As a note, I’m not using the term “spin reel” as a placeholder for all conventional tackle: I’m awful with bait casters and I’m excited to get more practice using them in the “off season.”

Loving two things at once

When I reach for a hammer, it’s not a value judgement on the screwdriver. I love both tools equally, but sometimes it just makes more sense to jam the nail in and I’m here for it. The impetus for adopting conventional tackle into my program wasn’t a frustration with flies, or a desire to get more fish in hand: it actually comes from a desire to understand my river better. I have been blown away with how efficiently a paddle tail can cover water, and that has given me way more opportunities to explore the horizontal axis of the Fall Line, and that has only opened up opportunities for better angling. Does this mean that I had to give up some love for the Clouser? Certainly not! There are familiar stretches of the James which I default to throwing flies, and that’s not a knock on my spin reel. Incorporating spin reel has only increased my versatility and aided me in understanding my river better on days where flies are simply too cumbersome for me to enjoy fishing.

The limitations of flies

When you start with the question “how do I fish my water well?” you have already pushed beyond the question “which rod am I using?” Some days are just tough on a fly rod and I'd like to discuss some of those circumstances and how spin reel can make a day on the water far less frustrating.

“Blue Bird Days”

When you have high or rising barometric pressure on a sunny day, you have the dreaded “blue bird day.” The uneducated see me loading up the car or getting ready to pack out and say “there couldn’t be a better day to be out there!” Yes, friend. There are WAY better days to be out here. As barometric pressure is either high or rising, you’ll find bass way more lethargic, non-committal to the baitfish streamer, and hunkered low and in some unsavory structure. Of course, what an awesome time to dredge a fly as low as possible and pick up these very soft and uninteresting eats! Right? Or, perhaps, we could less painfully plop a salted hellgrammite or crayfish soft-plastic on a 1/4 oz metal head jig and wait for a bump. This requires exponentially less time fussing over a leader, questioning whether or not there’s interest, or walking through a honey hole to unsnag your 5$ fly (I’m not a wealthy man - I don’t leave soldiers behind). When it’s time to get low, I haven’t been able to find consistent and stress-free success with flies just yet.

High and Muddy Water

Believe it or not, there was a time where the Fall Line stretch of the James River had more than 4 ft of water in it. Hard to imagine, I know. If you perused my skunk collection from last summer, you’d find that most of them were clustered around the first few weeks of July as the river had the dreaded “chocolate milk” aesthetic. If you’re out there and you are seeing water like this, you should hang close to the bank (because you value your life) which means that barring a spey rod caliber roll-cast, you aren’t going to have much success covering water. If only there was a way to cast something out without needing any room behind you…

Cold fronts

As refreshing as those days are after a storm which broke a heater of a week, the fishing on those days can be tough. Bass activity can get seriously tamped down when a cold front rolls through, and that activity can be lackluster for days until things get back to hotter temperatures. There aren’t many folks who rope bass in on our stretch of river on these days, but the ones who do have successful days have less in hand but wish they had bigger hands. The secret isn’t shocking: get deep and move slow. “Cracking a tube,” “flipping a jig,” or drop-shotting is where success happens on these days and flies simply aren’t the best tools for the job.

My set up and tackle

Since I’m engaging with conventional tackle as a means to fill in gaps from a fly rod, I gravitate towards the rockiest part of the water column. Because of this, I use a 12 lb braid with a 12 lb mono leader. I like the sensitivity of braid, and since I have a faster action rod tip (more “loadability” at the rod tip) I keep a pretty loose drag. My rod is a medium-light set-up in that it maxes out at around 15lb line.

For tackle, I’ll start from my lowest and slowest fishing tackle and work my way up to my top-water lure (yes, singular):

Low and slow:

• Ned rig (weedless): I like these on the lighter side (1/8 oz) with salted plastics to help the sink.

• Tubes: I use these in the 1/4 oz size and I am experimenting with the “stupid tube” rigging style to keep myself from snagging.

• Metal-head jig-heads: I like these in 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz for hellgrammites and crayfish plastics. I tend to start lighter as I try to use the plastics as a make-shift weedguard with varying success.

• Flipping jigs: I like the “bitsy” variety of these in the 1/4 oz size. I use these when targeting bigger bass as I feel like the weedguard on these things would keep smaller bass from engaging successfully with the lures.

Swim baits:

• Metal-head jig-heads: I use these for paddletails! I try to keep paddletails in short and longer sizes (2” through 3.75”) and in lighter and darker colors. These are incredible for prospecting and fishing these is incredibly efficient!

• EWG weighted hooks for flukes: Fishing flukes is super fun and incredibly effective in slower water for bigger bass. I find that “hog hunting” is best done with a bigger (3.75” and beyond) salted fluke. I also keep some smaller flukes for fishing slower water on the more shallow end of a shady bank.

Top-water:

• Jitterbug: I haven’t had a ton of success on top-water with spin reel, and that by and large, is because I tend to favor conventional tackle on days where top-water isn’t the most productive. Stay tuned!

Conclusion

As I’ve committed to my water, I’ve found less desire to commit to a rod or a technique. If I were more willing to do more driving for trout, then I can’t say that I would quickly gravitate towards a Rooster-tail or a Mepps Spinner because I honestly find that fishing a fly rod is more interesting and engaging than fishing a conventional set-up. Of course I have a preference! That said, when I have the opportunity to get more information, prospect a new spot, or enjoy a much shorter session, I don’t want to feel limited by the rod in hand. All in all, I fish for fun and fishing is most fun when you’re fighting your tackle less. As I’ve engaged with a new tool I have found that my time on the water (on tough days) feels more like

Time well spent.

I can’t say that that I’ve been poring over a spreadsheet to make my observations here, but you kind of knew that already, didn’t you? Based on conversations with friends, social media engagement, and time on the water I’d like to talk about what I’m seeing on the our river right now and how it’s fishing.

Quality Superseding Quantity

If you didn’t set your “Personal Best” in numbers of bass caught in a given session in June/July, then the next few weeks don’t seem to be when it’ll happen this summer. The water is still low and it’s getting unrefreshingly warm, which changes up the movement and eating patterns of river smallmouth. With the right conditions, ideal time of day, and spectacular spot selection you can still rope in good numbers, but the stars really have to align for that to happen at this point. Take heart: this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a great day, it’s just important to know what a good day will be measured in inches instead of in volume.

No, the bass aren’t in distress, but they aren’t happily cruising around and eating voraciously all day. If you’ve been out there for a full day of fishing, you’ve likely observed that the bite changes entirely from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm to be virtually non-existent. At this point in the summer, that’s likely because the water temps have been reaching and cresting 90 degrees during that time each day. Brutal.

The water is low and clear, so you should be fishing leaders that are at least 9 feet in length, and they should be tapered so you get the best chance at one or two drifts/presentations. Spookier bass survive the longest and get the biggest. Thus, every time your terribly long leader annoys you, just know that it’s for the best.

Read more

That sentence took only one second to write, but this second sentence went through at least fifteen iterations. I don’t want to say too much because there’s anger, shame, and confusion which merits too much context to draw in, and I don’t want to say too little because I don’t want to be cryptic, melodramatic or validation seeking. Every member of my household spent some time in some dark places and it’s a little too soon to say that we came out better for it. Frankly, I have a hard time answering the question “how’s it going” anymore because I feel like I either have to lie or suck all of the air out of the room. Yes, it’s been like that.

Two things have been true this summer, and I want to talk about the ways in which they are and aren’t in tension:

1.) This summer has been excruciatingly painful

2.) This summer has had the best fishing of my life

If you feel that there shouldn’t be any tension in these statements, then you likely take offense at the pithy expression “Fishing is my therapy.” If you don’t understand how these things can be in tension, then you likely take offense at the pithy expression “It’s not about the fish.”

Why Fishing Isn’t My Therapy

At a surface level, the reason that fishing isn’t my therapy is because my therapy is my therapy. I spent most of my 20’s in counseling, and “got the band back together” a few years ago when I had a really difficult conflict with my church (for which I still happily attend), and I found it to be incredibly helpful. Having a person who is trained to listen for themes in your emotional life, point them out, and provide insight is invaluable and can be the difference between “weathering a storm” and being “at the whim of the waves.”

If you fish, I don’t need to tell you how awesome it is to set your hook and see a flash in the water. When you feel like you’re walking through a desert of L’s, a fish in hand can be a much needed W, and that shouldn’t be understated. At the times this summer where I felt like I couldn’t get anything right, I’d look down in my net and I’d see a smallmouth donning a fly that I had tied and it would almost bring a tear to my eye: If I am a total loser, then I’m a total loser with a fish. It surely didn’t hurt that this summer hosted a fair number of PB’s regarding bass caught locally, and those days brought a fantastic (and momentary) relief. When I say that “every fish is a mercy,” I now mean it in a totally different way.

