The Great Smallmouth Fishing is Coming Back on the Shenandoah River
Since both Forks of the Shenandoah River are within minutes drive of my fly shop in Edinburg, Virginia it is easy to understand why I spend parts of four to five days of each week fishing them from spring to fall.
The smallmouth action in 2008 was outstanding! In fact, I caught more large smallmouths here this year than I’ve caught in the last ten years combined.
I believe there are three reasons for this outstanding fishing. First, I’ve detected gradually improved fishing over the past several years, both in the numbers and the sizes of the bass. Second, there is a tremendous amount of food in these rivers….We’ve had few severe floods to damage the food. And finally, the water levels were excellent in the early part of 2008. In May, when I realized I was getting such great fishing consistently I could not resist calling my friend, Larry Mohn, our Virginia Fisheries Biologist to tell him the great news. Larry’s response was… “That’s outstanding and you know, I’ve been expecting this. The conditions now are excellent.” I found out later that Larry had predicted this with some of our fisheries biologists.
If you would like to get in on this great action on the Shenandoah, let’s look at some of the basic guidelines which will help you. Remember, these big bass did not get big by being stupid. You really need to evaluate what they feed upon and their favorite areas at each time of the year. By understanding this you can choose the effective tactics and flies.
That great fishing I called Larry about in April came from digging the bass out of the deep pools below the riffles on Murray’s Heavy Black Hellgrammite size #4 and along the bank bays on Shenk’s White Streamers size #4.
Since there is often a full water level in April a good ploy is to fish the upstream sections of the branches. These show in my book Virginia Blue Ribbon Streams. One of my favorite locations on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River is the Meem’s Bottom area just south of Mt. Jackson, Virginia. There is also some excellent early season water on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River at Port Republic.
From the middle of May until the middle of June many large bass feed heavily on shiner minnows which are now easy prey on the exposed gravel bars along the edges of the rivers. If the water here is less than three feet deep I us a Silver Outcast size #4. If it is greater than three feet deep I use a Murray’s Shiner Streamer size #6.
You can find miles of this fishing on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River downstream from Chapman’s Landing Access Spot at Edinburg. The South Fork of the Shenandoah River at the Grove Hill Access Point downstream of the town of Shenandoah has great shiner fishing over the gravel bars at this time of year.
From the middle of June until the middle of September you have excellent chances to find good smallmouth fishing throughout most of the Shenandoah drainage. However, if you are after big bass, remember, I said they didn’t get big by being stupid. I firmly believe the reason we don’t catch more large bass than we do is because we spook them…usually with our approach.
On numerous days when I’ve been guiding expert casters I’ve spotted large bass on feeding stations. I’ll point out the exact locations of the bass then beach the boat and stay out of the way as the angler stalks his big bass. In about half of the cases he catches his bass and is thrilled. However, in half of the cases he’ll spook the bass and I’ll see it flee for cover. I clearly remember accomplished anglers on two separate areas spooking bass we had spotted as they approached them…and they were on their hands and knees. They had done nothing wrong but the big bass were very wary. Good ways to keep from scaring big bass is to wade slowly, fish across ledges and grass beds, make long casts and fish at dusk.
Productive areas through the summer on the main stem of the Shenandoah River are at Locke’s and Castleman’s Ferry Access Points just south of the West Virginia line. On the South Fork, I like the Foster’s Landing and Inskeep (Below the Route 675 bridge) state access points.
The North Fork gives good summer fishing at Chapman’s Landing state access point two miles north of Edinburg on Route 11. (The best water is downstream from the access point.)
Our three most successful surface summer patterns are the Shenandoah Blue Popper sizes #4 and 6, the Olive Strymph sizes #4 and 6 and the Murray’s Heavy Black Hellgrammite sizes #4 and 6.
By fall last year I realized I was in a banner year so I got greedy and started hunting for big bass. This was tough because the rivers were low and I knew the big fish would be wary. Here are fiver tactics I used with good success. You try some of them and see how you do. 1) I fished until dark almost every evening and found the big bass bolder in low light. 2) I went to the deep pools but concentrated on fishing the hip-deep feeding areas around these deep pools. 3) I hid my approach by fishing across aquatic grassbeds and ledges. 4) I fished upstream most of the time to prevent scaring the bass. 5) I punched out long casts.
On many evenings I used all of these tactics in the same areas and I was real pleased with the results.
The main stem of the Shenandoah River is excellent in the fall around the Berry’s Ferry access area at Route 50.
The South Fork of the Shenandoah River is good in the fall around the Bentonville access point.
The North Fork of the Shenandoah River is low in the fall but there is good fishing below the Burnshire Bridge on Route 758 two miles east of Woodstock off Routes 11 and 665.
The same flies we use during the summer are equally effective in the fall.
If you would like some fine fly fishing for bass I strongly suggest you try the Shenandoah drainage this year. I know I am very excited about fishing it.
