I went to Virginia last week for the striper run. I have family there, and Dad is a retired guide, SOOO, why not? I hit the river two days, and two different ponds, caught over 100 fish of 7 species, two of which I have never caught before, one I had never landed on a fly rod. What a trip. Family, friends and good fishing, what more could a person want?
CMM, nice report. Show us more pics and tell some more fish stories! My mom grew up in Virginia and would tantalize us as kids with fish tales from there. Her fishing days as a youngster were about 100 years ago!
+1 on more pics! Catching fish on a flyrod is the most fun way to fish especially with floating lures. Is the first pic a HSB? If so, do they occur naturally public lakes?
4 Corners, I did most of my growing up between Northern VA and Richmond VA. There is some good fishing in the area, no doubt.
DaveD1, it was an absolute blast. I have hit the shad run a couple of times, but never landed a striper before. What tough fish. No wonder so many put the HSB in ponds. Makes me want a few even more.
djstauder, we were using streamers, they were running a few feet under the water in a fast moving river, below the fall line (were ocean tides influence the river levels). These are not hybrids, but plain Stripers. Smaller males that have moved in from the Chesapeake Bay to spawn in the river. I had, of course, hoped to hook into a big ole female, but not this trip.
We caught hundreds of fish all told. The bald eagles and osprey were constant companions. One bridge we were parked by for a while had 3 nests on it, all with babies who sounded quite demanding.
I'll post a few more tonight. Honestly, we were so busy catching, netting and releasing fish, we didn't get as many pictures as we could have.
One cute story: Lots of Canada Geese make homes on the river. Many had chicks. One had apparently gotten lost from its parents and siblings. It was in the middle of the river, no other geese around. When it saw our boat, it started calling to us and followed the boat in circles (we were trolling an area) for about 15 minutes. I couldn't see it after that. I don't know if some big fish got a good meal, or if a quick current just carried the poor thing down stream.
A few more pics from the trip. Most are fishy. My little brother bought 5 acres last year with a 1 acre pond. I stayed there a couple of nights and tried out his water. A couple of decent bass, some bg and a couple of crappie. Beautiful setting, as you can see in a few of the pics. He stripped an old pontoon boat and uses it for a dock/fishing platform.
Hope all the images come through. I spent two days on the river, and 3 more days on a couple different ponds. One a private pay to play (we have access due to Dad bringing groups out 2-3 times per month for fly casting/fishing lessons) and the other was my little brothers place. If you are ever in Richmond, look up Dad doing fly casting and tying lessons at Orvis. He will fill you full of over 70 years of fish stories!
