Fishing the Valley

• Easy access
• 44 acres
• 30 ft deep
• Bass · panfish · catfish

The closest water, and the easiest morning of the lot. Bryce Resort's lake impounds the headwaters of Big Stony Creek, and Virginia's biologists list largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, crappie, yellow perch, channel catfish and even muskellunge in it. There's shoreline access across the breast of the dam and around the boat launch, plus a primitive launch at the upper end for a canoe or a kayak from the resort. Bass run to a five-fish daily limit with only one over 15 inches; sunfish and crappie have no minimum size. Fishing is open from an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset.

Access note: the lake is resort-owned, so confirm current access, day passes and boat rules with Bryce Resort before you head down — the rules there are theirs, not the state's.

• Wade
• Stocked trout
• Along Rt 675
• Oct–June

Harry Murray, who has run the fly shop down in Edinburg since 1962, calls the Big Stoney one of the finest stocked trout streams in Virginia — and it's the same creek that feeds Lake Laura, coming at you from the other side of the ridge. It runs along Route 675 west of Edinburg with plenty of pull-offs and public water, holding stocked rainbows through the cool months and rock bass and smallmouth in the warmer stretches lower down. Bring waders in spring; a short rod earns its keep in the tighter, brushier pools.

• Wade or float
• Smallmouth
• Riffle & ledge
• Summer

The valley's smallmouth river, and the quieter of the two forks — the South Fork gets the crowds on the far side of Massanutten Mountain. The middle stretch between Woodstock and Edinburg holds both numbers and size, and the bedrock ledges running down toward Strasburg are the classic structure to work. It fishes well from a kayak or on foot in the riffles.

Where to get in: Seven Bends State Park has a concrete ramp at the end of Lupton Road; Chapman Landing Road sits just downstream of Edinburg, Red Banks Road between Edinburg and Mount Jackson, and Hollingsworth Road east of Woodstock — all popular with waders and small boats.

• Wade
• Stocked trout
• Delayed Harvest
• Fort Valley

Worth the drive for the setting alone. Passage Creek runs 38 miles down the length of Fort Valley — the hidden valley inside Massanutten Mountain — before it meets the North Fork, and Virginia stocks it from the hatchery at its northern end. Expect rainbows, with browns and brook trout when the hatchery has them. Part of the creek is put-and-take; another stretch is managed as Delayed Harvest, which extends the fishing from October into late May but asks you to release what you catch. Access is easy along Fort Valley Road through the Elizabeth Furnace recreation area. By high summer the trout are gone or dormant, but sunfish, rock bass, fallfish and chub keep a light rod busy.