Contributing Author: Dr. Patrick Taylor
Date Fished: 11/8/2009
I fished the Pedlar River today. I was based in Lexington and it seemed a ‘short’ distance away – however, when you start getting close, the roads start to become rough and require caution albeit, I think a regular car could drive down the track.
I decided to fish the Delayed Harvest section of the river, however, I couldn’t really find much information of where that was. I just pointed my car in the direction of Pedlar’s dam. In the end, there was a clearly labeled sign that points you to the DH section on a ‘track’ which is on your right (approx. 2 miles up from where you turn off from Beverly Town Road onto Reservoir Road to the DH area).
At the parking place, there is an obvious trail to the left as you come through a gate that takes you down to the river (about 10 minutes walk). Prior to fishing I did a bit of a recce up and downstream. On the day I fished the water looked low- the path takes you down to two ‘obvious’ pools. Up and downstream of these were very shallow – and therefore looked unproductive.
Trying my best to be quiet I dropped into the water and started to fish. The first pool left of entry yielded nothing. However, the pool to the right was brilliant. It is a deep pool and I can imagine with faster water, it would be great for throwing a nymph or streamer against the rock wall and letting it play out. Under these conditions however, I had to hand-line in the still water to work the fly. I was rewarded with three trout and a fall fish, but after that – the pool was spooked.
Pedlar River Trout Fishing Bottom line: This is a great spot – as I say, with a bit more water, I think Pedlar would be a great place to fly fish. It’s relatively open – and you can do long casts on approach to either pool so as not to scare the fish.
Getting There: Follow Route 60 from Lexington over the mountains and into the valley. Turn right on Panther Falls Road. It will turn into FR 315 (do not turn off to Panther Falls). It will turn into Reservoir Road towards the dam. Stay on Reservoir until you see the sign for the delayed harvest area.
Google Local Coordinates: 37.663406, -79.284618
Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in the following places:
Virginia VDGIF
Flyfisher’s Guide to Virginia
Virginia Trout Streams
Virginia Blue-Ribbon Streams
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There is a good parking lot –albeit a rough road – and the trail leads down left of the gate.
Excellent pool to the right of entry from the trail down to DH section
Typical fish – not huge but a good fight
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore