Don, the fishing was tough...it's probably the hardest time of the year to consistently catch fish on the New River, so I'm told. That said, we did catch fish every day, but they weren't so easy to come by...many smaller fish. With a group of 35-40 river smallie anglers in camp together, there were some 18-19" fish caught over several miles of river though. Of course, also having 35-40 river smallie anglers in camp together leads to late nights around the campfire and late-morning starts for floats the next day, so you end up fishing in mid-afternoon when it's hot and slow, then picking up your fish near the end of the day when the bite gets going. We got on a couple of nice topwater plug bites early morning below some riffles near camp though and they were taking a fond liking to APB's handiwork and LC Sammys. The buzzbait trick was working late in the day in push-water for me on Thursday. The hot bait for numbers was a "Jack's Worm" made by Case Plastics. One of the guys (who guides on the New down in Virginia) was pitching it and catching numbers on Friday...believe he caught 30+ fish and he was the one ROWING the raft with two others in it, fighting an 18-20mph headwind. His 30+ fish in that scenario would have been twice that if he was fishing all the time.
For my first time on the New River, I learned ALOT of good things to take back with me next time. I was amazed. I would love to go back in the fall.
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