That said, consider what I said in the previous paragraph:

“If I am a total loser, then I’m a total loser with a fish”

I feel like we can agree that the self-talk there is pretty awful. I would even bristle if someone called an enemy a “total loser,” so why would I use that language for myself so readily? Because I’m a broken person, and like all of the other broken people, I have a tendency to break other people.

Therapy hasn’t “unbroken” me, and I don’t know anybody who has become “unbroken” through therapy. For clarity, that’s not a shortcoming of therapy as the scope of therapy isn’t to “unbreak” as much as it is to “equip.” Therapy has aided me in finding strength in vulnerability, understanding the difference between “thinking less of yourself” and “thinking about yourself less,” and allowing complicated truths to exist independently to one another. No fish, of any species, has been able to do these things for me, and that’s not a shortcoming of the fishing.

How Fishing Assists Therapy

So, fishing is meaningless? Certainly not!

I have found that my self-talk is spoken with most clarity when I’m engaged in an immersive and incarnational activity. If I need to tell you that fishing is one of these activities, then you haven’t been fishing. Sure, there’s frustration in a moment where a line which was tight goes loose, but after a few minutes the line is wet again and we’ve all moved on. My counseling sessions this summer have featured snippets and sentiments formed while re-attaching a leader, getting a fly out of a tree, and sitting on a rock in my river. As a “diagnosis” tool, the moment of reprieve that fishing provides from the impossibly complicated lives we live is unmatched. However, we must remember that diagnosis isn’t treatment and the mechanism that espoused the problem couldn’t possibly be sufficiently equipped to solve it (assuming that it can be “solved,” anyway).

This isn’t me hammering away at the relief that comes from distraction: I’m a huge fan of giving yourself space to exist outside of your hang-ups and insecurities. However, I wasn’t surprised this summer that my walk back to the car after some outings seemingly started with a bankside rendezvous with my demons. They didn’t seem to mind waiting while I brought that last fish in.

In Conclusion

When therapy is expected to “fix” us, it will let us down. When fishing is expected to “fix” us, it will let us down. While I’ve never been let down by Christ, I have been let down by everything under the sun (and that includes the things under the water). That doesn’t mean that everything under the sun doesn’t have meaning: it just means that nothing under the sun should have ultimate meaning. When we allow our time on the water to be the time it can be, then we truly allow for it to be

time well spent.

Preparing for the Day

Your alarm goes off, which could be anywhere from 5:00 am to 6:00 am. As the coffee brews, I need you to check three things: the water level, the weather, and the water quality. Here are some things to think through:

Water level

Spoiler alert: it’ll be low. In general, I tend to keep the 4.5 ft. number in my head as a healthy water level that is conducive to wading. We’ve been below 4 ft. for most of the spring and summer, so the water is incredibly low. By and large, it has also been incredibly clear, with occasional murkiness from upstream rain events, but it’s easier to prep for clear water and be pleasantly surprised with a little color than plan for turbidity and discover it’s clear. Let me unpack that statement: prepping for low, clear water means longer leaders and less “splash” on your presentations. We’ll chat more about that later.

Weather

Bass don’t love clear water on a sunny day, as it provides a clear view for aerial attacks and makes prey more skittish. Sunny, hot days don’t turn smallies off from eating, but they definitely curb the madness of corporate feeding events. When the sun is out, you won’t likely see a pool where bass are greedily rising and plucking bugs off the top of the water—they’re in harm’s way when they do this.

Also observe that the water temperature is incredibly warm at this stage of summer. As the water gets warmer, bass will seek out cooler water for feeding, which can push them into faster-moving or deeper water. Similarly, there is a strong body of research surrounding the effect of barometric pressure on the swim bladder of bass. When pressure is high or rising, bass are generally less interested in eating bugs off the surface or even baitfish suspended in the middle of the water column.

To get an idea of the weather conditions, take a look at the table I’m attaching below:

A friend of mine and I went out yesterday morning and had a 7:00 a.m. to noon session. During that time, it was sunny with high pressure, low water, and warm water—we had tough conditions. I got two smallies, and he got four, so we did awesome that morning! Use conditions as an opportunity to manage your expectations, not as a reason to decide whether or not to go.

Water Quality

Always check for bacteria levels! In general, upstream of T-Pott bridge tend to be good to go, but things happen and we should be aware of that.

Packing your Bag

Line: A floating line might be your best bet, as the water isn’t terribly deep, so even a weighted streamer should be able to get down just fine! I keep an intermediate line available for prospecting with streamers, and I have a sinking line in case it’s time to get low and fish slow.

Leaders: Long. If you think it’s too long, it’s just right.

Flies: Bigger foam bugs (size 2) or smaller cork/balsa bugs (sizes 4–6) are your best bets. These shouldn’t be prospecting patterns—they should be used at the right times, and if you have them on for more than an hour at a time, I think you’re leaving some “meat on the bone” for productively fishing the Fall Line.

For baitfish, I would start sizing them down through this part of summer. I would say that 3 inches is the maximum optimal length. I would have a few neutrally buoyant patterns (Murdich Minnows, Deceivers, unweighted Buggers, etc.) in light and dark colors, and a few weighted patterns (Clousers, Half-and-Halfs, Conehead Zonkers, etc.) in light and dark. I’m loving a white-and-orange Clouser in size 1 right now for prospecting.

For fishing depth, dredging, and deep stripping, I love the Crittermite and the Clawdad in sizes 4 or 2. Keep these in neutral (tan/brown) and dark (black/purple/dark blue) colors.

Driving to the Spot

Where you fish isn’t the most important thing at this point in summer, but some spots do a much better job of holding deep water than others. An important note before my recommendations:

Read more

In general, I feel like the behavior of an angler can impact three parties: the fish, other anglers, and the river. Ultimately, I try to start from a place of “I can only control me” and that informs which side of the tightrope I (tend to) fall on. I’ll try to cover what I can in this post, but I’ll make it free and leave the comments open so that you all can add in what I’ve missed!

The Goal

My approach to etiquette, and in particular, what I engage with and what I let slide is informed by the following:

How can I be an addition to a persons time on the water?

That’s the goal, and I miss the mark terribly, but it’s aspirational. A boy can dream. Most people are on the water to decompress and recreate. There’s definitely a possibility that they could be doing something inconsiderate, in the same way that I would be inconsiderate for losing my cool at them. I see it like driving: nobody ever runs to the aid of a person who gets out of their car and starts hammering on someone else’s windshield. Similarly, if someone pops off at a person on the water, I feel comfortable saying that at best they were “wrong for the right reason.”

If we’re going to deliver feedback, let’s get out of the thinking that if we’re correct, then we need not concern ourselves with how it’s delivered/received. We’re grown-ups here, and we understand that a correct word delivered unkindly will have the same effect as an incorrect word delivered unkindly, and if we actually care about the fish/resource, then we should deliver feedback in a way that will be received. Also, anytime you allow yourself to think that shaming works, consider when you’re shamed and think carefully about the cost of it “working.” Sure, it may correct a behavior, but that same result could have come about without the sting.

Disclaimer: I am not going to discuss how to address fishing etiquette online, because we shouldn’t. I’ve made the mistake of giving feedback on fish handling, barbed hooks, etc in internet comments/messages and I wince when I look back on it. Never again. This article will be focused on how to address etiquette with folks in real life.

Caring for the Fish

Tackle: I’ll start with the “barbless/barbed” conversation and begin from the place that it’s a question that is best answered on a species to species basis. For fish like trout, and striped bass I think that barbless is best. For fish like black bass, bream/panfish, and shad I am cool with barbs. There are a few factors that go into this, but it’s primarily centered around the “hardness” of the mouth of the fish, and the expedience of healing from the injury from the hook. I think that you can also use discernment! If you mash down all of your barbs, you may lose fish but you’re harming less of them with barbs. Something to think through!

What if you see someone using barbed hooks for species you KNOW barbed hooks are harmful towards?

If you have flies which are barbless, offer those to the other folks!

“Hey, this fly has been killer for me and I’ve got a spare. I’d love for you to give it a whirl! As a note, it’s barbless because that’s better for the (trout/striper), but it’ll mean that you have to keep tension when you’re fighting them. Good luck!”

If you don’t have a spare fly you’re willing to part with, then you can withhold your flies and your wisdom and leave it be. If I’m fishing with a friend and they have barbed hooks and we’re trout/striper fishing I try to offer to use my forceps to crimp barbs down as I have accidentally fished for these species without doing so. With strangers, I may offer the same service, but I don’t tend to and perhaps that’s a weakness on my part. I will own that.

Fish handling: You know what would be awesome? Not taking pictures of fish in general. That said, we do, so let’s try to get to a place where we don’t have them out of the water for more than 30 seconds. Loon makes a really cool tool which slips a fly out of the corner of a mouth while the fish is still in the net and I love it! Some best practices that work for just about all fish are (generally) as follows:

• Use a landing net (you’re rod tip will thank you)

• Keep the fish in the water/net for at least 90% of its time in your possession

• Don’t set the fish down on land

• Have forceps handy and do your best to preserve that fish

What if you see someone poorly handling a fish?

