Free Orvis class on fly fishing for muskies
Big muskies can be suckers for BIG flies. (Photo courtesy of Matt Miles, www.mattmilesflyfishing.com)
Interest in muskie fishing continues to grow in Western Virginia.
If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the muskie gear offerings available at Gander Mountain, Sportsman’s Warehouse and even the Lodge at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Some muskie fanatics take it a step further and throw flies for the critters. And, by flies, I mean giant fur- and feather-covered monstrosities that weigh more than the average chicken.
Roanoke’s Orvis shop will host a free class on fly fishing for muskies on Saturday, March 2. The class starts at 2 p.m. and is schedule to run for 90 minutes. Call the store at 345-3635 for more info.
On the same topic, someone looking for one-on-one instruction could take it a step further and book a guided trip.
Britt Stoudenmire and his crew at the New River Outdoor Company offers guided muskie fly fishing trips. Check out their site for more information, including a couple of cool videos of fights with muskies.
I found the picture above on guide Matt Miles’ site. I don’t know Miles but from his site it’s clear he focuses a lot of attention on muskie fly fishing in this area. You can find more info on his site HERE.
I’m sure there will be more info available at the Orvis seminar on other guides who specialize in muskies.
Writing this has got me thinking about muskies. This is a good time to get after them. I’ve never caught one, not even by accident when smallmouth fishing. It would probably help if I actually tried! Maybe this is the spring to give it a shot.
March 1, 2013 - 8:36 AM
Mark, it is indeed a good time to chase muskies on the New especially, before the crowds emerge from hibernation and junk up the river. There are a ton of muskies available to fly and lure anglers alike these days on the New, and while many are caught accidentally, targeting them really does up the odds. Catching them on the fly, however, takes special chops a lot of folks just don’t have. The ability to chunk those huge flies for any appreciable time is just not everyone’s idea of fun, but the payoff is huge if it comes. The bigger, and to some extent the gaudier the offering, the better. 10wt outfits are cumbersome and everyone in the boat is at risk of a beaning, but get a biggun and you’ll be glad you have the big stick. The take alone is worth the effort, though. Muskies chasing fly or lure can really get your blood up!
Slightly off-target here, but I will freely admit that most of the muskies that came into my boat in my 26 years on the New were caught on jigs and tubes in very early spring while targeting pre-spawn smallmouth. Muskies lie in the same places as smallmouth in high spring water and will hit jigs and tubes even in discolored water. Yeah, you’ll miss some and lose some and have some bite-offs, but they just love those jigs, especially early on.
The other good bet is to float the upper New, anywhere from Foster’s Falls to the upper Claytor lake impoundment. Throw Rattlin’ Rogues for walleyes to keep busy, but be ready for ole toothy. We have boated as many as three in a day while catching decent amounts of walleye and the occasional big smallmouth fishing those suspending jerkbaits this time of year. Not targeting the musky, we didn’t use steel leaders, but had decent landing percentages because, I think, of the length of the lure.
Good luck to all, for your safety and theirs, handle those muskies with care, support their bellies when photographing them, and most importantly, REVIVE THEM CAREFULLY!!!! Muskies will fight to the point of exhaustion and need to be fully revived before release or you’ll watch them sink to the bottom, most likely to die.
maybe you should do an article on how fragile these fish are and how if you are going to fish for them practice cpr. protect the resource. better yet quit bringing attention to them. thats why us muskie fisherman are secretive!
s.h. I agree with you that every article mentioning muskies should have resuscitation information prominantly mentioned. As for secrecy, the secret’s out. Like the walleye, like morel mushrooms… one saving grace, like climbing in the mountains to find morels, musky fishing is tough fishing, it is expensive fishing, and most people won’t stick it out long enough to impact the fishery. Educating people on how to treat them, though, does seem like a good way to help mitigate the pressure that increases with every year on the musky fishery in the New. Hope you catch a bunch.
