Has anyone fished the Cow Pasture river near Clifton Forge, VA recently? I’m heading down there in a few weeks and am trying to get an idea of what types of flies to tie. Bass or trout, I don’t care. All I wanna do is catch some fish since this will be my first outing this year. :0
Any help/advice/tips would be greatly appreciated.
Watch out where you step. Those pies are awlful smelly. Can’t help you much on the fishing as it has been 30 years since I visited the Cow Pasture.
Good Luck
Tim
Tim,
It’s the floating ones that I’m most worried about. 
NCVirginian–
Will you be floating or stationary/wading? I have floated from just below the I-64 bridge to the 220 bridge at the beginning of the James. Lot of private land and they tend to be sort of possessive.
In all the years I have fished that stretch, I have never caught a trout; just small mouth and bream/sunfish and a couple of chubs thrown in for good measure. (Also have fished about 15 miles up Rt 42 around Nimrod Hall. Nimrod stocks a lake nearby with big trout so if you are on the Cowpasture just below that you might catch one of those.)
Just used popping bugs and woolie boogers. Light green bottoms on poppers, yellow tails (get some red fingernail polish and paint 2 or 3 small dots … on the bottom of the poppers) anything up to a size 2 hook. Weighted light brown boogers(same color as the crayfish in there) with a couple of pieces of crystal flash in a light brown tail. My son ties them so forgive me if I dont have the terminology quite right. Size 6 and mostly 8’s. Never tried a gurgle-pop or any other flies. Have had such good luck with that woolie booger that I haven’t had any reason to try anything else.
If you dont already know about it, forget the Jackson around Clifton Forge. Nasty, dark black water from the paper mill in Covington.
And for what its worth, just came off the Maury today and water is sort of low. Same for the James. That means the Cowpasture will be low too.
Hope that will give you a couple of ideas.
George
The cow pasture is a good looking river, I’v HEARD there are trout in there, I have never fished it, but I have crossed over it many times and it is a good looking river. I have a couple of Old #art’s woolie buggers and I would take his advice and swing them threw the currents as searching pattern’s to see what you come up with…
We also have the Calf Pasture River, the Bull Pasture River as well as the Cow Pasture river. We are just loaded up with livestock in this area.
Old #art:
I lived in Woodbridge VA from 1976 until 1982 when my wife & I retired from the military & headed west.
Tim
A friend of mine has a cabin on the Cow Pasture and we’re planning on getting the wives to drive us up the road a ways and then we’d just meander on down the river until we reached his property again. I’m not sure what the name of the road is, so I’m not sure where in the world I’ll be. It’s been so long since I was there last, that I honestly don’t remember exactly how to get there. But that’s neither here nor there.
What’s important is that my fat butt will be floating, either in a canoe or kayak, down the river with rod in hand trying to scare something so bad that its only defense is to bite what I’m throwing at it. I’ll be sure to tie up a bunch of buggers and some poppers before I head down there.
#art, do you know how much weight your son puts on those buggers? From what you’ve said, I’ll probably tie up a bunch of different sizes, colors, and weights.
Thanks for the tips,
Mark
With a Bullpasture and a Cowpasture, y’all should know we have a Calfpasture, too. Seriously. (BTW, the names are translations of the Indian names for them. Their valleys were migration routes foe Eastern Bison.)
Except the Bullpasture, I’m unaware of trout in them, but the smallmouth fishing can be good.
I don’t know the exact size of the wire. He uses a fine lead wire and begins about an eighth of an inch from the eye and almost to the bend on the hook ,wrapped tight. These things dont sink like a rock but they wont suspend either. Another thing I do with the buggers is to cut most of the hackle off the top and leave everything on sides and bottom.
Easiest way for you to figure this thing out would be to send me your address and I can get a couple to you. Send me a PM.
George