If you can get to them, offer to help them out. Most of the time, poor fish handling has everything to do with ignorance/inexperience and an extra set of hands for the picture, net, rod, etc can split the difference.

If you can’t get to them, shout out a congratulations first, then offer help instead of advice.

“Awesome fish! Can you keep that fish wet while I come over there and help you out? Just lower it into the water and keep its nose up, I’ll be there in a second.”

Real talk: if that fish is actually important to you, then this is worth it. If that fish isn’t that important to you, but telling someone off is, then you might not be the best person to deliver feedback. Taking criticism is incredibly hard, and we can be gracious to others in that.

Snagging: No. No grace for this. It’s illegal and super messed up. I don’t recommend a confrontation, but I do recommend calling and notifying the authorities. To be clear, foul hooking a fish is a thing that happens and it’s perfectly natural. The term “snagging” is referring to somebody with a fishing rod dragging a hook through a run and foul hooking fish on purpose. It’s easy to pick these folks out: they’re using a high test line on a stiff rod with only a treble/stinger hook. You’ll see them cast, then sweep their rod, and pull up a fish. This isn’t for sport, so they’ll likely be hauling around a stringer.

Don’t confront these folks, but get in touch with local authorities and report the offending parties. Snagging isn’t done accidentally so reporting them is appropriate and confronting them unwise.

Caring for Other Anglers (you included)

High holing: For clarity, “high holing” is when you are fishing upstream/downstream and somebody jumps ahead of you in the direction you’re fishing and you are now behind them. This is problematic for the person who was high-holed for a few reasons:

1.) If you’re high-holed upstream, it’s likely that the angler in front of you has spooked fish in front of you. They won’t catch anything, and it’s unlikely that you would catch anything.

2.) If you’re high-holed downstream, then any mud/debris that the offending angler kicked up has put bass further downstream on alert. This can make a long stretch of water unfishable.

What if you see someone high holing you or someone else?

At this juncture, you may think that you have me pegged, but I think you need to say something to the offending angler, and it should be instructive. I think after you deliver feedback, you should offer to change your plan, but I think it prudent to let someone know that they’re “high-holing” and that other folks may not respond kindly to that.

“I see you’re fishing upstream of me. I don’t think you meant to, but when you cut in front of me like that, you make fishing harder for the both of us. In the future, try to look upstream and downstream of a spot so you don’t hurt someone else’s fishing. What direction are you intending to go? Check out this spot a little in the direction you’re going! Good luck out there!”

The “sugar that can help the medicine go down” is letting them know about a good spot that you were looking forward to in the direction you’re fishing. Obviously, keep your secrets if you have a honey-hole you like to frequent, but the most likely reason you’re being high-holed is because of inexperience and some of these anglers can use the extra help.

Hot spotting/Spot burning: I will only speak to the Fall Line stretch of the James River: no spot is secret, so there shouldn’t be any apologies rendered for posting a picture of a fish. A friend of mine was given guff for taking a picture of a bass in front of the iconic trestles bridge, and the comment was “now that spot’s gone.” Guys. Stop this. You can see the trestles bridge from two major highways passing through the city and it’s an active Amtrak thoroughfare. I’ve seen this bridge on posters for live music events, decorative license plates, and even in still photographs in the hallways of the community college where I teach (which is outside of the city). There are around 240,000 residents of the city of Richmond and we have about a 10 mile stretch of water to (locally) fish, so that’s each resident of the city roughly having 4.5 feet of the river to themselves. If someone wants to blur out the background of their picture, then that’s their choice, but if someone doesn’t we need to stop assuming they “gave up the goods.”

If you want to keep your secrets, then that is entirely your decision, but it need not be everyone else’s. I personally fish some stretches of water simply because I am confident I won’t see another angler out there, but if I do see someone I remind myself that it would be more troubling to spend a day fishing in an urban environment and to not see anybody. We want people on our river and if they’re there, then they’ll find the hole that you use as “skunk insurance.”

What if you see someone hot spotting/spot burning?

Leave them alone. They’re more excited about sharing the picture of their fish than they are navigating your sensibilities. If your spot gets “blown up,” then use that as an opportunity to find a new spot.

I know this is a spicy take. There’s at least one major influencer who finds my take on this offensive and he fishes different types of water in different parts of the country so I respect his difference of opinion. I actually agree with him when we talk about fishing small water/mountain trout streams/etc. I argue that our stretch of the river can “handle the exposure” of an un-doctored fish picture. Based on his content he would likely call me the “worst kind of fly fisher” for having my opinion, and I am cool with that as I am learning that the harshness of critique from someone else typically has more to do with them then it does myself. Not to say that I’m not often wrong or am justifiably the article of someone else’s rage: but when two parties are involved there should always be some element of self-examination and that examination seldom comes up empty.

Caring for The River

Polluting: This shouldn’t be tolerated, but still dealt with delicately. Discarding a beer can, cigarette butt, bait container, a string of fishing line, etc isn’t done out of ignorance as much as laziness. I’ve absolutely taken my dog on walks and forgotten to bring baggies to pick up poop, so my choices were either (a) risk getting poop on my hands with a make-shift pooper-scooper, or (b) leave it there. I have absolutely chosen (b) before and I say that with a twinge of shame. You know what would’ve been the fix for me in those situations? Being offered a bag from a passerby. Let’s do the same thing! Bring a bag (or two) with you on your fishing journey and offer one to someone polluting. I’d even offer a word:

“I see some trash around you. Here’s a bag you can carry it with! I feel like this river is important to both of us, so let’s work together on keeping it clean. Any luck today?”

Again, we don’t just want to tell someone the truth, we want it to land and that won’t happen unless we take a second and consider how we deliver the critique.

“Victim blaming” a river: I’ve heard folks say that the James river is “disgusting,” and that “they would never be in that water,” and there’s a lot to unpack there. First, if they’re referring to the water being polluted, they are correct. Second, why do we have to shame the water for something somebody else did to it? The City of Richmond, Goochland County, Dominion Power, and local politicians not properly funding the Shoosmith Landfill are a few of the culprits, so let’s make them the article of ire instead of the river the subject of mockery. When folks gasp at hearing that I fish our local waters I have been working on saying something like this:

“Yes, there are bad actors out there. Some of them have damaged the water quality by ignorance, incompetence, or short-sightedness and others have prioritized their needs over the resource. You’d do well to keep an ear to the ground before you head out there, but when I’m out there I see a really beautiful river which seems to be misunderstood by folks. Have you even been to Belle Isle/Pony Pasture/42nd Street/etc before? It’s worth a day-trip and it’s upstream of where most of the pollution occurs!”

It hasn’t made believers of too may folks, but the simple act of sticking up for something we love can help galvanize our love for it.

If you’re curious on ways to engage with folks who are already making conservation efforts on the James River here are some organizations to support:

Friends of James River Park

James River Association (their map for bacteria levels and flow is worth a check each outing)

James River Soil and Water Conservation District

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Support these folks if you can!

Harvesting Fish: If done legally, I don’t say a word. Ever. They’re obeying the law. Some folks eat their catches because of cultural practices typically rooted deeply in tradition that tends to work alongside of conservation efforts, and other times it can be a socioeconomic reason for which we should be incredibly gracious. If done illegally, see my take on “Snagging.”

Conclusion

We should work as a community and regard each person on the river as a teammate. This means that we shouldn’t deliver critique with an adversarial lens, and as we exercise self-reflection we will likely find that we aren’t “above” any infraction made. Some of these bad practices can become habitual, so if we do provide feedback it should have the motivation of partnership instead of vindication. Shame has effect, but that doesn’t mean that it’s effective. I myself am a type 8 enneagram, but that doesn’t excuse being crass/careless/lazy in delivering critique. We should all work together to host new anglers on our river and we should help them all engage with care and consideration with our resource.

June 27th 2026 marks the most insane day of bass fishing I’ve ever had. Before you read this, I want you to hear my intended tone and forgive me if I veer off course:

This is a story about my fishing, not a story about my talent.

My goal is to be instructive and helpful, not validation-seeking. Some of this may read like validation-seeking, because I’m human and generally seek validation. When you’re reading this and your eyes start to roll and you think to yourself “oh, brother,” please remember what my intention is and that I’m trying my best as an imperfect person with a penchant for making things about me to not make something about me. I want this to be instructive for you and I want you to be informed in your fishing, especially as you navigate the Fall Line section of the James River.

Last year, my best day fishing the Fall Line was 4 bass on a fly. On this day, I caught eleven bass so this was a day where (a) the river is incredibly healthy, (b) the conditions were great, and (c)I was fishing well. All three of these things had to be true at the same time or there’s no way this could’ve happened!

