[switchfisher]

One of my last stops on my September escape was to drop by the upper section of Back Creek to visit the special regulation section maintained by Virginia Power at its pumping station.

While the full report is over on the blog, I worked my way up from the bottom and was disappointed by the low, warm water. In many places, it was only inches deep - something that had to allow it to warm up even though it is a tailwater. No trout, plenty of fallfish.

The bottom section was just kind of slow and stagnant looking - even the bridge pool was full of nasty algae. But, this is a nice section of water - you can see the potential it has when the water is high and the trout are around.

I concluded that my mistake was that I started from the south end and I should have gone to the top near the release from the dam. The water would have been colder there and I bet I would have had a different day.

I only spent a few hours on the water as I was enroute to the South Branch to fish the next day.

I did pick up a few bass fishing the shore of the lake there on the way back to the truck.

Bottom line - good spot, but wait for rain for the southern end.

Anyone fish the top end? Should I have started there?