Nat Greene Flyfishers    August 2007

MEETINGS & EVENTS

A Day to Remember

As many of you are no doubt aware, there are serious environmental challenges to the welfare of the fish in the Shenandoah and James River Systems in Virginia. Significant fish kills have blunted what was a magnificent fishery for smallmouth bass and red breast sunfish, two principal game fish in these waters. Nonetheless, with recent stories in the newspapers portraying the demise of the smallmouth fishery fresh on my mind, I decided to meet an old friend, Jim Wolf of Manassas, VA, for a fishing trip on the upper James River in mid-July 2007.

The mighty James River has its origins deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western Virginia as two smaller streams, the Jackson River and the Cowpasture that meet in the hamlet of Iron Gate to become the James. The river supports a superb smallmouth fishery the entire way as it courses through Virginia until it becomes tidal just below Richmond.

A much needed cooling trend from a weak high pressure system had passed through the area during the week of our planned trip, and so both Friday and Saturday the air was cool, the water temperature had dropped a few degrees to around 76 degrees F, and most importantly, as we found out, the smallmouth were hungry and very aggressive. As we arrived at the river shortly before 8 AM, we were greeted by heavy fog that was coming off the river as it cooled down. It was a surreal, almost eerie scene as we launched our canoe. The only sounds were a pair of hawks calling to each other in the mist.

My fly fishing tackle consisted of a Temple Fork Lefty Kreh autograph series, 9 ft 6 weight fly rod and reel with a matching 6 weight floating line from Lefty Kreh. Jim and I also used light 6 ft spinning rods spooled with 8 lb test braided polymer line on either Shimano Strada or the smaller series Daiwa reels. I prefer using floating fly line for most fly fishing situations in the river as it allows a quick change from top water fishing to nymph fishing without changing reels/spools. Also in most moving water situations, the water is just 5-6 feet deep, and a little weight on a fly or a bead head is all that is needed to get the presentation down far enough to entice Mr. Smallie. The day before I had spent several hours scouting potential wade fishing areas on the James and had noticed that the smallies were almost exclusively feeding on crayfish and hellgrammites. I determined this by fishing different flies until I got some takes, plus I turned over a lot of small rocks and noticed a healthy population of both critters was present, and both tended to run fairly small (1-1 ½ inches long). I also noticed that due to the warmer temperatures, the smallies were only active in areas with well-oxygenated water, i.e., riffles, long runs and rapids. There also was a slight stain in the water from recent rains. Armed with this information, I was hopeful we would have a productive fishing trip the next day. What transpired was beyond my wildest dreams.

In my 30+ years of fishing the James, I have never experienced what I had in the way of fishing in terms of numbers or size on this day. It started at the very first run, and continued throughout the morning, fish after fish slamming our lures/flies with a ferociousness that only a smallmouth can display. At one point during the morning, after catching probably 25 fish on 28 or so casts, I was half expecting to hear a voice from above saying, "All right Parshley, that's enough, you are done here", and then a lightening bolt would strike me dead. It would have been an appropriate end to a life spent enjoying fishing, but thankfully I was spared! On my previous best days on the James, the fish catching was about 40+ fish per person. This day, I caught and released well over 70 smallmouth bass and about 40 fish of other species (rock bass, several kinds of bluegill/sunfish. warmouth bass, and a number of large fallfish) and Jim probably landed over 45 fish. Jim had a tough early part of the day as he was feeling a little out of sorts from lack of sleep but rebounded nicely in the afternoon with a number of quality fish. Part of his afternoon success was a realization that he was retrieving his crayfish lure too fast, compared to the speed I was fishing. We determined that the Strada reels had a higher gear ratio than my Daiwa so I was actually retrieving the lure at 1/3 the speed that he was retrieving, so once he got the proper timing of retrieve, the fish started hammering his lures as well. The secret was to crank the lure down near the bottom and then barely retrieve it in the current, letting the current impart the action. It worked like a charm.

I also lost a lot of fish due to carelessness as I became more fatigued as the day wore on, and my fly casting became ugly as the weight of so many hard fighting smallies took a toll. I actually quit fishing hard after about 2 PM and guided Jim the rest of the day while he fished. We had a tough day on equipment, with one reel needing repair and one fractured rod for me, and Jim also broke a rod tip off, but it was well worth it for the fishing experience of a lifetime. I am conservatively estimating numbers, because frankly I quit counting fish after about 50. Most were around 10-12 inches but I had about two dozen between 13-15 1/2 inches long and Jim probably had close to the same number of larger fish. The largest smallie I landed straightened out two hooks on one treble and one hook on the second on the Rebel crayfish lure before I landed him. I surmised that the hooks straightened right after I hooked him, as he became very agitated at hook set after a very short cast and tried to return to his ambush spot in a weed bed but I would not let him get there. I also lost a very large smallie, which I briefly saw, before he pulled the tail set of trebles off the lure and escaped!!

On an encouraging note, the fish seemed very healthy with only two fish, one nice smallmouth and a large sunfish exhibiting the lesions that are characteristic of the fish kills that have occurred on the upper James and Shenandoah Rivers.

The lure of the day was the crayfish, fished very slowly near the bottom in riffles and faster water with boulders/large rocks on the bottom. They really slammed it and a couple of times I almost had the rod ripped from my hands by aggressive hits. I caught a large number of fish on the crayfish but had very good success with the fly rod also by using a small white rubber legged black fuzzy bodied nymph tied by my good friend Anthony Hipps. It also had a weighted/bead head, so the fly sank readily to near the bottom and it likely simulated a hellgrammite. I fished it in the same way as the crayfish. I would make a long cast across a riffle or run that had some deeper water (3-5 feet deep with small boulders/rocks on the bottom.) I would make a very passive retrieve, mostly just mending line to keep it straight and let the fly drift down until it was directly below me. The hits would happen whenever the fly passed by a lurking fish behind cover near the bottom. Over the years of fishing the James, I have found that simply letting the fly suspend at the end of the drift for a few moments can be very productive, as James River smallmouth tend to hit flies and lures presented vertical to the current, either straight up or straight down. Another tip is when wading and fishing runs/riffles, be sure to get yourself in the correct position to maximize the drift through potentially productive stretches. This requires you take a few moments to read the water for the most likely spots and then quietly position well above the area you intend to fish. If you stage yourself correctly and present the fly as mentioned, you will quickly find Mr. Smallie.

I also caught a few smallmouth bass and a large number of fat sunfish and rock bass on the Hipps Popper, although the fish were generally not looking up, probably due to the weather being so nice and bright. That was the only regret, that we did not get a solid surface bite all day. While there were lots of folks out (12 canoes of fisherman plus a number of float tube fishermen) clearly they weren't having the same level of success that we experienced. I would attribute a lot of our success to my previous day scouting and preparations. We finished up the 9 mile float about 5:30 PM so we missed any chance at an evening bite, but frankly we did not care. Enough was enough for us this day, except that I forgot to mention the large male black bear that swam across the river just ahead of us during the middle of the afternoon, my first such experience on a river. So, for this angler and his fishing buddy, it was truly a day to remember

Tom Parshley,
Greensboro, NC

====================================================