Mid-Atlantic
Fly fishing in Virginia
Short answer
Virginia fly fishing is native brook trout fishing in mountain headwaters, with limestone spring creeks in the Valley and tailwaters below the big dams. Shenandoah National Park, Mossy Creek and the Jackson River are the headline waters. A licence is required from age 16, and a separate trout licence is needed only on designated stocked waters.
What makes Virginia different
Shenandoah National Park has around seventy wild brook trout streams inside it, and they are the point of fishing in Virginia. They are small — a rod length across in places — steep, overhung with rhododendron, and they hold native Southern Appalachian brook trout that have never been stocked over. Fishing them is short casts, a lot of climbing and a lot of looking at where not to put your feet, and the fish rarely reach ten inches. Nobody who does it regularly cares. The useful thing to understand about Virginia is that its licensing follows this split exactly: the separate trout licence is required only on designated *stocked* trout waters. The wild brook trout streams in the park and the national forests need the ordinary freshwater licence and nothing more, which makes the best fishing in the state also the cheapest.
What trout and other fish are in Virginia?
- Brook trout
- Native Southern Appalachian strain, wild in the mountain headwaters. Rarely large, and worth the walk.
- Brown trout
- The Jackson and Smith tailwaters, and Mossy Creek, where they get genuinely big.
- Rainbow trout
- Wild in some mountain streams and stocked through much of the rest.
- Smallmouth bass
- The James, the New and the Shenandoah. Excellent, and the right answer in July.
Where to fly fish in Virginia
- Shenandoah National Park streams
- The Rapidan, Hughes River and Jeremys Run among about seventy. Native brook trout, single hook, mostly catch and release.
- Mossy Creek
- A limestone spring creek in the Valley. Large browns, no cover for the angler, and a long leader.
- Jackson River
- Tailwater below Gathright Dam. Cold all summer, with wild browns and a contested access history.
- Smith River
- Below Philpott Dam. A long cold tailwater holding wild brown trout.
- Rapidan River
- Herbert Hoover built his summer camp on it for the fishing. Still native brook trout water.
- James River
- Not trout, but the best smallmouth river in the state and a proper summer alternative.
When to fly fish in Virginia
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| January – February | Stocked water is being stocked, and the tailwaters fish. Cold, quiet and uncrowded. |
| March – April | The mountain streams wake up. Quill Gordons, blue quills and the first good brook trout fishing. |
| May – June | The best weeks. Caddis, sulphurs and March browns, and Mossy Creek before the weed takes over. |
| July – August | Hot and low. Fish terrestrials high in the mountains early, or switch to smallmouth on the James. |
| September – December | Cooling water, terrestrials holding on, autumn stocking from October, and brook trout in spawning colour. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in Virginia?
Yes. Licenses are issued by Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $56 |
| Non-resident, annual | $120 |
Figures are the current published rates for a one-year freshwater licence plus the trout licence — $28 and $28 for residents, $72 and $48 for non-residents. The trout licence is only needed on designated stocked trout waters, so an angler fishing wild brook trout streams pays the freshwater figure alone. Issuance fees are included. Prices change — check with the agency before you buy.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- A freshwater fishing licence is required from age 16.
- A separate trout licence is required in addition on designated stocked trout waters. It is not required to fish wild, unstocked trout water — which includes most of the national park and national forest brook trout streams.
- Shenandoah National Park requires a Virginia licence, and its own rules sit on top: artificial lures with a single hook, and catch and release on most streams.
- Some fee fishing areas need a separate daily permit on top of the licence.
- Special regulation waters — Mossy Creek among them — carry their own tackle and harvest rules and sometimes require landowner permission. Check before you go.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in Virginia
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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