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I've found that the larger Shenandoah streams, like the Rapidan, work best for me with an 8'-8 1/2' rod, due to 1) the fact that they're surprisingly open, with plenty of backcast room; 2) the flow is often fast, and a long rod helps in mending line and rescuing your fly before it gets into a logjam or over the rapids to snag your leader or line between rocks; and 3) the streams have such a high gradient that it's nice to have a longer rod with the reach to cast to the next pool or run above you.

It's often just one plunge pool after another up there. So many waterfalls that their noise can be thunderous, and unending along the length of the stream gorge.

One reason that the streams are so open- despite being in the middle of the woods- is that they have wide stream channels to carry the high flows of spring rains and cloudbursts. Then, later in the spring or 1-2 days after heavy rains, the stream flow decreases and the width of the stream shrinks from around 25 yards wide to more like 25 feet wide, leaving wide open areas of dry streambed on each side. Hardly any branches, brush or weeds there to grab the fly- it's all boulders and rubble.

Because they're headwater streams in unlogged areas of wild-growth forest, the streams clear up quickly after even the heaviest cloudbursts. And because the gradient is so steep, the high flows churn right through. Even though the water is usually crystal clear, it can be very tough to fish a high flow, because the water moves so quickly through the pools, and the fish tend to hug the bottom under cover.

But even after a few days of thunderstorms, the streams go back to a reasonable speed and depth following 1-2 days of clear weather, and that's pretty easy fishing- until the season of low water, in the summer, which can be enough of a problem in drought years that you're best off giving the Shenandoah brookies some time off, and finding somewhere else to cast a line.

Last year was a drought year. This year is not. There's a pretty nice insect population in the streams, too- sometimes 3 or 4 kinds of bug hatching at once. The Rapidan even has big stoneflies.