The Context

I teach as many courses in the summer as the college will allow, because money. Because of this, Kate and the boys left for a vacation in GA Saturday morning and I would reunite with them that coming Thursday so I could teach my classes Monday and Wednesday. This meant a ton of time for fishing, so I was hitting the water knowing that this was the first of many outings for a few days and there didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency to make anything happen in one particular outing. When you have young children sometimes it’s hard to not apply weight to a day of fishing as they don’t tend to come often.

Further, I had interviewed Ray Cornwell the day prior and I had a game-plan I was excited to take a crack at, so there was an electricity to getting out there over the course of a few days and I was all about trying out something new!

If you haven’t listened to that interview, stop reading/listening to this and listen to that interview. It’s incredible.

The Conditions

The barometric pressure was lower in the morning, and it was supposed to be overcast for most of the day. For those of you who know, that means top-water is very much in play for most of the day. Since the water level was low (around 3.5 ft on the Westham gauge) I made sure that my leaders were long and ready to rock and roll the night prior. The temperature was slated to be high 80’s/low 90’s and the water temps have been consistently north of 70 degrees at the start of each day, so the day definitely had “scoring conditions.”

And there was plenty scoring!

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Real talk: Ray is kind of my hero. In this interview, you’ll observe two things:

1.) This guy can fish.

His knowledge of smallmouth is the product of careful study and experience. Some folks get into smallmouth on their way to a different species, but Ray is a smallmouth angler and it shows!

2.) This guy loves our river.

Ray is a rare breed because it’s clear that his time in our river isn’t “just about the fish,” but he also happens to catch them all. Ray has a profound affection for the Fall Line and that definitely informs his fishing. If you’re angling mantra is “rise and grind,” you’ll go far, but you’ll never have the longevity or consistency of an angler who is out there because they love it and they’re having fun. Ray loves our water, loves fishing, and has a ton of fun.

I hope you all take the time to listen to this interview in totality. Ray spits fire and there is so much to learn from him. We’re talking about spin reel in this discussion as that’s his forte, but I do make it a point to draw lines between spin tackle and fly tackle throughout the discussion. Since we’re talking spin reel/baitcaster (“gear fishing”) I have a glossary of terms below the time-stamps.

Time Stamps

Ray’s fishing origin and experience wading downtown: 0:00 - 6:57

Two pieces of advice (and one more…)*: 6:57 - 16.22 (this is fire)

Catch of the year: 16:22 - 21:26

Tackle Recommendations/Discussion: 21:26 - 27:17

Fishing fish > Fishing water: 27:17 - 32:34

This summer and why it’s different: 32:34 - 41:00

Low water strategies: 41:00 - 44:56

Targeting bigger fish: 44:56 - 52:30

The typical summer day playbook: 52:30 - 1:01:13

Waxing poetic/philosophical about our river: 1:01:13 - 1:10:30

One last takeaway: 1:10:30 - End

Glossary of Terms

These terms aren’t listed in the order of their appearance. Let me know in the comments if I’m missing one!

Lures

Whopper Plopper: Topwater lure which skates across the top of the water to emulate a wounded baitfish struggling along the surface. The nearest fly equivalent to this could be a skating topwater fly.

Karashi: A topwater baitfish “twitch” bait. It’s a smaller lure than a whopper-plopper and fishes erratically with twitches: a Gartside Gurgler or pencil popper would be a proper fly equivalent.

Swimbait: Ubiquitous umbrella term for all baitfish lures (can be hard or soft-plastics).

Paddletail: Pretty generic subsurface baitfish lure. The tail spins as the lure moves through the water meaning that this lure is best fished actively. Flies like the half and half and the clouser fish the closest in to the paddletail (functionally).

Fluke: Baitfish pattern made to fish in slower water and has a “jerk” which emulates a wounded baitfish. The fly equivalent would be a Murdich or a Deciever fished erratically on an intermediate/sink tip/sinking line.

Ned Rig: A lure which points a thicker worm type of plastic vertically in the water. Characteristically slow fishing, but incredibly effective! Honestly, there really isn’t a fly equivalent to this lure, but there has been a lot of experimentation and headway is being made!

Jig heads: Hooks which are weighted near the eye of the hook to aid in making a soft-plastic sink in the water column.

Fishing Styles

Power fishing: A very aggressive and fast style of fishing which helps an angler cover water quickly.

Finesse fishing: The juxtapositional “ying” to the “yang” of power fishing. This is very “low and slow fishing” and is not designed for covering water, but getting smaller lures to specific spots on the bottom of the riverbed and working them slowly.

The nights are warm enough to where you will find water temps north of 70 degrees at the start of the day, so now it’s summertime conditions! Hot days don’t phase these fish as much as you’d think, so don’t let a hot day let you think that the fishing will be poor. Further, you’d do well to take advantage of morning/early afternoon fishing if a storm is forecasted for the evening: the smallies put their feedbags on before a storm. The pressure is pretty volatile in this forecast, so keep some deeper sinking tackle on your person so you can plumb depths if the bite seems to shut off.

General Conditions (Water Level)

The water is still crazily low and there isn’t significant rains in sight. Keep your “low/clear water” game locked in with longer leaders and more delicate presentations (the topwater bug is in play now!).

Spot Recommendations

This is likely what you came here for, and I’m willing to provide!

My spot recommendations are based off of the Spot Guides for RVA Fishing Report. Support these guys if you can! Here’s what I recommend for this batch of days:

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It’s nuts out there. If you are new to smallmouth, you’ve caught fish. If you’re a seasoned smallmouth fisher, you’ve caught a lot of fish and a few big ones. If you’re an exceptional smallmouth fisher, you’ve caught a lot of fish and a few more big ones. From top to bottom, this appears to be the most productive summer I’ve seen in the past five years!

Personally, I’ve had some personal best sessions on good days, and still some above average days in tougher conditions. Certainly, this could be because I’m fishing better, but I am seeing folks who are new to fishing downtown having super productive days on the water as well, and I’m here for it!

While the numbers have been solid most of the fish are generally referred to as “dinks” (in the 8” - 10” range). That said, the presence of smaller fish is an indicator to the health of a fishery, so let’s celebrate the dinks! When we stop seeing them, that means we don’t see bigger fish a few years later.

I’ve never seen so many other anglers on the water, and I love it! Sure, more anglers means more fishing pressure, but don’t make it about you. As more folks are out there, that means that more folks are buying into our river, which largely means more good things for the river. That said, I’ve also never seen so much trash in and around the water: instead of delivering consternation to folks enjoying a beer bankside, just bring a trash-bag with you and pick up what you can!

General Non-observations

I’ve been fortunate enough to catch a few in the 13” - 15” range, but those were in “big fish lies” at “big fish times.” The water downtown isn’t inundated with so many big fish that they’re becoming careless: they still require some finesse and you shouldn’t expect to catch more than a few north of 16” in a given year. I’ve seen a few catches in the 18”+ range, and they generally haven’t been caught on top-water as can tend to be the case with larger bass. These larger fish are holding deep, and are eating aggressively. More on that later!

Top-Water

The cork/balsa bug bite is just now taking off! These bugs are best fished at a dead-rift and I don’t recommend a nymph or dropping bug off of the bottom of these flies as they aren’t made to suspend anything of substance. At this point in the spring the eats are going to be more explosive on these bugs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the fish attacking it is big. Try to avoid prospecting water with these bugs as the water is still low and a big splat on the top of the water will spook fish. I think that smaller bugs are a wise choice (size 6 - 4) as you are giving yourself the opportunity to hook up on a lot of fish. As you go bigger, you restrict the takers to larger fish, which is a great tactic after you’ve run the score up on the smaller bass.

If you’re using foam, deer hair, or dry fly type tackle, then I have found that using little movement works best. These fish are still pretty aggressive, so you will see them more willing to give chase to something on the top of the water. Be prepared to adjust technique on this because as summer comes on, that foam bug skittering across the water will be less attractive to bass.

Baitfish Streamers

Experienced smallmouth fishers are going to roll their eyes at me here, and I’m fine with it: prepare yourself for the short-strike. A short-strike is where a fish bites the back end of a swim-bait and misses the business end of a hook as it’s closer to the eye of the hook. This is a common occurrence with trout, but not typical for bass as they tend to attack baitfish at the head. Make tackle adjustments! Use a smaller articulated streamer and throw white when you can (so you can see the eats). I’ve seen my white streamers smacked around and not get fully eaten, and that’s pretty uncommon. If you have trout streamers or tube-flies, throw those on and see how they perform!

There’s definitely a possibility that I’m wrong about this (among some other fishy folks who have made this same observation) and I’m just missing hooksets. I totally get that. I have found more success with smaller streamers on longer hook-shanks and I have noticed less success as I “club up” the streamer to something larger with a shorter hook shank.

