
There is a nice paved trail that runs along the river, so I decided to take a walk. Recent reports from the South River fly shop looked good so I thought I just might have a chance. Even the walking trail was busy with joggers and skateboarders.
I didn't have to walk but a few hundred yards and the crowds thinned out, made it up to a set of small dams and started there. Fished my way down the river, right behind the massive DuPont plant. Some holes were really really deep, I started to connect on some decent Rainbow trout, just a stones throw from the walking path. Continued to do well on what looked like holdover rainbows, saw a wand waver here and there but not many. Continued to work my way down and got into some really thick trout, fought hard !! Looped around the crowded pool and went down about another mile, most runs and holes were taken, did see one other spin fisherman mopping up while the fly guys wearing cement shoes continuing to roll cast and come up empty, cast after cast. I got more than 7, stopped counting.
Never in my wildest did I see see such good trout fishing in an urban/park setting. No photo of the nice largemouth bass, a creek chub, and a small buttery wild brown trout.