Is there a stream a hour away from Roanoke where 7- and 8- pound rainbow trout lurk by the thousands?
There is such a stream, and it's recommended you fish it with a No. 8 rod and a 15-pound-test salmon tippet!
It's just the same old boring John's Creek, but what a different, magical look it takes on at "Maggie," a roadside farm stop that was once a village.
Last weekend I drove into this 1,700-acre farm valley owned by the Ratliff family. For decades they have maintained three miles of John's Creek as their own private trout "aquarium." But now they have opened it to the public for $50 per rod, catch-and-release, barbless hooks only.
The stream flows through a storybook valley, with lime-green fields dotted with rolls of hay, marching to the tops of ridges on either side. The mown hay was permeated with the aroma of peppermint. Brandon Ratliff gave me a pick-up tour of the stream, down to the dam that defines the lower boundary. Several golden trout circled about above the dam.
I spoke to Bob "Smiley" Ratliff, who took time away from working on a hillside fence. "I'm accustomed to fishing for Atlantic Salmon in Canada," he said, "and when I moved here there was no comparable fly-fishing in this area. So I set up a rainbow fishery on my property which has grown over the years into what you see today. Go ahead and give it a try."
The air temperature hovered around 80 degrees at 11 o'clock here in mid-July -- not ideal trout fishing conditions. I took a water temperature and it was a borderline 68 degrees. This part of John's creek is a meadow stream with little overhanging growth to protect fish from the summer sun's rays.
There are times when you don't want to catch fish, and this was one of them. These rainbows were near-dormant, stressed by the heat, and likely to die if not handled very carefully. So I resolved to walk the stream observing them and eventually very carefully landing only one of these delicate giants. To make certain I didn't hook one, I tied on a bass-sized Gummy Minnow, which got them swirling about, observing but not taking it. I then switched to a Chernoble Ant that they splashed against without being hooked, following my plan for the day.
This is one of those pay-for-fish streams where you can see dozens of huge rainbows finning in the sun. I began fishing the rapids, thinking the water would be cooler here and if I accidentally landed a fish it would have a better chance of survival. But these monsters preferred the slow-moving, sun-drenched pools for some reason, lying there in shoals. Occasionally one would take a splashing pass at a grasshopper on the surface, but for the most part they were just basking lazily in the sun.
I asked Brandon Ratliff about the survival rate and he said, "John's Creek is spring-fed and stays relatively cool in the summer. The water you see here above the dam flows out of a cave under the bank here. We lose some, but there's a pretty good survival rate."
I have fond memories of John's Creek from when I was growing up. My dad fished it frequently and brought home strings of chain pickerel more than a foot long, caught on live minnows. There's still an excellent minnow population here, and it was on a Muddler Minnow that I finally did land my one fish, an 18-inch rainbow, not one of the 7-pound giants surrounding it. I horsed him in to the bank as fast as he would allow and gently removed the hook. He laid on his side for an alarming moment, but much to my relief he revived and swam off at a healthy speed.
I really don't recommend this fishery during July and August, but am told that the surface comes alive during the spring hatches. My favorite fishing time is autumn, and I resolved to return here during the first cool days in September.
To reach Fly-Fishing at Maggie, take Virginia 42 from New Castle and drive to Virginia 658. Turn right there and drive to the intersection with Virginia 632. Turn right and a couple of hundred yards down the road you'll come to the "Maggie" road sign. Turn in there at a small white building with an "office" sign on the door. Sign the register and leave your $50.
For reservations call owners Bob Ratliff at (540) 864-5381 or Brandon Ratliff at (540) 864-7251.
