The wait is over.

I’m going to get straight to the point on this post. SMALLMOUTH, the bite is on and on strong.

I’ve only lived and fished in Central Virginia going on 16 years now so, I can’t speak to how the James, Shenandoah and Rivanna fished before then. However, I can say, in my 15-16 years fishing these rivers I’ve never seen them fish this well day after day.

The fish kills we’ve had over the years are no secret and the sad truth is it will more then likely happen again if things don’t change/improve. I remember an early spring test float on the Shenandoah a few years ago that we saw more fishing swimming in a sickly manner on the surface then we caught. I called and reported what we saw to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. They said, don’t worry about it, that’s normal, everything is fine. A few months later they started to release statements to the contrary. You can Google Shenandoah river and quickly see everything was not okay.

Nature has an amazing way of taking care of/repairing itself. If you live in Charlottesville you don’t need to travel far to find a great example. The North Fork of the Moormans river. After the flood in 1995 the riverbed was blown out, just about all the vegetation that provided cover/shade was gone and the sign at the trail head said, there was one or was it two brookies left in the river. The depth has returned, the vegetation is back and there must have been two very busy fish left because it’s full of fish now.

Enough of my rambling. Sorry, I kind of got off track. FISHING IS AWESOME RIGHT NOW. Get out there and enjoy it.