Crayfish/Hellgrammite

The hellgrammite is fire right now: you could call it the “Hell-yeah-mite” and you wouldn’t be wrong. The conventional wisdom about getting low is that it’s an awesome way to “bust a slump” no matter what rod set-up you’re using (a “Yum” Hellgrammite in tan/black has been killer on my spin reel outings), and that’s shown itself to be true this year so far. I have been finding that if my baitfish flies aren’t connecting, the solution is to go deeper and slower. Smaller fish will peck at the fly, but the larger ones will hit so hard that you may even get away without having to set the hook (you still totally should)! I’ve caught a few decent smallmouth on a hellgrammite lure where the line started moving upstream seconds after the lure hit the bottom.

I haven’t connected on crayfish flies yet, but this part of the year is where you’ll likely see them around the riverbed in slower/rockier stretches without sandy substrate present. I’m sure that a well-fished crayfish will do well!

When casting your deep-sinking flies you should prioritize ending the cast prepared to set the hook over casting far. Some of the takes from larger fish happen abruptly and if you don’t have a connection to your fly when the bass grabs it, you’ll likely miss that fish.

The Take-away

Get. Out. There.

If you’re new to fishing downtown, then bring a few flies that you know you can fish well, and just grab a spot where you see current/structure and get out there! The water is still low enough to where the river is incredibly accessible, so try to get to places were other folks aren’t and prioritize unpressured water over “fishy” water. There are more anglers out there, and they’re catching fish! Join them and have fun!

Since the water temps are currently hovering in the low 70’s consistently, early morning fishing might be a little slow given how cool the nights are, but I think in the next few days we can start to see the bass making moves towards their summer haunts. They’ll still be in “spring mode,” but I feel confident that you’ll start to see more ferocious eats and less bass in clusters as the water temperature moves above the mid 70’s during the daytimes.

The pressure is best when trending downward or already low so I think you’ll see your best bet at top-water fishing from Sunday into noonish on Monday, and from Thursday afternoon into Saturday evening. For the stretches where the pressure is climbing/high I would start to whip out the lower column streamers fished slowly.

Keep an eye on the forecast! All of this information is based on the current forecast, which obviously changes!

General Conditions (Water Level)

As of now, the water level is at 5.6 feet (high) with a blistering 6350 cfs (cubic feet per second) flow rate. This elevated flow means that water is still coming into our stretch, and you can expect it to be pretty muddy/turbid. These conditions are tough to fish and you’d be surprised at how much river becomes inaccessible when the water level gets above 5 ft, so I don’t think it unwise to table expectations for success until the water level falls to around 4.5 feet perhaps around the middle of next week. If you plan to do some rock hopping, please wear a lightweight PFD: it never hurts and it’ll help when you need it most. Make sure you’re wearing quality polarized lenses so you can see where you’re stepping, and make sure you aren’t wading where you can’t see where you’re stepping. A wading pole doesn’t help much when the flow rate is as high as it is right now, so try to stay bankside if you can!

Spot Recommendations

This is likely what you came here for, and I’m willing to provide!

My spot recommendations are based off of the Spot Guides for RVA Fishing Report. Support these guys if you can! Here’s what I recommend for this batch of days:

Read more

Instead of dispensing with the desire to “solve the puzzle” in lieu of “covering water,” what if we re-framed the latter in the vein of the former? In short, what if we acknowledged that our best bet for successful fly-fishing for smallmouth bass downtown required covering water, and that the challenge is to cover water with the most efficiency?

This is where the dry-dropper is incredibly effective.

Matching the Hatch

Dragonflies and damselflies are cruising around our river all summer long, and they’re awesome. Folks tend to notice them as a source of food on the top of the water, and that’s obviously true. However, their larvae are a fun little snack that can be found swept in current and crawling around in rocks.

Hey, trout folks, look familiar? It’s not unlike your favorite stonefly imitations, but much, much bigger. In general, these nymphs reach roughly 0.75” to 1.5” in length at maturity. This means that your size 14 Stonefly nymph wouldn’t sufficiently mimic this “bug,” but more on that later.

In the above picture, we have the dragonfly nymph. These are larger than the damselfly nymph (1” to 2” on average before maturity is reached), but their behavioral patterns are largely the same. I honestly don’t care to get too much into the weeds on etymology (in this blog, and in my life in general), but I want you to observe the size, shape, and coloring of these insects as I shamelessly plug some flies later on in the post.

You can find these in droves in the river from mid-summer up through the fall, but bass don’t tend to keep calendars, so when I find that the water temperatures are consistently over 70 degrees, then we’re in business!

Below, you’ll see a picture of the nymph pattern I’ve tied to imitate BOTH of these bugs.

Rigging The Dry Dropper

If you have some experience with dry-dropper rigs, you’ll find this to be no shock: they really help you cover water. When fished well, you are covering two different depths of water at the same time (yes, I dodged the language “water column” because it’s inaccurate nomenclature). First, you have your “dry fly,” which is also called an “indicator fly” at times because folks in the fly-fishing community feel offended by the term “bobber.” In any case, the dry fly sits on top of the water and suspends the “nymph,” occasionally referred to as the “dropper.” This fly is suspended by roughly 1’–3’ of line (I use 12 lb mono). There are a multitude of ways to do this, but I find the simplest way is to tie the line that suspends the dropper to the bend of the hook on the indicator fly. I use clinch knots all the way through.

I don’t often go lighter than 12 lb monofilament for the suspending line between the indicator fly and the dropper. I use this size line because I think this rig casts easier when the suspending line matches the line of my tippet, which for smallmouth is 12 lb monofilament. I’ve used smaller line sizes before, but bigger bass tend to break those off, as you have to “horse” a fish a little harder when you’re on foot (it’s easier to keep fish off the bottom when you’re fighting them from a boat, so you can use lighter line in that case). I don’t use the tippet typically purchased at fly shops because I don’t use that material for leaders. If you bought a leader at a fly shop, then definitely match the tippet of your leader to the suspension line between the indicator and the dropper.

My general rule of thumb is about 2’ to 3’ of line between the indicator and the dropper. This depth gives me the opportunity to prospect a lot of different water depths, as conventional wisdom says that the length of the suspending line should be 1.5 times the depth of the water you wish to fish (so roughly 3’ to 4.5’ of water is available with this rig). This may need to be modified based on how fast the water is moving, but I find that bass are much more willing than trout to move for a tasty treat, so precision of drift/depth can be more lax.

I don’t like using cork or balsa for the dry fly, as the dropper will pull the hook point down too far, and sometimes the indicator will sink entirely under the weight of the dropper. Foam works best! I actually tied the “Bare Bones Bug” (pictured below) exactly for this purpose, and I find it incredibly effective. These bugs have a small head so the suspending line doesn’t get hung up (as much), and with 6 mm of foam, they’ll hold up a sturdy payload. Other options for indicator flies are Chubby Chernobyls, hoppers, Fat Alberts, etc.

If the water and sky are dark, I tend to use indicator flies with darker bottoms, and in lighter skies with clearer water, I use indicator flies with lighter bottoms. If the sky and water aren’t in chromatic harmony, I use the water clarity as the guide (darker/muddier water calls for a darker-bottomed bug, and lighter/clearer water calls for a lighter-bottomed bug). For the dropping bug, I tend toward one I can see, barring muddy water, in which case I use a black/purple dropper.

The dropping bugs I pictured in the “Matching the Hatch” section are of my design as well. The fabric gives you a bigger profile while also being light enough to suspend without issue. You could use fluorocarbon for the suspending line, but since these bugs (called “Leggy Droppers”) have bead-chain eyes, they get down fine without the need for expensive fluorocarbon line. They are about 2 1/4” long, so they look like a big dragonfly or damselfly nymph, which isn’t often turned down when presented well!

The Bare Bones Bug and the Leggy Dropper of these patterns can be purchased at the Orvis on River Road and Green Top! If you aren’t local, the CK Swimming Nymph (sz 2 or 4) or the Clouser Swimming Nymph (sz 2 or 4) are great substitutes for the Leggy Dropper.

Fishing the Dry Dropper

Bass aren’t trout: they don’t tend to hover in a lane and only move a little bit to eat something drifting by. If you do more than three drifts in roughly the same lane with this rig, you aren’t using your time well. Don’t forget that the whole advantage of this rig is the ability to cover water efficiently!

If the bass takes the dry, it’ll be no mystery, and it won’t happen on the fifth drift anyway. If the bass takes the dropper, try to choose your dropper so that you can see it, because these little snacks get sipped instead of smashed. Also, since bass tend to move in slower water, the indicator may not necessarily dip beneath the water. Obviously, if we’re in the hot parts of summer and bass are holding to faster water (typically during the hottest parts of the day), then you might see the indicator dip below the water. If you can’t see the dropper, then you may need to look for more subtle movements of the indicator (speeding up, slowing down, slight changes in direction, etc.), or you may need to adjust your depth. I would only do the former if you are a pretty experienced indicator fisher.

