Fishing with my Brother and Friend on the New River

Literally, 29 hours out of 48 hours were spent on the New River casting for smallmouth...

The New River in Giles County, Virginia.

For those that know me, you know that I have two passions...Of course running/track & field is at the top of the list...and the second is fishing, especially on the lower New River for smallmouth bass surrounded by the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia. Specifically the passion is the pursuit of 20+inch smallmouth in the fast moving rapids found throughout the 37 miles of New River stretched throughout Giles County...

Here's a short story about 2 days I recently spent with my brother Mike and lifelong family friend, Roger Bailey canoeing the New River in pursuit of those giant Virginia smallmouth at our place in Giles County, Virginia.

Our cabin...our escape.

Several years ago Lori and I purchased 70 acres of land overlooking the New River in Giles County. It's a great place to escape and enjoy the outdoors, especially if you like fishing. The county is amazing...with places like "The Cascades"... "Mountain Lake Resort" which is where the Patrick Swayze movie classic "Dirty Dancing" was filmed in 1987...and miles of endless running, biking and hiking trails. My dad and brothers are in the timber industry (One of our nations few renewable resources.) in my hometown of St. Marys, West Virginia. A few years ago, shortly after Lori and I purchased our land, they harvested timber from land we own in my hometown of St. Marys and put it through their lumber mill cutting the lumber we needed to build a 20'x24' cabin (shown above). It's a rustic place by all standards...with no electricity... Just the way we like and prefer it. The idea is, it's a place to escape....It's one of the few places remaining with limited cell phone service.

We built the cabin with my 036 Stihl chainsaw...and nothing more. No skill saw...every cut on every board for the cabin was made with a chainsaw. It's extremely well put together I might add and was a fun project for Lori and I. With the help of my dad, 4 brothers and a couple friends (Howard Nippert and Mike Cox) we had the entire building up and under roof in 9 working days.

My oldest brother Mike with a 20 inch smallmouth bass...
He and my brother Clifford help coach the
2009 & 2010 State Champion T&F and XC teams
at our Alma Mater, St. Marys High School in St. Marys, WV.

My brother (Mike), Roger and I had the canoe loaded at the cabin on Thursday evening with everything ready for an early start the next morning. As Friday morning arrived, we were up and out the door…We had a quick breakfast before launching the canoe for our 7 ½ mile float down the New River for day one of our two day fishing adventure….We were on the water at 7:00AM and after we launched the canoe it did not take before we started catching smallmouth… Actually, I hooked a nice little a 14 incher on my first cast. From there we caught fish after fish…Mostly smallmouth…a few red eye, or rock bass depending on where you come from and also a few sunfish. The smallmouth's were what we were after though…

A short stop for lunch on the river.

Our lifelong family friend, Roger Bailey enjoying a sandwich.

Mike is ready to go...

We stopped at one of my favorite spots around 11:30AM for a sandwich…next to an area that always holds real good numbers of fish during the middle of the day. By noon we had already caught over 50 fish each… and that's no fish story. Some were big (a couple up to 20 inches) and some were small (around 10 inches)...

Even 10 inch fish are fun on ultralight tackle...

Roger didn't want his photo taken with this one...

Mike and Roger both landed several over 18 inches...

Our favorite way to fish...wading.

The river...photos do no justice to the beauty...

A 17 incher...

The limestone cliffs are impressive...

Roger with a 14 inch smallmouth.

By late afternoon we had lost track of the number of fish...

Roger with a 18.5 inch trophy.


Mike with another over 20 inches...

In all we spent 15 hours on the water the first day...We lost tract of the time and of the number of fish. We guessed that each of us landed between 120 and 150 during out first day.

The 2nd day the humidity dropped and so did the fishing,

but the scenery was impressive.

On the 2nd day we got into the water a little earlier, around 6:45AM. We were canoeing a section of the river that we had not been on before. I ran through this area on a long run years ago and knew it contained numerous rapids that, depending on water levels, could reach class III. No worries on this trip. The water levels were so low that most of the drops were no problem.

A quick stop in the middle of the New River.

On the 2nd day we spent a total of 14 hours on the water. That is actual river time and doesn't include the commute to get there...Day 2 was not nearly as good of a fishing day, but we still caught 80-90 fish each.

Slow, flat water...We saw lots of musky as we floated.

Figures...here's the only photo they took of me...
That is a fish I'm holding.

Mike in the middle of the river...Great smallmouth water.

We saw several Dobsonfly's...great samllmouth bait
as long as you know how to handle them.

They are big and they are mean.

Dobsonfly's (above) spend most of their life in the larval stage, during which they are called hellgrammites...Hellgrammites are one of the best baits for trophy smallmouth. They live under rocks at the bottoms of tributary streams and the New River. They pact an impressive, painful bites if you do not handle them correctly.

Our cabin as you drive up...Mountain Lake, location of

Mountain Lake Resort is seen in the distance

It's not possible to describe the feeling and total overload of the senses that a trip like this brings. The amount of wildlife we saw was remarkable...The smell of the freshwater...the views of the river and the mountains...and of course the fishing was unmatched. As we floated the New River I listened to the stories Mike and Roger shared. As I navigated with the paddle and listened I was taken back 40 years to my childhood days when we sat on the banks of the Middle Island Creek in my hometown. Aaaaaahhh, running IS life...and so is fishing! I understand my passion for both!