I have been behind on keeping the blog up to date, I apologize. My Spring has been packed with trips, so no complaints other than sore shoulders. It has been a great Spring with dry conditions I didn’t have to cancel due to blow outs from rain for the first time in like 3 years. Of course dry conditions come with another problem of lower and clear water. This should be a great smallmouth bass spawn year due to the lack of rain. On a different note I have stopped updating my online calendar because I have guide Mike Rennie working with me. So if I am booked for the desired date Mike maybe able to get you on the water. This Winter I will work on having to separate calendars.
Trout fishing on the Jackson River near Covington, VA was excellent this Spring and still is. With the current flows of 230 cfs the dry fly fishing has been great with some late morning hatches of blue winged olives and sulphur mayflies. There are some caddis mixed in the bunch as well. I will here shortly stop doing trout trips till October so the fish do not get stressed from being caught during the Summer heat. Here are few fish from April and May.
With the dry Spring I had a great striper season on the Staunton River. The Staunton (Roanoke River) typically will get muddy from a cow pissing with it being more like a piedmont river with sandy banks. These are lake run stripers coming from Buggs Island Lake upriver to spawn. I finished up on this section at the end of April and headed southeast to Roanoke Rapids, NC for the saltwater stripers coming out of Abermarle Sound. These stripers travel 130 miles to their spawning grounds. I spend two weeks there running two 5 hour charters a day. We had fantastic fishing with topwater fishing opportunity at dawn and dusk. Already looking forward to next season!
Now for the greatest fish in freshwater, smallmouth bass. I didn’t get in enough pre spawn fishing this year. March was still pretty high flows on Virginia’s rivers from our wet Winter. Now that I have returned from the striper fishing smallmouth bass are on the brain. I have been out a few trips recently and with the low and clear conditions topwater fishing has been best for me. The adult smallmouth have just started to show interest in eating more. They have been finicky during this post spawn time frame. Thursdays trip yielded four big fish on topwater so their getting hungry with the warming water temps. Looking forward to the next 4 months casting poppers to the shadows along the banks! My June and July are fully booked but Mike does have openings. August and September I still have plenty of openings. Looking forward to seeing you on the water!