When casting this rig, I find it most helpful to think about casting the indicator instead of the dropping bug. The dropping bug doesn’t tend to stray far from the indicator, and I’m actually “fishing” the indicator. I also make it a point to make sure the rig isn’t tangled every few casts, as sometimes the suspending line can get wrapped around the head of the foam bug. For advanced indicator fishers, I find that “checking the indicator” is an awesome way to fish the foam bug and keep contact with the dropping bug at the same time. To do this, you lift your rod tip just enough to move the indicator fly upstream, and that will typically drag the dropper underneath the indicator fly.

Fishing a foam bug is a game of subtlety. When the foam fly hits the water, that’s the first move: don’t move it now. Next, let it drift until the wake from the landing dissipates, and then put exactly enough movement on it (this will take practice) to move the rubber legs on the bug. Don’t move it too much, as this will turn bass off it. If a fish sidles up to your bug, then for the love of God and all that you hold dear, don’t move that bug. They’ll gently sip a foam bug, and if it moves, they won’t. Heck, they won’t even take the dropper if you spook them. Once they take the foam bug, wait a second (“one Mississippi”), then set the hook using a rod set (also called the “Orvis Set”).

If the fish takes the nymph and the indicator dips, you can set your hook immediately with a rod set. If you watch the fish take the nymph, then wait your one second (“one Mississippi”) and rod set. As a note, these rod sets should be pretty aggressive, as bass have hard mouths and you want to drive that hook home.

When fighting the fish, keeping tension is incredibly important. If these fish run deep, then they will absolutely hang you up. The first smallmouth pictured actually wedged himself between two rocks while I was fighting him, and I thought I lost him. I pointed my rod tip over his back downstream and then pulled him out of the rocks: it was pretty wild! You want to keep these fish off the bottom, and you really want to make the fight as short as possible, as these fish go nuts! The advice I live by is to “strip them in like you’re trying to break them off,” and I have found more success with that adage than any other.

Alternative Droppers

Can you fish a streamer as a dropper? You bet! You can dangle the streamer beneath the indicator fly if you’re sight-fishing very wary largemouth (seen below). Make sure you are using a very light streamer, as anything heavier than bead-chain will likely pull the indicator below the water, making the rig ineffective at best and repulsive at worst.

Sometimes using this rig and fishing the streamer upstream will help in detecting strikes that otherwise might not be felt. In particular, if you are swinging a streamer up against a logjam or something a bass may be hiding in for ambush, the takes can come quickly and may not be felt until it’s too late. The bass below was taken as a light, neutrally buoyant streamer was swung along the edge of some underbrush, and while I didn’t feel the strike on the streamer, I strip-set when the indicator dipped. Having the indicator suspend a baitfish up against structure can be incredibly effective, as you now don’t have to put movement on the fly as it brushes up against structure at the end of a swing.

I still recommend 2’ to 3’ of suspended line between the indicator fly and the streamer. Make sure the streamer is wet when you first cast this out so it will actually sink below the indicator fly.

You can also suspend something much smaller! I have found that when bass are recently post-spawn (typically late April/early May), a size 6 Woolly Bugger (bead-weighted at most), Squirmy Wormy, mop fly, etc. really helps entice a subtle bite if they’re off their beds. Don’t pick bass up off their beds! If you see them in a still/shallow pool during the springtime, take a second to observe their behavior before you cast to them, as you don’t want to disturb them or their bed. If they aren’t guarding a bed, then go for it!

Conclusion

As you’ve likely inferred, this technique has been instrumental for me over the past few years, and I’ve really found a lot of joy in dialing it in. I proudly hosted the nickname “Professor Popper Dropper” from the folks at Current Culture back when it was a brick-and-mortar fly shop (my day job is a professor). If you find this technique cumbersome or uninteresting, then try it, and if you hate it, ban it from your game entirely. One of the things I love most about bass fishing on a fly rod is that you have total agency over how much or how little you want to do. My wife is also an avid angler, and both of us have decided that if a trout requires a nymph or dry fly in size 20 or smaller, then “that trout wins.” Fishing downtown isn’t a numbers game anyway, so it’s better to catch one fish you enjoyed roping in than to bring in five using a technique you didn’t enjoy. Put a spin on it that makes it truly yours and if you’re in the fly development game, come up with your own patterns that help you execute your own game-plan well!

Time on the river is supposed to be “Time Well Spent” and don’t let any obscured and frustrating fishing technique ever make you feel otherwise.

Definitely great fishing conditions today and tomorrow! Friday - Sunday will be tougher days as cooler days tend to tamp down bass and give them a little bit of lockjaw, but “some days we go because it’s nice, some days it’s nice because we go.” I think you’ll see activity pick back up Monday - Thursday, but seeing that Monday and Tuesday have thunderstorms on the forecast I feel like it would be unwise to walk around water with a tall metal stick.

General Conditions (Barometric Pressure)

Observe the black line in the bottom graph: there’s a high pressure system we’re seeing, but there are a few dips (today and Wednesday) which could open up some fantastic top-water bite windows! That said, sometimes when the pressure drop is substantive the bass bite won’t necessarily be “gang busters” because of how dramatic the change in pressure is.

Between the temperature drop and the pressure climb on Thursday, I would really keep the expectations low for catching something then. Check out “Technique” portion of this post if you’re fishing Friday - Monday!

General Conditions (Water Level)

Water levels are low, and will likely stay low even with the rain. Since some of the rain is coming up from the south and moving through the western part of the state, there should be a nice bump in the water level, which is awesome! If you’re new to fishing downtown, you may not realize how crazily low the water is right now, but it is definitely drought conditions. It’s a bummer to have fishing tamped down by stained and swollen water (typically referred to as “chocolate milk”), but we need this rain.

I’m all about fishing in the rain, but you need to do it safely. Check the Cartersville gauge on your phone while your on the river every hour or so. If you see a big bump in the Cartersville water gauge, it’s time to call it a day. If you see the river visibly changing in depth and brown, stained water introducing itself, you need to get out the river ASAP. I also don’t recommend crossing sewer lines if the raindrops will be an impediment to your vision, as it can leave you stranded. Use judgment, and remember that this isn’t a “bass stream,” it’s a river.

Spot Recommendations

This is likely what you came here for, and I’m willing to provide!

My spot recommendations are based off of the Spot Guides for RVA Fishing Report. Support these guys if you can! Here’s what I recommend for this batch of days:

Read more

Sometimes we rely on talent, other times our luck, and other times our community. I never caught a striper from the wading position this spring, but I’m grateful to a friend for helping me connect with a few from his boat! Scott (@rvaonthefly) is definitely an adept boatman and we saw some crazy action in specific spots, but when the bite shut off, it was all the way off.

Don’t hear me wrong: these fish don’t just jump into a boat, but I found that the spots which were most productive weren’t (safely) wadable. In former years, these fish would push up into rapids which barricaded the tidal portion of the river from the Fall Line and with startling consistency they could be found. However, this year was different: the water was low and hot, the sun was abrasive, and the arrival of larger schools of blueback herring were delayed. What all of this meant was that the normal playbook of wading for stripers was only useful at specific (and seemingly random) times of day and on specific days.

I hope to have a conversation with some striper aficionados in the next month or so to get a retrospective on what happened with the run and some observations on how to improve the game bankside moving forward, but for now I’m going to view the striper run from the perspective of a “funeral” instead of from the perspective of an “autopsy.”

And a Look Forward to Smallies!

Honestly, this is my happy place. I’ve been fortunate to have a few sessions exclusively pursuing smallmouth and my theory is confirmed: it looks good out there! I had a feeling that things were going to be productive because I was catching smallmouth while I was unsuccessfully pursuing stripers, which hasn’t been typical for me in the past.

Some Observations

These fish are definitely post-spawn. From the handful I’ve caught, they’re definitely colored up nicely which is an indication of spawning behavior. However, they’re much more active about the river in that what was successful a week ago wasn’t nearly as productive yesterday. Thus, it’s game-time. Now is a great time to do some “hog hunting” since larger bass are strapping on the feedbags and are in pursuit of larger fare. For clarity a larger fish in the Fall Line section of our river is roughly 14” or larger. Of course there are bigger ones, and it’s awesome to catch those but I think that expectations should be kept realistic to maximize fun!

Timing

You don’t need to set your alarm for something ghastly just yet. I find that 8:00 am is a perfectly fine early bite window during this season and for those of you with young children, you can treasure your precious hours of extra sleep.

Afternoon into evening is an awesome time to be out there as the water is at it’s hottest and the bass tend to be more willing to move into the more easily accessed shallows for feeding.

Keep the above image in your head as you work specific depths of water throughout the day. Obviously, this is a frame of reference and not something to live and die by. Ultimately, since these bass aren’t migrating large distances at this point “deep” is to be considered relatively instead of universally.

