Well, it is winter time, and outside of what sounds like a pretty insane inshore bluefin tuna bite off Virginia Beach, I haven't heard about much happening.
So, that means it is the time of the year where I daydream about trying new fishing things in the new year. This thread is for discussing tackle and techniques, posting reports, and general conversing. I haven't decided if I am going to attend the fishing show in Richmond January 12-14, but if you are let me know.
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A quick question- are there any shore accessible places in Virginia, especially near Richmond, where there is any kind of substantive white bass run? I was fascinated with trying to catch them as a kid as I heard stories about them running up around Alvarado at the headwaters of South Holston Lake. But, I never caught them or saw anyone else catch them, and before long it was walleye that was the focus of the spring in the rivers. I did catch one big one as a teenager throwing rattle traps for bass, but I would love to find a good place to learn to catch white bass. Thoughts?
Only consistent white bass run I know of is in NETN above Cherokee and Douglas lakes. Can be stupid fishing at times if you hit it just right.
Is that window in mid April, or earlier? I heard there was a shore access point above Cherokee at the Hugh Day Bridge
It's usually early to mid April but it depends on water temp and flow. For Cherokee, we used to fish a lot below the John Sevier steam plant near Rogersville. There's good bank access along a good portion of the river there, however it's primarily large riprap and can be a pain to fish all day. When the paddle fish run starts it usually coincides with the white bass run. Usually late in the run you also get some hybrid moving up, which can make for an unreal fight on ultralight tackle.
The best fishing I've done, however, has been at the headwaters of Douglas where the French Broad and Nolichucky come together. There's a boat ramp and shore access near there at Leadville above the train trussell. I've seen people access the shore there from the other side, but I'm not sure how they got there. Several years ago we hit it just right, and you could cast out, reel up your slack, and jerk and you had a fish. When we were searching for them we usually used a double doll fly rig below a float. Tipping with a minnow can up your odds, but they can be a pain to lug around when navigating the shore. When the bite is good a little cleo, panther martin or rooster tail worked well and was a bit more fun to fish.
My father in law lives in the area now so I'll get some intel on when the run happens. It really helps to know what's going on before you make the trip. I've had days with just a few bites and days where you got tired of catching fish.
Can confirm the Rogersville area for walleye, white bass, stripers, hybrids, crappie and some big smallmouth...all in the area down from the steam plant to the bridge. Shore access is there, but timing is the biggest factor. The paddlefish run is insane, with locals snagging them and the fish getting foul hooked by anglers after game fish. We used to call it the Rogersville sleigh ride when that happened. It was where I learned how to walleye fish, and I had to drive about three hours one way to fish it, but we always took a jon boat for the run up to the warm water discharge. I used to see dozens of people lining the bank around the bridge when the crappie were running, but I was always fixated on walleye and it always annoyed me if I caught something else, even big smallmouth.
The paddlefish won't bite, so they allow the snagging, something I don't care for in this fishery. I was around some snaggers above the San Juan in Navajo lake during the Kokanee salmon spawn and didn't feel so uncomfortable with it since the fish die after the spawn. Not to mention how damned delicious they are on the grill! The paddles, though, are so big that they sustain a lot of damage being snagged, and while some of the snaggers eat them, many don't. Go figger.
VA DWR Site on White Bass
Bluefin Tuna bite was so good in NJ they have already shut the federal season down. Will reopen in January. My friends killed one at 270 pounds in NC before closure.
My buddy has also figured out the winter time fishing at the Cape for puppy drum. He got 14 today in a few hours on spin and fly. I'd drive down there and fish with him but I'm neck deep in feather earring orders. My boat sits in Wilmington at my cousin's house who is supposed to be rewiring it. He said it would take a week or two. It's been a month and he's only done part of it. I can't blame him, that's how projects go.
I still need to do a Belize report.
Word here around the Middle Peninsula is that the rockfish are still up North and up the rivers. I have confirmed catches in the Rappahannock above the White Stone bridge, but the bigger numbers and sizes seem to be caught up the Potomac. My neighbor was out yesterday all afternoon looking here around Gwynn's, out to buoy 41 and all the way out the the Cut Channel without a bite. Birds, bait and boats were slim to none, catches even slimmer. Usually by now, the mouth of the Rapp and all the way down to the Mobjack have schoolies. Not this year yet.
Lower Potomac rock are getting large along with keeper size. Fish over 40 are being caught and released, along with limits .
Killer deal on a Sage Spectrum 7/8 weight saltwater fly reel on Sierra. $150, which is 53% off. Better than the pro deal I get, and in the copper color its kinda like maroon! They also have a 5/6 Freshwater version.
Just ordered one for myself, not because I need it, but because when I look good, I feel good. When I feel good, I fish good.
Sage
Funny. I always tried to impress upon my hunting friends that showing up in town with bloody pants and hands made for a bad impression on others, but I never thought about it for myself until I attained a bit of age. I may have old clothes on when I fish, but they are good ones. Fish don't give a shit, but like you say, nice to at least try to look good while being comfortable.
