Slaying Shenandoah South Fork Smallies
I’m just off the water from a fantastic float down the South Fork of Virginia’s Shenandoah River where my fishing buddy (and owner/guide at Page Valley Fly Fishing Service), C.T. Campbell and I landed 40-plus smallmouth bass on the fly in just a few hours.
I’m talking a catch-rate of 8-10 fish per hour.
While we didn’t boat any pre-spawn lunkers this time, we netted a large number of bronzebacks despite chilly spring temperatures, gin-clear water, cloudless, robin-egg blue skies–and my incredible ineptitude on the oars of C.T.’s drift boat.
It was a guide’s day-off trip–and my turn to row.
Born and raised in Luray, Virginia (of Luray Caverns fame), C.T. has been fishing the South Fork of the Shenandoah all his life, including during a career with the National Park Service in Shenandoah National Park.
The guy knows this river and smallies–and I really look forward to our annual floats.
Being a Virginian and living in a great bass fishing state, I tend to take smallmouth for granted, but chasing bronzebacks in the Old Dominion is a bucket list trip that you should add to your fly fishing to-do file.
If you haven’t fished for them before, smallies are one of the most fun fish to chase on a fly rod, especially as summer water temperatures make trout fishing untenable in many locations.
In my opinion, here’s why boulder beasts are badass:
Uber-aggressive. Of course, slow days on the water happen just like anywhere else, but a summer float down the South Fork of the ‘Doah can easily result in a 100-fish day for two capable anglers under good conditions.
Do expect a case of bass thumb with all that catching and releasing.
Top water takes: In the warmer months, smallies start to look up, resulting in explosive topwater takes. I’m talking toilet bowl flush-like surface strikes. You’ll never forget seeing a bronzeback come clear out of the water to nab a dragonfly in flight.
No need to wait for a hatch like with some other species–ahem.
Powerful pulls. Pound for pound, smallmouth bass fight incredibly hard. When hooked, they often jump, bulldog deep, and make fast runs, which can be especially challenging on an underpowered fly rod.
These are wild fish–not hatchery honeys.
Fly choices. Smallies will hit an amazing array of artificials. In the South Fork in the spring when the water is cool, it’s best to go subsurface with baitfish patterns. As the weather and water warms, slapping topwater flies on the surface is the ticket.
These fish–generally–aren’t picky when it comes to flies.
Beginner Friendly. As fly anglers, we know trout can be snooty fishing partners, often playing hard to get. Not so with smallies–they’re much less fussy about a poor presentation, and will move good distances to get your fly after a crummy cast.
Like panfish, they’re a great starter fish for the novice fly angler.
And, beyond the five-fold fun factor of fishing for smallies noted above, the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in Virginia’s beautiful and historic Shenandoah Valley is a great place to chase them in the Central Atlantic.
Floating down the South Fork, you’re bracketed by Allegheny Mountains and Massanutten Mountain to the West and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the East. Bald eagles and osprey will be your fishing companions, and deer and cattle will give you a quick once over as you pass by.
The South Fork is probably best known as a “numbers” fishery, but biologists might say it’s “balanced” as well; it has both quantity (i.e., good numbers) and quality bronzebacks (i.e., 11” or bigger). Quantity and quality–nice!
As Maverick said in Top Gun: It’s a target-rich environment.
The South Fork averages about 100 feet wide, and has great habitat for smallies, including rocks, ledges, riffles, runs, pools, current seams, islands, downfalls, root balls, and overhanging trees that provide shade in the high sun.
The river is very accessible for the walk and wade angler as well as those who might want to launch personal watercraft. Just be aware that weekends can get a little crowded during nice weather due to the so-called “tube hatch.”
The gear needed for smallies is pretty standard, including a 6-weight to 8-weight fly rod; a 7-weight is probably the sweet spot just in case you hook a bruiser in the current, and it wants to put up a good old-fashioned donnybrook.
In the spring, a sinking line or a floating line with a sinking tip helps get streamers down into the strike zone when fish are lower in the water column. In the summer, your stringy weapon of choice is a floating line.
Leaders are always a highly charged topic, but a 0X-2X tapered leader or four- to nine-feet of straight 10- to 15-pound test monofilament or fluorocarbon will work, depending on whether you’re fishing subsurface or surface.
These fish aren’t leader shy.
In terms of flies, I’d suggest having wooly buggers in black, olive and white, brass/silver-colored kreelex, chartreuse/white clousers, light blue and olive poppers, and crayfish, hellgrammite, and sculpin patterns in your fly box.
Always check to see if cicadas are hatching in the area–bass love ‘em.
Besides smallies, you may bump into largemouth bass, panfish (bluegill and other sunfish), channel catfish, crappie, carp, and musky–all wickedly fun smallie bycatches on the fly rod.
If you haven’t chased smallies on the fly you owe it to yourself to do so–and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in Virginia’s verdant Shenandoah Valley is a great place to give it a try. It’s an amazing fishery only 1.5-plus hours from the Nation’s capital.
Not every trip will result in a 40-plus fish day, but it’s always possible. (My personal best is boating 60-plus fish.) But the chance to hook and play a lot of feisty fish makes it a worthwhile waypoint in your life’s fishing journey.
Peter Brookes is an award-winning outdoor writer for Brookes Outdoors, based in Virginia. Connect at BrookesOutdoors@aol.com. A version of this piece orginally appeared in he summer edition of Dark Skies Fly Fishing magazine.