The last part of the summer of 2017, the section of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River where I fish often received very little rain. The river level dropped greatly, the bass became very wary and my old dependable fishing areas failed to produce. I knew there were plenty of large bass in the river because earlier in the season, I had done well.
One of my guides stopped in my Fly Shop and suggests that I try a different section of the river. “But that gravel bar that we need to wade across to fish that area is too deep” was my initial comment. “Not this year” my guide responded.
The next evening, I took his advice and had outstanding fishing as I did in that area for the rest of the season. The Shenandoah blue Popper and the Shenandoah Sunfish Slide fishing was some of the best I have ever had. Why? Well, the water upstream of the ledge that I mentioned is too deep to wade during normal stream level years and I actually have done very little fishing in that area. Since I prefer wading to floating, I had been skipping that area. But in the late summer of 2018, apparently its depth had provided both feeding stations and cover for the bass. Yes, I needed to wade slowly and shoot out long casts to keep from scaring the bass, but this ploy worked. Drawing on this experience, I started exploring other similar sections of the river for the rest of the summer and early fall and found great fishing.
In low and flat sections, I find that I catch fewer large bass when I use canoes and kayaks than I do when I wade the rivers. I assume that I scare the large bass when floating.