More to the point: Just off the phone with a friend and former client who goes on an annual buddy charter trip, usually out of Reedville, for stripers...errrrr...rockfish. They went yesterday. The capt'n had moved the boat to the Cone River for closer access to the Potomac. The lower Potomac is right now absolutely loaded with rockfish. I mean loaded, according to his report. They were trolling only, 8 lines out all with umbrella rigs. One blue and white spread, all the rest chartreuse. Of course, we all know that if it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use, but Scott was surprised that there was that focused of a preference. He said they lost track of how many they caught, limiting out and done by 10:30 and using a Maryland license, able to keep two apiece. The average size they kept was between 7-8 lbs, and had three monsters, biggest was 49 lbs that they did the photo&release on.
My other buddy, neighbor Paul, fished all over the area here, even running over to The Cell, and trolled for hours and didn't get a bite.
Pro Tip Here: Hi thee to the Potomac if you're close enough. My trailer is too suspect to leave the confines of Mathews and the Potomac a long run by water, or I'd be on the road. Guess it's spiral ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus and the Hokies instead. Could be worse, right?
Can reconfirm again that lower potomac is hot. Rock is on the menu.
3+ inches of rain here last night will reshuffle the deck; I'll likely wait 'til January to sort it out.
Send it all to Virginia. We really, really need it.
Getting a dose right now. Could do without the coming wind, though.
Here in the Chesapeake, people pretty much pull the boat after the New Year. Rockfish season is over Dec 31, and most of these salties around here won't bother to fish if they can't keep them. I suspect decent fishing may be had around here in January as they filter out of the Potomac and Maryland. Maybe this rain and blow will hasten the move, but if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there?
Boy you got off easy. Weather station in my back yard measured 5.65" it just got worse up the SC coast. 8" in Charleston, 11-14" in Pawleys Island. Ended up producing the 4th highest high tide on record in Charleston.
sounds like we did! center passed west/north of us; tides were actually higher here thursday (regular nor'easter level) than the weekend. and just 3 hours or so of real heavy rain
Wow. I remember seeing some very high tides in downtown Charleston 15 years ago. What's scarier is that I lived in Charleston 15 years ago.
We got some rain in VA but could have used all of that.
Need to find or get made one of these in true Hokies colors....
Well, that's one thing my family and in-laws haven't seen yet or I'd have at least two of them.
47 drum landed in the past few weeks by my buddy at the Cape. He is fishing shallow creeks and oysters. Top fly is a worm fly I tied, about 3 inches long.
Apparently there are tons of drum, some of them bulls, in the surf. Also a dead sperm whale washed up on the point.
I am really deep into the process of talking myself into fishing the Melton Hill tailwater below Knoxville when I am back in Abingdon this spring.
For what species?
Let me know when you're back down this way and I'll see if I can hook you up with some white bass/walleye/smallmouth fishing. I've got a decent river boat and have a friend that has a pretty good setup as well if you'd rather not fight the bank.
Will do. Would love to catch some white bass.
For those of you who may attend that fishing show French mentioned, check out my old friend and fellow guide Jim Richmond's latest fishing obsession. Bodacious bass popping bugs. Pricey as hell, and they're almost too pretty to use, but tried and true catchers for the discriminating angler. He invited me to come up and grab his extra bed at the hotel for the night and I'm mulling it over. Been a while since I was immersed in the angling crowd and I'm sure to run into people I know from the life, but I'm such a homebody these days. We'll see.
Are they flies? Not seeing anything on the interwebs.
I'd go but I'm driving to Colorado for who knows how long to shred the gnar and sell feathers to ski bunnies.
They are about the prettiest most perfect popping bugs you could imagine. He sells them through Matt Riley I believe, and Matt sells them at shows and perhaps on the web. He's tying dozens and dozens of them and Matt is selling them out as fast as Jim can make them. Jim and Chuck Kraft tied the best popping bugs I've ever seen and Jim is keeping the tradition alive.
Speaking of Jim and Chuck, one of our cohorts has passed away. If you've fished with me, you've likely heard a Cecil story. Fantastic fisherman on the New River, musky and smallmouth master, Cecil was also a dyed in the wool Radford redneck. He bragged about having been on almost every roof in Radford (he had a roofing biz) and aso having gravel in his ass from every bar parking lot within 50 miles of Radford. Cecil was short tempered and while he could be pretty tough, he got his butt beaten many times in his rowdy youth. Married to three women, all three of whom left him for a variety of reasons, he died alone sitting in his easy chair in his house in Hazel Hollow on the river. I have a ton of stories about him, but above all, he was the second best fisherman I've ever fished with, or even known.
Anyway, as I grow old and lose friends, I know it is inevitable, but still makes me sad and long a little for the many hours on the river fishing with them. RIP Chuck and Cecil Branscom. Hope you find a honey hole in heaven and the sun never sets before they're tired of catching.
having gravel in his ass from every bar parking lot within 50 miles of Radford
This is hilarious. Sorry about the loss of your friend. I feel lucky enough that Chuck would recognize me and come chat with me about fly design at the shows. I specifically remember at the last one at the New Jersey show we both attended before he died. "Chris, stop tyin all dem colors. All you need is black n silver for musky."
