I did a float trip on the South Fork of the Shenandoah yesterday, and it was absolutely awesome. It was actually fairly difficult fishing conditions - the water was crystal clear and it was bright and sunny, so we needed very long casts to have any success. The smallies were spooky as all get up - if you could see them, they were already probably swimming away. If not, the cast sure as heck did. The morning started out slow for smallmouths (although sunfish were eager to hit non stop), but we took a few from the shade lines. As it got closer to noon, the topwater bit slowed down more, so we changed over to an olive and white clouser. I took a few off that, but still all in the shade - not a nibble in the sun, other than a few sunfish. We switched over to a local specialty called a "Magnum Hog Sucker" that imitates, well, a hog sucker - one of the baitfish in the river. Shortly after noon, a switch flipped, and I was taking a smallmouth nearly every cast to a cut, hole, or rocky flat. Unfortunately, we only had 2 imitations with us, and fish ended up breaking off both. I wasn't checking the line for abrasion from the fish's mouth enough. We switched to a couple other patterns (hellgramites, marauders, etc.), and got a few bites, but I had become so tired I missed almost every single one.
All in all, countless smallies, sunfish, and even a largemouth. The biggest smallmouth I caught was about 15" - not huge, but one heck of a fight. We did see quite a few big smallies though - unfortunately I scared them all - and also saw tons of giant catfish and carp. The guide was saying the smallmouth season might be done this year after this weekend since they're expecting some huge amounts of rain and it'll probably wash out any time that's left. The good news is the brook trout will be turning on in the streams soon!
Jeff
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