We went down to Lynchburg, VA for Spencer's 30th birthday. Prior to the evening surprise party, I went out with her Dad, brother and a couple guys they work with that know the James inside out. We put in around 8:30 am at Buchanon and planned to float to Alpine. The water had a nice color to it and was running at 1100 cfs. Those guys fished out of canoes and used rubber lizards and top water crank baits. Bobby and I took the drift boat and took turns on the oars and caught fish on clawdads and clouser flies. It was a really nice float through a beautiful part of the state.
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| Bobby manning the oars |
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| Lunch break |
There were a many class I and II rapids that were good to run in the boat. The only real issue was that a couple of the rapids had wide rock ledges - some were 50-100 ft wide. This made taking a line to avoid the small ledges unavoidable and some you just had to run over. There was a good amount of water in the river, but higher flows would have allowed me to get through the rapids without hitting these ledges. The James is known for its trophy small mouths and a citation (20" or 5 lb) fish is always a possibility. Everyone caught smallies, but nothing of any real size today. Though I did see two muskies on this trip that were about 3ft long. I know when I do this float again, I am going to rig up the 10 wt and target those big boys.
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| Ed with an average smallie. Bass hate lizards. |
I really enjoyed getting out there on this water with my father and brother in law. Looking forward to doing it again soon.
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| Pres was the only one in the ideal boat doing the ideal float |
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