Are these the bugs you're referring to?
https://easterntrophiesflyfishing.bigcartel.com/product/jim-richmond-excalibur-bugs-1
William Heresniak has been tying those for quite some time. I have one and the epoxy split. Pretty disappointed in that. He does put a lot of work into them. I've got some of the topwater Kreelex patterns. They would make killer redfish flies.
You gave me two of those originals from Chuck and / or Jim. They sit on the wall, retired on my tying bench.
Can't get that link to work, but if you still have those bugs I gave you, they'd be close to what Jim's doing. The ones you have are CK originals, iirc, and are probably at least 20 years old. He and Jim had been tying them for a while when he gave them to me, but truth be told, Jim is as meticulous as Chuck was and now has tied more than Chuck did, given Chuck's wide range of patterns. At $20 a pop, I'd be surprised, and also disappointed if they died before their job was done. I'll not claim that Jim does it better, but he's so detail oriented and focused on that one endeavor, it wouldn't surprise me if he does.
Chuck was as crusty as two week old French bread, but he was friendly as all get out and the source of some of my best country boy type sayings. Cecil was close to as good a smallmouth fisherman as Chuck, believe me,
and a much better musky fisherman. He tied his own fly stuff for muskies, but it was function over form for him. I was with him when he got his first musky on a fly he made for them. It looked like a baby mink, was a two piece double hook monstrosity you needed muscles to cast, and caught a musky within 20 minutes of casting it in the pool above the Celanese plant in Pearisburg. The fly was so unwieldy that it took him half of that time just trying to figure out how to cast it. I dug it out of my big straw cowboy hat twice before he got the feel of it. It would be at least two or three years before Chuck would get a musky on the fly, and he may have been with Cecil when he did, but I don't remember. I know I was lucky and would never have been able to do the guiding I did without Chuck and Cecil, and Jim was my first call when I needed a second boat, and vice versa.
Best smallmouth trip I ever had, among a lot of truly outstanding days, was a spring trip on the Shenandoah. Chuck rowed Cecil and I on a high, stained river and we caught so many citation smallmouths we didn't bother to keep count. Incredible action, fish were in their spawning holes in the pre-spawn, and we sometimes would get two 20" fish from the same small hole. Chuck called a real good one for us, too. He told us that this particular hole had been a spawning place for some nice largemouth. Cecil hooked up and then caught the only largemouth of the day, and the biggest bass Chuck ever had in his raft, a 9-1/2 lb momma with a gut bigger than her mouth. Toward the end of the run, an old feller was on the bank poking around and asked us why we were on the river. Chuck said we were fishing, and the old man shook his head and said we were wasting our time trying to fish high muddy water. "Y'all ain't gonna catch a damned thing in this muck". That trip more than any other was my catalyst for some really nice smallmouth from the New in water most wouldn't have even launched in. Ahhhh, the good ol' days.
How about this one?
https://easterntrophiesflyfishing.bigcartel.com/product/jim-richmond-exc...
A muskrat fly haha. I've heard of giant salmon eating a squirrel bait pulled across the surface in Mongolia... It's awesome to hear about that story about high water fishing. Probably one of those days that you can't ever recreate. A guide I know used my Bangarang fly on a high water April day on the Doah and did really well. It's a fly that's a cross between a sluggo and a rattletrap. Maybe I need to try the hitting some high water smallmouth. I know a small chatterbait would work great for them.
Thanks for the link. Those are the bugs I spoke of. More important to me were Jim's remeniscence of Chuck and their friendship. Jim's introduction to the raft really made Chuck's guide business take off. Tough sell though,
Chuck was notorious for not doing anything fishing wise that he hadn't thought up himself. While I have some stories to the contrary, his way was usually the best way.
Always enjoyed your stories of Cecil, a true character. RIP to both of them.
if the CO ski scene is anything like the FL beach scene, piercings aren't restricted to just ears.
Did you mean aren't?
There's a stripper in Tampa that asked for feather nipple... I don't even know what to call them but they would attach to her piercings in some certain places that aren't ears. I never made them, but did write the visit off to taxes.
yes, aren't
I never made them, but did write the visit off to taxes.
lol, perfect
Looks like the show 13-14th is a fly fishing/wine tasting show. The big Richmond Fishing Expo is the next weekend. I've never been to either. Jim's a fly guy so that's where he'll be.
It's only ever good on Saturday at the Fly Fishing Show
Yeah, if I go it'd be Sat. Worth the time?
It's generally good on Saturday, despite the fact that yours truly won't be there to entertain and share fly fishing info. You won't need the waders to get through my BS, however, if you go, be sure to mention my name. You'll either get a free beer or a punch in the face.
For a free beer, I'll wear a catcher's mask and hope for the best. But since your BS won't be there, I'll be glad to represent the BS Department of Guides for you while you weenie your way out west selling ear adornment to the ski bunnies and well heeled trophy wives. I'm merely an observer this time around, though, and will be working hard to get as much free wine, and maybe bourbon I've heard, before I get cut off from each and every booth.
A day to catch up with an old friend or two. We gettin' long in the tooth and not so long for this world.