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Friday I went on a short float trip on the New River with some friends who are in town for the Outdoor Writers Association of America's 80th convention.

The group included Bill Monroe of the Oregonian and Mark Freeman of the Medford (Ore.) Mail-Tribune, Trout Unilimited PR guy Chris Hunt of Idaho Falls Idaho, and Brett Prettyman of the Salt Lake Tribune.

I had originally planned to take them on my favorite stretch of the James River but had moved the float in the wake of the fish kill on the James. (Still no answers on that, but the kill seems to be abating.)

Logistics were more difficult for the New float, but I figured that was OK because the river is Virginia's best smallmouth water. I was especially eager to show off the New to Monroe and Freeman because they fish some of my old waters in Oregon and I wanted to know how they thought this river compares.

So, naturally, the fishing was brutal. Seriously, the only time I've done worse was on a day when the river was totally blown out.

On the float from Pembroke to Ripplemead I caught one small bass. And I mean small. It looked like an X-Rap, maybe 5 inches long and barely bigger than the fly it hit. That was it. I had only fly gear (as did the other guys) and maybe I could have wrestled up a few more fish with conventional tackle. The other guys struggled, too, and they know what they are doing. Even Freeman.

Chris was high hook, with four. Mark had two. Brett had a couple. Bill? Let's just say he saved me from being low hook. He claimed to have been "working" most of the time. I can't wait to see that column.

But the scenery in that section is great, I saw a bunch of wildlife, including a young whitetail buck on the bank, and even got a good laugh when Chris and Brett swam after hitting a rapid sideways.

It's hard to complain about a day like that even when the fishing is awful.