BirdTrout
The Conway Nine-Inch Water — Conway River, Virginia
Also called Devils Ditch.
41 NHD reaches, 14.4 miles of drawn channel — side channels and braids included, so more than the distance downriver. Nearest reporting gauge 20.4 miles away.
Open in BirdTroutThe line is the water this name refers to, drawn from the NHD reaches it resolves to; the dots are the nearest gauges reporting water temperature, coloured by what they read now.
What it is
The Conway and its Devils Ditch headwater inside the Rapidan WMA and Shenandoah National Park, held to a nine-inch minimum — a wild brook trout stream managed as one rather than stocked. The regulation covers part of the stream, not all of it — the extent above is the agency's wording. What is drawn here is the whole named stream, because there is no boundary anywhere we could check it against.
Nine-inch minimum size limit within the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area and Shenandoah National Park.
Where it is
This name covers a stretch whose boundaries are posted on the ground rather than held in any file this site reads, so the map draws the named stream and the boundaries are described in words above rather than guessed at with a line.
No access site in this state's file falls within 3 miles of the mapped reach.
Regulations on this stretch
Nine-inch minimum size limit within the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area and Shenandoah National Park.
Rules change every year and the posted signs are the authority, not this page. Check the current Virginia regulations before you fish. Where this stretch sits inside a larger river, that river's general regulations apply everywhere this stretch's do not.
Best times
Brook trout water: April through June, then again in the cool of September and October.
Live water temperature
| Gauge | Distance | Now |
|---|---|---|
| War Branch Below Trib Near Tenth Legion, Va | 20.4 mi | 58.3 °F |
| Smith Creek Near New Market, Va | 24.2 mi | 61.0 °F |
Live from USGS — the number above is current rather than whenever the page was written. A gauge miles away is a gauge miles away: the distance column is there so you can discount it.
Fly shops nearby
- Appalachian Trail Outfitters — 11.7 mi
- Mossy Creek Fly Fishing — 23.5 mi
- Albemarle Angler — 24.1 mi
- Walkabout Outfitters — 25.2 mi
Straight-line distance from the centre of the mapped reach.
Sources for the name
BirdTrout did not name this water. 2 independent sources below use the name, and it ships only because more than one of them does.