For clarity, if bass are localized in an area that is generally more shallow, a 3’-5’ dip at the end of a riffle is now a “deep hole.” Sure, it’s only up to my hips, but that spot has the most depth locally, so you just stepped into a spot you should be fishing around the warmer part of the day.

Tactics

Here is a great opportunity to start practicing reading water! Since the water level is so low (few would argue with me that less than 4’ of water at the Westham gauge is low) you have the opportunity to really visualize depth/structure in the water. This means that you get to practice being selective, being present, and covering water.

1. Being selective

   You won’t be as effective using the “cast and blast” strategy as there’s simply too much water. In some spots of our stretch of river you have 1500 feet of water to cover, so you don’t want to “play the odds” with a 1500-sided die: certainly not with a paycheck.

   Consider “the triad:” access to current, shade, structure. If you are fishing in the morning, look for spots that are shallow(ish) with at least two of the triad present, and if you’re fishing in the afternoon do the same but with deeper water. It’s better to fish these spots well than it is to fish every inch of water poorly.

   Of course you should be covering water, but you don’t have to cover ALL of it!

2. Being present

   Things can happen fast, and you’ll need to be tuned in when they do. Try not to do any “hero casts” as you want to be ready to set the hook if a bass attacks your fly as soon as it lands (this tends to happen during the summer, but since the water level is so low we should be prepared for anything!). To keep your mental game engaged, try to acknowledge when you’re prospecting (searching for where bass can be found), replicating (looking for similar water that just produced a bass), and soaking (working a specific piece of water/structure that you think holds fish). Drift in and out of these phases of fishing being honest with yourself about where you are. It helps me keep myself sharp as my mind wanders along.

   As an example, I had a great afternoon recently (5/12) when I missed a hookset on a bass that snuck out from the shady side of a rock adjacent to current and hammered a foam bug. What did I do next? Left that rock and found another spot just like it 15-20 yards upstream. So I hit the next rock up right up on its shady side pointing away from the current and connected! I did this for another 15-20 minutes, then went back into “prospect” mode.

3. Covering water

   You certainly need to get a good presentation on top-water since these bass are easily spooked right now, and they aren’t moving a large distance beneath the water. If you don’t feel like you’ve fished a hole well on your first two presentations, get moving (especially if you miss a top-water presentation to a larger fish). You are more likely to hook up somewhere else than where you are. Explore and see more! It will serve you well when the water levels kick back up.

Techniques

Top-water

Since the water is low you want something that has a bit more delicacy on the landing, but allows for more action as you’re seeking to call up bass from the bottom of banks/pools. To thread this needle, I recommend frogs for general top-water prospecting and foam for specific applications. Cork/balsa is a bit “too much” for sluggish bass in low water. If your frog is on an intermediate line, I recommend strip setting and if it’s on a floating line I recommend the “Orvis Set.”

If you’re “bank blasting,” definitely go with something that lands softer and allows for some movement. Start with more subtlety and if you do a few more presentations add a little more activity. See “Tackle” for specific fly recommendations.

Subsurface

I would prioritize baitfish. These should be fished slowly with plenty of pause as strikes are still pretty not-explosive and the bass don’t seem to be as willing to give chase to something smaller.

Crayfish are always fun and worth a shot for slower presentations in deeper water! I would be throwing larger crayfish right now and fishing them slowly on the bottom of pools. If you feel a bump but miss a hook-set, give it a second! Bass will spit out crayfish and suck them back in so the claws aren’t pointing down their throats, so be patient!

Slow is the goal. Strip set your streamer if you feel like it’s a snag: it might not be! A phrase you may have heard before is “hook-sets are free” and while it isn’t always true, I would recommend that thinking while streamer fishing for smallmouth in these conditions.

Tackle

Line

If you have two spools of lines to choose from, I recommend a floating line and an intermediate line. I carry a sinking line too, but I only really use it if I know that I’m fishing a spillway that funnels into really deep water (truthfully, most accessible spillways barely have water cresting them, so they aren’t necessarily the same feature as they would be with about 6” more water).

Leader

Working our way down, I don’t love casting long leaders but you really don’t have an option with water being this low and clear. I can’t stand it, but 10’ - 13’ tapered leaders are your ticket (especially for top-water). I have been using a 40%-40%-20% leader with 30 lb. mono butt section, 20 lb. mono middle section, and 12 lb. tippet (use 5 turn blood-knots to connect these and a perfection loop at the end of the butt section for loop to loop connection to the line). I use this for streamers and top-water and I keep at least two on me so I don’t have to tie a bunch of knots when I’d rather be fishing. For long leaders, I do a full wingspan for the butt section and the middle section, then one half a wingspan for the tippet. It’s long, and unruly, but it matters because while the bass aren’t “leader shy,” they absolutely see/feel your fly line run over top of them and they will spook. Goof around with the length you can cast with to manage a good delivery (where the fly lands at the end of a straight line between the end of the fly line and the leader). Bass have INCREDIBLY good eyesight, so this is worth doing (even with streamers).

If you don’t feel like tying your own leader (fair), then go guy one! I recommend supporting your local fly shop (in this case, Orvis River Road). Here’s my shopping list for you!

• Orvis Superstrong 0x Leader (9 ft +)

• Superstrong 0x tippet

• Tippet rings (medium or large)

You don’t need to spend a ton of money on “Mirage,” that’s a trout-centric tool that’s superfluous for bass fishing.

Cut the last foot and a half off of your leader and attach a tippet ring using a clinch knot (do this at home - dropping tippet rings into the water should be an “unlocked fear” as they are expensive). Then, pop on about a foot and a half of the tippet and you’re off to the races! Tying your own leaders can be helpful and can save money over the long run, but unless that sounds fun to you, don’t mess around with it!

Flies

For top-water, I recommend a hearty collection of deer hair and foam. A Dahlberg Diver or equivalent deer hair frog is an excellent choice! Divers (you can include the Swinging D in this family) are excellent because they can serve as top-water and subsurface, and they’re easier to present and manage for newer anglers. You can put these on floating line or intermediate, each with their own perks/drawbacks. If you put your frog on floating line I recommend a trout set (Orvis set) and on an intermediate line I recommend a strip set. I recommend frogs on size 1 or 1/0 hooks. For colors, I recommend a few in lighter colors and a few in darker colors: weedless is always a plus as you can get closer to banks/structure.

For foam, the “Wiggly” family is your best bet (Ol Mr Wiggly, Chernobyl Ant, Fat Albert, etc). They’re big enough to attract attention, but they don’t hammer the top of the water like a cork/balsa bug would. The water is low and clear, so if we are going to fish a bug it needs to be a foam bug, and it should be done in specific cases where subtlety is needed (frog don’t offer that subtlety). For these flies I would recommend sizes 1, 2, or 4. If you go too big, you may spook them! So tend towards the smaller variations, but save the size 6’s for summer! A few in blue and a few in olive are always great and do incredibly well

In the way of baitfish imitations I feel like the clouser minnow is a great lower column option, the half and half will do great in the middle, and a deciever will do well closer to the surface. Bigger articulated streamers are still in play, but only fish those if you’re comfortable throwing meat (Sex Dungeons and Roamers are awesome choices)! A Kreelex works best in low light, so grab a few of those too! I recommend all of these in white and black (light sky, light fly and dark sky, dark fly), but I recommend using white when you can so you can get a visual on the eat. These eats are subtle, so seeing it is way more helpful than waiting to “feel” it. I recommend articulated streamers have at least a size 1 or 1/0 front hook and 2 or 1 back hook, respectively. For non-articulated streamers I think that a size 1 or 2 is perfect!

For crayfish, I always swear by the clawdad! I recommend using those on intermediate lines in riffles between 2’ - 3’ deep. Let the fly bump on the bottom and give long slower strips with a little pop on the end to get a realistic movement. Sizes 2 and 4 are perfect and I always keep a few in tan and a few in black. If you want a third color I find that chartreuse is a good “light” option.

Most (if not all) of these flies are available at the Orvis on River Road! I recommend supporting your local fly shop whenever possible, and these guys are awesome!

Spots

If you’d like some insight/recommendations for spots, I’ll be releasing a paid post with a river report (it will include a 10-day forecast, spot recommendation, and some more specifics on techniques) in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that!

Closing Thoughts

Guess where all of those smallmouth pictures came from? My last two sessions! These fish are out there and they’re happy! Get out there and go for them.

If you spook one, miss a hookset, or miss an eat, take heart: you found a fish and that’s the hard part! Getting that information is invaluable and that’s how you improve your game and hook up on more fish. That said, try to remember that this is fun. Sometimes I choose spots because of their productivity, but most of the times I choose spots because I like fishing them. The goal when you get out there is to enjoy our river and be apart of it, not just to “be successful.”

If you’d like some more “vibez” for our river, check out my article (pg. 84) “Fishing Close to Home.” I think you’ll find it encouraging!

