'Virginia Fishing Guide' is the road map to both the obscure and the
best-known places to fish in the Old Dominion.
Fly
Fishing Virginia: A No Nonsense Guide to Top Waters by Beau Beasley
Paperback from No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks ISBN: 1892469162 From small creeks to the expansive
Jackson River, Beau Beasley shows you where to fly fish in Virginia. Detailed
maps, photographs, and Beasley's wisdom guide you through the many waters
in the Old Dominion. Use this book to plan your next trip and then take
it along with you!
The
Best in Tent Camping: Virginia: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete
Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos by Randy Porter, Marie Javins
Paperback from Menasha Ridge Press ISBN: 089732563X From the storied coastline to
the mountains of Shenandoah, camping in the Old Dominion has never been
better. The Best in Tent Camping: Virginia is a guidebook for tent campers
who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites. It's the perfect resource
if you blanch at the thought of pitching a tent on a concrete slab, trying
to sleep through the blare of another camper's boombox, or waking up to
find your tent surrounded by a convoy of RVs. Each campground profile gives
unbiased and thorough evaluations, taking the guesswork out of finding
the perfect site.
The Flyfisher's Guide to Virginia is the most comprehensive book ever
written on flyfishing in Virginia and West Virginia. David Hart, a native
of Virginia, covers both states, breaking them up into six regions. He
covers rivers, streams, and lakes and the great fishing opportunities for
rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, brook trout, brown trout,
pickerel, muskie, and pan fish. The Shenandoah National Park streams are
covered, including the Rapidan, Robinson, Cedar Run, White Oak Canyon Run,
Rose, Hogback Branch, Staunton, Big Run and many others. All of the great
rivers are covered including the James, Potomac, Rappahannock, Rapidan,
South & North Fork of the Holston, North Anna, Chickahominy, Laurel
Fork, Mossy, Beaver, Clinch, the New and other great smallmouth bass and
trout waters. David describes in detail each water with tips on how to
fish the waters, recommended flies, hatch charts, and stream facts. He
also covers some of the little known but great flyfishing gems in each
state. There are over 110 detailed fishing maps showing river miles, rapids,
boat launches, access points, public lands, roads, and campgrounds. David
also gives you all of the important travel information you need to plan
a successful trip, including a listing of fly shops, sporting good stores,
motels, guides, lodges, restaurants, car and boat rentals, and more.
Excerpt: The voyage to America in 1607 was like a journey to a star.
Veteran rovers though the English were, none of them had any clear idea
of what to expect in the new land of Virginia. Only one thing was certain:
they would have nothing there but what they took with them or wrought from
the raw materials of the country. What raw materials? They had reliable
information that the climate was mild. Therefore, crops could be raised.
They learned of inexhaustible timber: so ships and dwellings and industrial
works could be built. They hoped for gold and dreamed of access to uncharted
lands of adventure. But putting first things first, how would they eat
in the meantime? When Sir Walter Raleigh established the first English
colony in "Virginia"--on what is now Roanoke island, North Carolina--two
good reporters, one a writer, the other an illustrator, were commissioned
to describe what they saw. This was twenty-two years before Jamestown and
naturally all the material consisted of Indian life and customs. Thomas
Hariot wrote: For four months of the year, February, March, April and May,
there are plenty of sturgeon; and also in the same months of herrings,
some of the ordinary bigness as ours in England, but the most part far
greater, of eighteen, twenty inches, and some two feet in length and better;
both these kinds of fish in these months are most plentiful and in best
season which we found to be most delicate and pleasant meat. There are
also trouts, porpoises, rays, oldwives, mullets, plaice, and very many
other sorts of excellent good fish, which we have taken and eaten, whose
names I know not but in the country language we have of twelve sorts more
the pictures as they were drawn in the country with their names. The inhabitants
use to take them two manner of ways, the one is by a kind of weir made
of reeds which in that country are very strong. The other way which is
more strange, is with poles made sharp at one end, by shooting them into
the fish after the manner as Irishmen cast darts; either as they are rowing
in their boats or else as they are wading in the shallows for the purpose.
Rich in angling lore, the secluded lakes and rivers of Virginia's Highlands
offer some of the best trout and smallmouth bass fishing found anywhere
in the state. From the Alleghany Highlands in the north (which encompass
Alleghany, Bath, and Rockbridge counties) to the Blue Ridge/Grayson Highlands
in the southwest (which include Grayson, Smythe, and Washington counties),
these portions of the commonwealth offer many high-yield rivers, lakes,
and streams including Lake Moomaw, the Maury River, South Holston Lake,
and the North Fork of the Holston River. In his new guide, Fishing Virginia's
Highlands, M. W. Smith extends his ongoing tour of the state's greatest
fishing spots to these two remote regions, offering readers excellent advice
on where, when, and how to catch more fish in Virginia's Highlands.