Maybe you should do an article on how much the introduction of Muskie in the New has ruined smallmouth bass fishing. I have fished the new for over 30 years, and to see what the introduction of Muskie has done to the smallmouth bass fishing is heart breaking. I know that many will say Muskie has nothing to do with it, but for us who have spent our lives on the this river…….well we know what it has done to the fishery. I will never understand why they put Muskie in this river, money I guess………..just like you said, now local retailers are carrying equipment just for them. I am a fly fisherman as well, and understand the temptation of fishing for them, but not at such a high cost of loosing the smallmouth fishery that was once considered one of the best in the United States.
Dwayne, I’ll leave that to the scientists, but the thing I noticed most in the 26+ years I fished the New is the proliferation of fishermen on the river. Used to see one boat, now see ten to fifteen, on a quiet day. Weekends? Stay home.
Literally ten times the number of fishermen with all of the knowlege that modern fishing can impart via magazines, tv, videos, etc. have impacted the fishery more than the muskie, in my opinion. Add in the crazy discharge patterns from Claytor Lake and things keep changing. I believe there are still great numbers of smallmouth in the New, but things aren’t like they used to be. I am just not convinced how much the muskies have to do with it, overall.
s.h.
Perhaps you should realize that the fishery and the muskies that are contained within are there for “all” fisherman and not just those that consider themselves “muskie fishermen”. Relax,Im not after your prized fish,but they arent there just for you. The term “fisherman” is not reserved to one particular species as it applies to anyone that chooses to take part in the activity. Im not meaning to sound offensive or making my comment in a manner as to be disrespevtive,but your comment is hinging on the lines of the “bear hunters” vs. deer hunter arguments of past.
Perch, I agree with you on the large number of jet boats using the New River and this has made a change in smallsmouth fishing, and you make a good point on the discharge patterns of Claytor Lake, but how do you explain the low numbers of what we call red eye bass and suckers. Cant remember the last time I caugh one, and it use to be something you couldnt keep off your bait, where did they go. I believe Muskie have eaten a large number of these these fish as well as smallmouth, but maybe we will never know..I am always open to opinions of people who have fished the new for so many years because you have seen and experienced the smallmouth fishing I am talking about.
As for Kevin, I am not really sure what you are trying to say, I never implied that my prized fish was there only for me, so maybe you should go back and read what i said again then you can give an opinion that actually makes some sense.
s.h
“better yet quit bringing attention to them. thats why us muskie fisherman are secretive!”
The reason for my comment.
Dwayne, first to Kevin, he was responding to s.h.’s musky post whose position is typical of the old time muskiers. They had the fishery to themselves for so long, it is hard not to be somewhat proprietary about it and I do understand. I have had a couple of fisheries to myself in the past and it is disheartening to watch what happens when those secrets get out.
But to your smallmouth issues, I’ll freely admit that suckers seldom came into my boat on the New, but they didn’t when I first started on the New either. As for the redeye (rock bass), I must beg to differ with you. My last spring on the New was just last year and we absolutely murdered the redeye last spring. I was mainly fishing in Giles, and maybe they weren’t around where you were fishing, but my clients were trying to wade through them to get at the smallmouth. My personal belief is that the redeye are a mercurial fishery, they boom and bust every few years, regardless of pressure or predation. Like everything else on the New, I do believe pressure affects them somewhat, however, and if you fish heavily fished stretches where every legal fish goes in the cooler, I could see them being harder to catch. I have heard comments like yours at the boat ramp when we just finished catching a hundred or so of them on a long day float, so you aren’t the only one thinking what you think, but if my experience counts, the redeye aren’t in trouble, just like everything else, just not the same as the old days.
