New River/fishing around Roanoke?

[peter odell]

I'm heading down there for a couple of days, and have always wanted to fish the New RIver.  I'm inclined to rent a kayak and skip a guide, but could change my mind if anyone knows any really good (and mellow) guides.  Is there other good lakes/streams around here?

[Dalton Terrell]

I just fished the New River June 14-16 and did pretty well. We camped in Piney Creek, NC, which is just upstream of the confluence on the South Fork. I wade fished the main stem at Fries, VA two of the afternoons, floated the South Fork one day and floated the stretch between Independence and Fries one morning. The best stretch by far was the float between Independence and Fries, this yielded a few 12-13" fish and a 15" fish. These are all spots that are ~2 hours or so driving from Roanoke, and you will need a shuttle service and kayak rental, the only place I know that is around good fishing is around Sparta, NC (do a google for canoeing the new--BTW, if you like to have a few soda pops, don't stay at their campground). I wish I could help you on more details, but pick up a Virginia Gazette or the National Geographic map of the New River for boat ramp locations (as far as I know Google maps doesn't have this yet).

Another option is the Roanoke River; I had a high school friend who went to college in Roanoke and he always talked about wade fishing the Roanoke River but I never made it up to fish there. 3

Dalton

[Mac]

I'm from Roanoke and I grew up fishing the Roanoke, New, and James on
a regular basis. If you're looking for a float trip then you might
consider checking out the Pembroke area of the New. There are a few
places there where you can rent (I'd recomend Tangent Outdoors) and
they can set up the shuttle for you. There are several different
stretches you can hit and if you're short on time then I'd say take
the Pembroke to Ripplemeade (vs Bluff City) bc it is shorter. Then I'd
head over to the Cascades (Little Stoney Creek) and fish for native
brookies and wild bows. The water is freezing and the fish receive
little pressure. They are a lot of fun on a light stick. Or if you
want to try for some larger trout, head over to Big Stoney (a couple
miles further down 460, but on your way back from the Walker's Creek
area) and there are wild browns towards the top end of that and some
hold over bows.

If your bound to Roanoke, there are several places where you can fish
in Salem. Green Hill park has a delayed harvest area (probably picked
clean now and it's too hot for trout in the river now anyway) where
you should be able to find some very smart smallies and plenty of dumb
sunfish. There are several other areas in Salem where you can fish,
just follow the road next to the river and try a few.

Hope that helps,

Michael

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[Eric Y.]

I'm from Roanoke and I've been in Roanoke for about the last month, fishing 3-5 days/week. Greenhill Park and the DH section between the two bridges on Apperson Road in Salem still have a few browns but they're very wily right now and, from what I've seen and caught, 12" and smaller. I did land a 16" rainbow off of Wiley Drive near downtown Roanoke last week, though. I haven't been able to get them to take anything but #20ish hares ears and copper johns or similarly sized sulphurs on 7x tippet from a tenkara rod. One of my fishing buddies caught a monster carp near Wasena Park last week on a psycho prince but I haven't caught one this summer over about 14" (which is good, because I'm not going for them and I'm really ONLY using a tenkara rod on the Roanoke River).

The New River and James River are full of smallies and muskie fishing is good right now too. Try the New around McCoy Falls with buggers and clousers. Bright blue poppers on the James have really been crushing it as well. On Sunday I caught at least 40 smallies on the James floating between Buchanan and Arcadia. 

Smith Mountain Lake has been alright... I've caught some striper trolling u-rigs at around 50ft and the largemouth are pretty readily taking top water lures/flies and streamers thrown around rip rapped points and docks in coves. 

Let me know if you need any more help in the area.

[Eric Y.]

Regarding guides, Blane Chocklett is a great guide in the area for just about everything and he does a lot of fly fishing. He was in the most recent issue of Eastern Fly Fishing. For striper on the lake, The Shad Taxi is a great guide and one of the few that catches good fish consistently throughout the summer.