June 24, 2006When it rains...Thunderstorms that rolled through Southwest Virginia last night (June 23) didn't hit my neighborhood too hard. But they dumped some good rain elsewhere. According to the USGS streamflow Web site, flow in the Roanoke River at Roanoke jumped from around 50 cfs to about 190 cfs. The James River at Buchanan blasted from a pitiful 600 cfs up to 1,300 cfs (and is still on its way up as I type this). The New River at Radford, where releases from Claytor Dam affect the flows, is just over 2,200 cfs this morning. That's still lower than usual, but better than the relative trickle that's been running the past few weeks. Fishing action should be decent on all three of those rivers today. On the New and James, that means smallmouth bass. The Roanoke doesn't have as many bass but its redbreast sunfish should be pretty active. More storms are in the future and that could be good and bad. River bass go nuts when a good afternoon thunderstorm approaches. I love chucking big prop baits in those situations. The challenge is to get off the water and to safety before the lightnining starts. And before rivers get dangerously high. (There's a current flash flood warning in effect for parts of Virginia.) If rain storms stick with us for the next few days, which is what the weather guessers are predicting, the rivers could be unfishable in a day or two. So now is the time to get out there.. |
About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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