New River, Giles Co., VA
For
Smallmouth
What We Caught
Some Redeyes and and a whole bunch of 10"-14" inch smallmouth.
What We Learned
That Muskie eat Smallmouth, and that the locals are not happy about this fact. Seriously, this section of the New is flat full of fish. Simply trolling a fly behind the canoe while paddling triggered more than a couple of hookups. The fish themselves are really cool -- a longer, leaner, darker green version of smallie that the New has here in NC. But the word on the street is that the muskies the Virgina DNR is busy dumping into the river are destroying the fishery. There are still plenty of big fish in the river -- my brother landed a 3+ lb. monster on a solo trip two weeks prior -- but we never so much as saw a fish over 14". Why? Well, all those muskie gotta eat something.
Oh, and Hurricane Earl was coming through, a paddling three miles downstream with a 40 mph headwind flat sucks.
Heading Home
It was a fun day. Windy, but a lot of fish and good to see the brothers.
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