Fished the New River near Radford Va on Friday with my father. He's losing his vision, and this is a place I definitely wanted to share with him while his sight's still good.
We started a late afternoon float, after arranging our $10 shuttle.
Conditions were great.
Right off the bat, several smallies to hand on grass mat shoals. Dad and I kept rambling on about musky...how his uncles in NY used to agonize over catching one.
Unfortunately, the water from Claytor dam, rose by a couple 1000 CFS during our float, killing the bite, but the surroundings were still beautiful.
Downstream View:
One of many grasslines that produced our fish:
Evening sank in, and we decided to try to salvage the day by trying buzz baits. The topwater bite on past trips has always been great around dark. After I observed a couple of boats chucking musky gear, I put on much larger buzzbait hoping to lure one of the beasts out of the depths...it WORKED!
About an hour before dusk, on a quick retrieve, I lifted the bait out of the water, and there in hot pursuit was a GOLIATH musky...he turned at the boat, making a giant swirl boatside. I yelled in panick to my dad...."Did you see that thing?! Look!Look! Look! He's still there!" Dad missed seeing his first musky due to his vision, but he did see the swirl of the takilwake that lingered in the dark water after the fish had turned away. My attempts at figure 8's and other casts were unrewarded.
Later on near the takeout, Dad sat out from fishing as we passed a swift shoal. I launched the big bait and churned up the water in a slick behind a rock pile on. I coud see a wake in hot pursuit of the bait. I hollered to my Dad to watch the bait. In the swift water BAM!!! A hellacious explosin pounced the bait. I could see the tail wake about 3 ft behind , so no doubt it was another musky! I then commenced to pulling the bait out of its mouth before a solid hookset..Game over! DAMN!!!
Dad saw the blow-up, and he got as fired up as I did, knowing we were so close to another one of these intriguing fish.
Hopped over to NC on my home river on Sunday. Hoping to free myself of this curse of lost fish. Made my way up river to have another go at the one I lost a few weeks ago. This smallie gave ma good bust in the white water of a shoal.
View upstream from put-in:
Eased into some sluggish water with log jams, and had a nice musky in the 35-40" range chase the fly up to the boat. He spooked when he followed into shallow water and saw me.
Almost! I can't wait til the next chance I get to chase these critters. They're taunting me...
Travis
Topic: Virginia and NC River Hopping (Read 1378 times)