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That’s what Kate said as she leaned over my laptop while I was editing this interview—and I have to agree. In this conversation, Bri shares her angling past and present, and offers meaningful insight into fishing with children.

I reached out to Bri specifically about fishing with kids after seeing an Instagram post (@winter_flyfishing) with this caption:

“Fishing with the family is a blast. Sure, there are tangled lines and a little fighting, but there are big laughs, great catches, and zero screens. We try our best to catch fish, but it’s really about being on the boat, exploring, and just enjoying the adventure together. So take the kids, even when it feels like a lot, because sometimes type 2 fun turns into the best memories.”

I had to know more. This brand is built around fly tying with my son, but I know I can grow in the area of “just enjoying the adventure together.” Bri offers authentic insight with refreshing humility. In the parenting space, the phrase “you’re the adult” can sometimes carry an undercurrent of shame or judgment, but Bri maintains a clear-eyed (and gracious) perspective on the realities of fishing with children—and provides actionable advice on how to do it well.

I really enjoyed my time with Bri. A consistent thread throughout our conversation was her humanity and her willingness to acknowledge limitations. Her story about the snook she caught is exactly how fishing stories should be told (more on that later).

I also want to highlight a portion of the interview where Bri shares ways men can support women in an urban fishing environment. She graciously offers clear, practical guidance on how to avoid the temptation to “spray beta” while still sharing helpful insight. And fellas—if a woman wants to fish with you, it’s best to assume it’s about the fish.

I hope you feel encouraged, challenged, and enriched by this interview. Here are some timestamps to guide you:

Bri’s fly fishing origin story and local experience: 0:00 - 5:25

How men can support women in local RVA fly fishing: 5:25 - 15:25

Bri the angler: 15:25 - 24:43

Fishing with kids: 24:43 - 49:00

Closing thoughts: 49:00 - 51:28 (end)

Conditions are spotty at best.

The water is warm, the water is low, the sun is glaring, and the current is weak. None of this is good news, and it gets even messier when you only have access to a fractional amount of water at any given time (wading is hard). There are specific windows in specific spots where folks will rope these fish in, but those windows close and then they’re shut. These conditions are hard! Give yourself grace if you’re getting skunked!

They are absolutely being caught.

Of course, you’ve seen pictures of them on socials. There are folks catching them, they are catching them on purpose, and they are being caught in the wading position. Yes, some of them are even being caught on flies.

They are absolutely not being caught by me.

Yup. I’m confessing to being skunked so far this season, and I am flummoxed. I have been running the program and coming up with blanks in the way of striped bass, and there’s no small insecurity there because if you came to my Orvis talk I told you what that program was!!! If you’ve caught stripers with the information from my presentation or my Substack, then you are succeeding where I’m failing!

I can’t tell you that I’m skunked because I’m not on the water (I have been), it’s not because I don’t have the right tackle (I do), and it’s not because I don’t know what I’m doing (I do). When we go fishing, we are dealing with living things, and sometimes these living things are too busy living their lives to trouble themselves with pleasing us.

Fishing, by nature, has limitation baked entirely into it’s fabric. In general, the following quote is something I come back to:

“Accepting our limitations requires a level of humility that not many of us have.”

It’s me. I am bumping up against my limitations right now, and my desire is to push/pull/crank/fight to re-calibrate my limitations so that I can catch stripers and post the pictures online.

What are my next steps?

What am I going to do next?

1. Acknowledge limitation

   I can’t be in all of the spots at once. I can’t be there all day. I can only cast between 50 - 60 feet, and I can only throw one streamer at a time. It doesn’t matter where other folks are catching fish at a given time, because that’s not where I am. If I went over to where they were, who’s to say that someone wouldn’t pull a fish out of the spot I just left? Me choosing a spot isn’t me “already making a mistake,” it’s me “not being omnipresent.”

   
   Framing a failure through the lens of limitation helps us remember that this past-time only has the scoreboard that we put up for it. Sure, mistakes are being made, but “time on the water” is never a mistake.

2. Stick to the program

   I’m working on keeping my wits about me. I won’t throw out the playbook: just start working on isolating variables. Maybe the Clouser isn’t hot yet, so I’ll consider rotating through bigger and smaller flies more quickly. Maybe the fish haven’t pushed up into the spots where I’ve been fishing yet, so maybe moving downstream/upstream would be better. Maybe my line selection isn’t entirely right, and that’s something to consider.
   
   I’m going to dodge the desire to act in desperation: I don’t have to catch this fish. If I do catch one, I want to know how it happened: I want to know if it was a question of depth, presentation, positioning, etc. I am deciding to play the long game and allow the variability of my existing program to work for me, or I can integrate more variability into my program to help me in the future.

3. Prioritize fun

   I’m working on keeping something I enjoy as a thing I enjoy. There is a “hustle and grind” mentality that does an excellent job of making everything miserable. Fishing is a rare opportunity to slow down, honestly acknowledge what you are (and aren’t) in control of, and to be present where you are. I have caught myself measuring my time on the water as the distance it is away from when I hook a fish, and I’m missing the point entirely.

   Let’s agree to keep our fun, fun. There are plenty of places where I can work at “rising to the occasion,” but I’m working at letting my fishing be one of those places where I simply work at enjoying what I’m doing in the moment I’m doing it.

Keep at it. Keep putting yourself in the right spots at the right times, and accept that the “you” part of the equation is a pretty small part of the equation when you consider what these fish are experiencing right now (they’re not having an awesome time).

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When we met up at the house later, it became clear that Levin had picked up a bug while we were out. This was in 2021, and that summer everyone’s immune systems were wonky because of the COVID protocols throughout the year, so it wasn’t too strange to see that Levin had picked up RSV in June (normally far more common in the winter). For context, RSV is a common respiratory virus that is incredibly contagious and very dangerous for newborns. After just a week at home, Peter was back in the hospital receiving treatment for RSV.

It’s jarring to see pictures of a newborn baby hooked up to a breathing assistance apparatus and a feeding tube, but I got the easy end of it: Kate was in the hospital with Peter and would be there for the entire week. Levin and I took trips up to see them when we could (I’d incentivize him by saying we’d get to ride the elevator), but most of the day was Levin strapped into his high chair watching Mickey Mouse and me chain-smoking in the backyard. It was a dark time, and again, I had the easier role between my wife and me.

Peter and Kate share the same birthday, and my “push gift” to Kate was a TFD fly rod kit. Her uncle is an adept fly fisher, so she had always been interested in it but never pulled the trigger. Since I had gotten into fishing a few years prior (I wanted to learn so I could teach Levin when we found out we were pregnant with him), I had some sense of what I was looking for when I bought her that rod.

I was feeling really frayed around the middle of the week. My church had been incredibly helpful and made sure I didn’t have to worry about meal prep (it sounds silly, but when someone is going through something difficult, any weight lifted feels like double relief), so I had grown accustomed to visitors during this time. A friend showed up one morning with a bag from Orvis, which I assumed was food in a fancy leftover retail bag—and wouldn’t you know it: my wife had called Orvis (River Road) that morning and had them build me a 5-weight with line and a box of flies. When our friend dropped it off, she and her family agreed to watch Levin the next morning and give me the opportunity to harass some bream at a creek down the road.

And there you have it. I flung that rod back and forth like a maniac the next morning, and there were a few very unfortunate bream that found the business end of a poorly delivered dry fly. I was hooked, and here we are now. A lot has happened since then, but I am still persona non grata in most warmwater creeks.

This sport didn’t hook me by scratching my itch for recreation, adventure, or mastery—the first itch it scratched was relief. Surely, it didn’t make Peter recover miraculously; he still had three more days in the hospital before coming home to two frayed and nervous parents. However, it gave me an opportunity to experience genuine joy during a time when the life of my newborn son seemed to be in question. I had a chance to stare at a pencil-width rectangle of foam on the surface of the water instead of at my phone, and it was all I needed in that moment.

There have been days where I’ve limped to the car from the river, worse for wear and skunked. On those days, I’ve been practicing changing my self-talk from a play-by-play of each mistake made, fish lost, and cast sent wayward to simply repeating the following phrase under my breath:

“Time well spent.”

And I’ve gotten to a place where I mean it now. As I’ve enjoyed this pastime more and more, I continue to come back to the relief I feel on the water. This happens with bait, lures, and flies, but flies will always occupy a special place in my heart because they were there when my heart needed them most.

This Substack is my attempt to help this sport feel like the reprieve it can be. I’m not here to make you “better” at fly fishing, to become a *finfluencer,* or to make moves toward becoming a voice in the industry. A friend of mine the other night was talking about how he was excited about starting fly fishing so he could “get into something he can suck at.” Hell yeah, brother. For him, I’d like to help so that he won’t feel as much frustration at the start of his journey and instead see every outing—fun or confounding—as time well spent.

I’ll talk about Stripers next week, as the schoolie bite is still pretty slow.

Tackle

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