Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Well, I made it back from my bi-annual trip to WV to fish with my friend, Jeff.  We timed it to hopefully have a good chance of some big smallies.  The conditions were right, but water levels dictated we fish the New River.  I drove down and stayed at the Sleep Inn in Beaver, WV.  It was much more comfortable than my last stay in the '64 Shasta!

The first day, we met at 6:30am to set up the shuttle for a 10 mile float.  The conditions looked perfect.  It is such a beautiful river.









I caught a couple small fish on my little 2.8" swimbait to get the skunk out.  Then Jeff caught a nice one at 16" on a jerkbait.



The fishing was a little slower than we hoped, but steady.  We were surprised that our bottom bouncing tubes and jigs were not the ticket.  I caught them on the swimbait, couple on a tube and a few on ned rig baits.  Unfortunately, I caught mostly smaller fish, so no fish pics of me the first day.





Jeff showed me a really cool waterfall that was behind a large cement drain.  In higher flows, it has 3 levels.  Incredible rocks and ledges.





Jeff ended up doing pretty well with jerkbaits.  I brought a baitcaster set up that did not work well for me in the boat and I ended up backlashing it when I was casting a crankbait.  Not sure what happened, but the bait broke off on the back cast and I lost the lure too.  Anyway, I stuck with swimming and bottom baits.  We were trading off on who was catching more throughout the day.



We went through several class 2 and 3 rapids.  Jeff is and excellent oarsman in his raft and it is always amazing to see how he maneuvers through them.





One of the many random, cool structures along the float



We finished the day with 26 smallies between us.  13 apiece I think it was.  The big ones were elusive to our surprise.  I had bad eye allergies and a headache for some reason by the end of the day.   We decided to meet up at 7:00am the next morning for a shorter float due to forecasted winds.

After resting up and recuperating, I met Jeff at the campground that would be our take-out.  More river majesty.







It was chillier and the wind was blowing, but mostly blocked by the mountains.  I set myself up with a jerkbait on a spinning setup, an underspin with a swimbait and a tube.  Jeff was using jerkbaits, a crawfish bait and a tube,  He switched to a jig at points.

After a slow start, I caught about a 12"er on the underspin.  Jeff caught one on a jerkbait first,  I think.  He caught a nice one on the craw.



This section was even more beautiful thatn the first one. 





I finally scored a decent smallie on a tube behind a mid-river rock.



This rock formation looked like a castle in the sky.













We ended up with only 6 fish on what we thought would be a big fish day.  The lack of bottom feeding and no real groups of fish was a bit of a disappointment, but we had a great day on the water.  There was a guided raft group that put in just after us and they caught 12 between 3 of them.  We got lucky with the wind most of the day and got to the take out right before the front came through.  It dropped to 39 degrees after the rain came through at night.

As always, I had a great time fishing with Jeff and really appreciate the fact that he is willing to row my old butt around to fish with him.  I rested and recovered and was able to take advantage of breakfast here before heading home.  Had to bring some home for the family!

Last edited by drxfish (Nov-12-21 11:47AM)