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As I wrote about for my Sunday column in The Roanoke Times, which isn't published yet (it's just after midnight Saturday night) but will be by the time you read this , I spent Friday on the New River above Claytor Lake fishing for walleyes with friends Tom Maynard and Dave Yolton. This is the shot of the two of them (Yolton's in front, with the fishing rod) in Tom's beefy raft below the ledges at Fosters Falls.

The river was blown out (Fosters Falls has been a zoo but we were the only ones there Friday) but we decided to give it a shot anyway because we were there and really didn't have anything better to do. Tom, who runs New River Angler guide service, managed one walleye at the falls, and Dave and I each had strikes but didn't connect. Then we floated a few miles and chucked big spinnerbaits into eddies hoping to luck into a smallmouth or two. No luck on that. Still, it was a beautiful day so it was hard to complain.

February and March are the prime walleye months but they'll be concentrated in spawning areas for a few more weeks and fishing should get back to good once the river gets back into good shape.

Fishing guide Tom Maynard tips one of his hand-tied, hand-painted feather jigs with a live minnow. Such rigs are popular among walleye anglers on the New River.

Here's Tom Maynard with the one walleye we had to show for a couple hours of fishing at Fosters Falls on the New River on Friday.

It was a 16-inch-long male, and was released right after this photo.