As for smallmouth being eaten by muskies, we have only studies to provide definitive answers, anecdotal evidence is unreliable. The only study I recall was several years ago when the state shocked up something like 127 muskies up and examined stomach content. Only a small percentage, something like 13% or so of the fish had eaten a game fish. Mostly, when they get big especially, they target the softer fish like suckers and carp. My memory is notoriously shaky, and I could be off a little, but the upshot of the article was that in general, muskies don’t target smallmouth specifically. They will eat about anything they can catch, however, and I have had them take a few smallmouth as they were struggling against the hook, but the study was fairly convincing to me. Maybe Mark could research and reprise the results of the study for us. My last point here, however, is that you are probably right that there is an effect on smallmouth having to share forage with small muskies, they all eat the same stuff until the musky grows up, so crayfish and minnows and young fish are being shared. It also seems apparent that in addition to being stocked routinely, the muskies in the New sometimes have a decent spawn, something that caused a virtual explosion in musky numbers in the lower New just a few years ago. I think more science would be helpful in determining what’s going on with them, but my gut reaction is that fishing pressure is doing more to affect the smallmouth fishing on the New than the musky.
Mark, sorry to post volumns here, not trying to take over your blog. It’s just that spring is dragging it’s feet and I need to get out!!!
My comments were not entended to cut on Muskie fisherman, I think most all of us see how plentiful the Muskie are, that is no longer a secret, really hasn’t been for a long time. My point was to simply say that I dont understand why they are stocking Muskie that potentially could harm the a smallmouth bass that is native to the water, or at least have been there as long as I remember. I hope our game commission knows what they are doing or they could ruin a fishery that has been rated one of the best in the United States for smallmouth fishing.
Perch
Thanks for poiting that out to Dwayne.
I am no scientist, so I must just repeat what I’ve been told for years, but I was under the impression that muskies are indigenous to the New, but I could very easily be way wrong on that one. I know for a while the state stocked tiger muskies, cross between musky and northern pike, but backed off and went to just pure muskellunge, but I am on very shaky ground on this one. Now that Mark is an expert, maybe he could check that out also.
Perch — This is from the DGIF entry on muskies: Habitat
“Not believed to be native to Virginia, but introduced into the New, Clinch, James, Shenandoah and Holston Rivers, and some impoundments. Muskies prefer cool, clear lakes with abundant vegetation or long pool areas of rivers near fallen trees and other submerged structure.”
To comment on the long post above by Perch, I recall that study and will see if I can dig it up. But Perch’s “shaky” memory is pretty good. Very small percentage of muskies in the test had smallmouth in them. Suckers? Another thing altogether. They target suckers. And also rockbass (aka redeyes).
Will and do they eat smallmouths? Absolutely. But I’m with Perch (and the biologists) on this one. I believe the big impacts on the New have been fishing pressure and spawning success (or lack thereof).
Look at it this way. Where is the best muskie fishing in the world? In the upper Midwest. Some of those great muskie rivers are also great smallmouth rivers.
New River smallmouth are going to rebound, just like they have in the Shenandoah system and the James in the wake of the fish kills.
Thanks, Mark. I never hesitate to shoot off my mouth, as you know. Appreciate you keeping me at least sorta honest.
Two years ago while camping on the New,i was awakened from my afternoon nap by kids yelling ”giant fish” It turned out to be dying muskie that i measured at 48 inches. I shoved it out to deeper water but spied it later downstream belly up on the bottom…obviously this fish had been mishandled. I can’t imagine landing a fish this size which might explain it’s demise.
liljoe, It is amazing that for as big and ferocious as they are, muskies are prone to catch mortality. And I’ve read that the bigger fish are most at risk.
Matt was super attentive to this. When he slid the net under the thing, he didn’t pull it into the boat at first. Not until everything was ready — cameras, measuring tape and pliers for pulling the hooks out (it was actually barely hooked, on just one single hook) — did we get the fish in. First we measured it. Then put it back in the water for pix. It swam off strongly.
But, yes, they are fragile. Too fragile to treat roughly. If treated well they do fine, as evidenced by the number of tagged fish (including some caught by a couple of avid fishermen) caught in the James.