Fly Fishing Virginia

By Bill Schneider, 7-02-07

	Caption: The scenic New River in western Virginia. Photo by Bill Schneider.

I admit that I'm one of the western anglers who has a bit of an attitude about the eastern states. There isn't much to offer the avid fly caster, right? And whatever there is suffers from overcrowding by the eastern masses, no doubt.

After the recent annual conference of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) in Roanoke, Virginia, I decided to test out eastern fly fishing, and I discovered how wrong I was. Not only was the fishing great, and scenic, but we almost had it all to ourselves.

On the last day of the conference, I ran into Chris Hunt, Trout Unlimited rep from Idaho, and we decided to skip classes and go fishing. Imagine that!

We went over to the Jackson River, wade fished all day, caught a few rainbow trout and a bunch of smallmouth bass, and basically had a great day of fishing. And we had the whole river to ourselves, almost. At the end of the day, we saw one other duo out fishing.

The next day I was signed up for a post-conference fishing trip on the nearby New River. Larry Larsen, a veteran outdoor writer from Florida, and I were scheduled to go out with one of the top fishing guides in the area, Shawn Hash of Tangent Outfitters.

The night before Larry and I checked out of the historic and elegant Hotel Roanoke and drove over to Pearlsburg to stay at a delightful B&B called the Inn at RiverBend. That evening, from the deck, we had a cold brewski and viewed the exact section of the New River we would float the next day (You can see if for yourself on the Inn's website.) If you're ever in western Virginia, I highly recommend this relatively new and efficient B&B run by Linda and Lynn Hayes.

Early the next morning, Shawn picked us up at the Inn, and we quickly hit the river in his well-equipped raft. The first thing that struck me, even before I wet a line, was that we had the public access point all to ourselves, something that rarely happens out here in Montana, where you often have to wait in line to put in your boat. And the river, well, it was gorgeous, clean water, and best of all, no string of streamside trophy homes like we see on almost every major trout stream around this neck of the woods.

Shawn spent much of the day apologizing for the fishing, which was a little off for some complicated weather-related reason, but we still put about 40 fish in the boat. Nothing big, but a good day of catching by my standards. Even the weather was fantastic, clear, warm for me, but a little cold for Larry who "doesn't like it under 80 degrees."

	Wild Bill with a New River smallie. Photo by Shawn Hash.

Catching smallmouth bass on a fly rod is as much fun than catching trout. Maybe more. I even fished them the same as I often do trout, with buggers and sink-tip line.

Larry used spinning rods equipped with tubes and flukes and did well, too, so if you aren't a hardened fly caster like me, you can still love a day fishing smallies with Shawn on the New River.

Fishing the New River would be nice any time of the year, but Shawn likes the fall best because he can give his customers a better chance of boating a "citation," which is a 20-inch smallmouth. "In the fall, we often boat three or four in a day," he claims.

After catching a few smallies in the 14- and 15-inch range, I can imagine what hooking up to a "citation" would be like. Makes be want to come back, which I definitely will if I get the chance.

I tried poppers, but the smallies weren't coming up for them that day, like they usually do on the New River, Shawn said. He also had me try some of his "baitfish" flies, which usually "drive them wild," but not that day. So, I went back to my gold standard fly, the wooly bugger, and they hit it all day long. Probably because after about ten million casts, I've learned how to fish buggers.

Tangent Outfitters has been around since 1992 and in prime time, Shawn has about 20 people working for him, so you know you have a veteran outfit working for you. "Fishing is our love," Shawn explains when asked about his business, "but I've learned that to do what you love, you have to do it all." So, in addition to fishing trips, he also offers mountain biking, hiking and other outdoor trips, and has a great outdoor store, with all the locally hot flies and lures, at his home base in Pembrooke, Virginia.

At the end of the day, I was telling Shawn how much I enjoyed it, but he's still apologizing. "Yeah, we caught fish," he said, but we really never go in the groove."

My response was we each caught around 20 nice smallies and had a wild, scenic river all to ourselves. If I had spent the same day on the Missouri or Madison, I might have had my butt kicked by some very smart trout and had to share the stream with twenty other drift boats.

The "groove" sounds good to me, of course, but even without it, fishing smallies on the New River is a day to remember.

[End of article]