Renowned for its mineral springs, the Alleghany Highlands is home to
world-famous spas, including the Homestead in Bath County, making it a
popular destination for many outdoor enthusiasts. The Blue Ridge/Grayson
Highlands, which is surrounded by such cities as Abingdon, Bristol, Winston-Salem/Greensboro,
and Charlotte, is also a common weekend getaway spot. By considering these
two areas in one volume, Smith provides valuable information for anglers
and other visitors, giving readers the information they need to enjoy the
natural beauty of the waters and to catch more fish from them. Complete
with a comprehensive map of the regions' streams, notes on specific fishing
locations keyed to maps in DeLorme's Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer, and
an appendix that lists local guide services, tackle shops, camping sites,
and parks, Smith's guidebook is a compact and informative resource.
Whether you are a visitor or a longtime resident, novice angler or pro,
Fishing Virginia's Highlands will prove an indispensable guide to every
fishing adventure you undertake in highland waters.
The Rapidan River is an angler's dream that can be fished year round
since the watershed includes tough, cranky smallmouth bass as well as aggressive
mountain brook trout. Following the precedent set in his other CatchGuide
books, Steve starts the coverage at the mouth of the Rapidan where it slams
into the Rappahannock at the smallmouth bass fishing heaven known simply
as "the Confluence" and ends above the old presidential retreat at Camp
Hoover high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
There are 18 different access points between those two locations that
open up over 34 miles of water. Even though the book runs over 50,500 words,
that is not enough to describe the fabulous fishing on this premier river.
248 pictures, coupled with 21 maps, tell the rest of the story. Use
them to put your experienced angler's eye on the water and make your own
judgment before you drive to any particular location. In the Internet age,
pictures and words are not enough. The book includes 162 GPS coordinates
to obtain customized directions via the Internet or put the coordinates
directly into a GPS receiver to guide your day on the water.
Beyond wade fishing, Steve discusses each access point in terms of its
compatibility to launch a canoe or a kayak. Once in the water, floating
anglers will be well served to use this guide to move quickly to the good
spots and not waste time floating over unproductive water. In particular,
they will find the detailed coverage that covers every foot of the river
from Elys Ford all the way to the Confluence exceptionally focused and
useful.
The Rappahannock River is home to some of the biggest, meanest smallmouth
bass in Virginia. These cantankerous beasts cruise silently in the quiet
pools and fast runs below old trench lines marking the remains of violent
Civil War battles or in remote, oddly named places like Snake Castle Rock.
Steve Moore shares his years of experience fishing this premier river to
guide you to the best water between the fall line in Fredericksburg and
Chester Gap high in the Blue Ridge. Using 252 pictures and 23 maps to round
out the descriptions, the book covers 24 access points that open up over
42 miles of water to wade fishing. Even though the book is oriented at
anglers who fish on their feet, kayakers and canoeists will find it equally
useful to identify the productive water to target as they float downriver.
Given we are in the internet age, Steve includes 279 GPS coordinates
usable for customized directions via the Internet or loadable into a GPS
receiver to guide your day on the water. Finally, any discussion of the
Rappahannock must mention the superb fishing available during the spring
shad run. Steve dedicates a chapter to where to go and how to catch the
fish called the "poor man's tarpon."
The first few paragraphs of Steve's introduction provide perspective:
"In the Algonquian Indian language, Rappahannock means "rapidly rising
and falling waters" and, every Spring, the river demonstrates why the name
is appropriate. During that stormy season, flood waters charge downriver
with fantastic velocity and violence causing the huge spikes in turbulence
that are an inescapable lure to legions of kayakers. But the name is inadequate
to describe the quality and variety of the fishery that exists under its
roiling surface. Although the name is unlikely to change to whatever the
Algonquian translation of "angler's heaven" is, in addition to smallmouth
bass, you are likely to scream a panicked "FISH ON" as massive redbreast
sunfish, carp or even yellow perch and channel catfish pull hard against
your smoking drag once the season drifts from frantic Spring into calm
Summer.
Granted, I do not cover all 184 miles of the Rappahannock from its dim
origin at Chester Gap in the Blue Ridge to the tidal flats lining the Chesapeake
Bay, but I do cover the 59 (42+ wadable) miles that represent the interesting
core of the river for smallmouth bass fishing enthusiasts. Besides, below
the bridge, the river runs wide, slow and sandy; becoming the domain of
largemouth bass pursued by hard-eyed anglers leveraging every ounce of
technology packed into supercharged bass boats.
Above the fall line, the high-powered bawl of a 200 hp Mercury engine
is replaced by the quiet dip of paddles or the hushed slosh of ragged sneakers
moving through the shallows. While the book is useful for kayakers and
canoeists since the good places are good regardless of how you reach them,
my focus is on those who fish on their feet - the sweaty grunt, the fishing
infantry. The book includes the well-known angler's playgrounds at Snake
Castle Rock and the Confluence - usually the restricted domains of kayakers
and canoeists who reach these honey holes via a long downstream float.
As I describe later, a short hike, coupled with a bit of perspiration,
gives you the opportunity to fish normally inaccessible locations."
Sports Posters
