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Places to fish from your campsite

1K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  music4cash 
#1 ·
I just got back from a pair camping trips that were centered around fishing, and I thought I'd share my experience.

The first trip was 2 days one night at the James River State park. I took my nephew on this one and we stayed at the "canoe landing" campground. This campground is right on the James. We had no problem catching green sunfish, and bluegill for bait, we also brought some shrimp, and some dip bait which we didn't use. From the campsite we caught a single #6 channel cat early in the evening, and got nothing else the whole night. The river by the campsite had a lot of weeds floating in it, and I spent a lot of time trying to pick the weeds off of my line after each cast. Overall, the fishing wasn't much fun, even if we had been catching fish the weeds were really bad. On the second day we gave up on the fishing and took a hike instead, it is a beautiful park.

The second trip was to the New River Trail State park alone. I stayed in the "Millrace" campground. Not all of the campsites in the campground are directly next to the river so check the map before you make your reservation. However, the river is not really fishable where the campsites are directly on the falls. I did see quite a few people fishing in the falls, but I didn't see anyone catching anything. I took a short hike and fished above the falls. On this three night trip I had a really tough time getting bait. I caught no bluegills, no creek chubs nothing, so I fished with chicken livers, and shrimp. On the first night I didn't fish, but the second night I caught three fish, all channel cats. The first was an #8 with shrimp. He had a nasty sore on his side, infected with leaches on it real horror show stuff. The second one was like a #2 (I ate him for breakfast the next day) on chicken livers, and the third was a respectable #12 channel on the shrimp. I also got a lot of bites here that did not result in hook ups, I think there were a lot of smaller fish around, the bait would come in all picked at and chewed up. The third night wasn't as good I caught one #4 pound fish. Overall the fishing was better here than the James River park, but I wasn't able to get the bait I wanted. If I come here again it will be with a cast net. It was also disappointed that the river wasn't really fishable by the campsite. They have 3 other campsites in this park and I'll try a different one if I ever come back.
 
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#2 ·
I remember your other post talking about this trip and I was thinking you are one tough son of a gun primitive camping during the summer. I fished all night last night and in the am the dew came and covered me and everything in the boat.
 
#3 ·
As hot as it was during the day the dew was kinda nice when it came in. The worst was the thunderstorms we had the first night, at the New River park. They have tent pads that you are required to put your tent on, and of course they fill with water when it rains...My tent is pretty waterproof so nothing got in but there was enough water underneath the tent that the floor felt like a water bed!
 
#4 ·
I've looked all over Virginia and I'm convinced that the boat manufacturers are in cahoots with the state in limiting bank fishing opportunities. I found a nice dock to fish on in diascund reservoir and a week later they nailed a no fishing sign on it. You either have a boat, or you don't fish.
 
#6 ·
I only bank fish. There are spots out there but usually a good hike is required. What bothers me most about fishing in Virginia is how poorly managed everything is. I lived in Minnesota for five years and they have a totally different approach. In MN most of the limits are about how large a fish you can keep. If I remember right for bass you could keep nothing larger than 16in. The result is healthy self sustaining populations of larger fish. Also the few fishing docks here are usually in lousy places to fish. In MN if you see a fishing dock that's probably where you should try first. And my final complaint is the lack of decent bait shops in VA. In MN my local gas station carried several types of minnows, as well as leeches, nightcrawlers, red worms, wax worms, and meal worms. Here in VA if I can't catch my own live bait I can't fish with live bait...
 
#7 ·
I lived for 2.5 - 3 years in Minnesota and I agree they focus a lot more on conservation up there.......but almost to a fault sometimes. For example the rules about only having one fishing pole actively fishing per person and not having more than one hook on lures in certain places.....or being SEASONS for largemouth bass, I've never seen that anywhere else in my life.

But I'm not complaining, I do miss the beauty of MN.
 
#8 ·
I agree the laws there are restrictive, and they do a lousy job of educating newcomers. I got a $40 ticket for using two rods my first year there. But the results are worth it I've completely given up on bass fishing since I've been back in VA, and sunfish here are a joke where in MN a day catching sunnies can be a lot of fun. I will say that taking bass and sunfish out of my fishing equation has lead me to catfishing, and then to carp which is some serious fun.
 
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