I had the pleasure of spending the evening with Troy Gardo, a resident of Canada and a genuine lover of the outdoors. Our trip consisted of an entry level introduction to fly fishing, in addition to an introduction to recreational kayaking. Today would be Troy’s first adventure in a kayak, as well as his first time casting the long rod.
We spent the first hour or so going over the basics of kayaking, using the very stable Old Town Dirigo 106 Angler addition kayaks. The next hour consisted of fly casting and fishing instruction, which Troy took to rather quickly. We found a small hellgrammite, a tiny water snake, and an adult dobsonfly, which is the adult stage of the hellgrammite larva, several crayfish, and damselflies along the bank as we wade fished.
Our last remaining time on the water was spent fly fishing from the kayaks, which Troy enjoyed just as much, if not more, than wade fishing from the bank. After this evening’s outing, I would say that it is safe to say that Troy will be fly fishing again in the very near future.
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Last week’s scattered thunderstorms had a relatively short impact on the local trout streams. The streams receded just as fast as they rose, currently leaving us with normal to low water conditions. The upper Greenbrier has been way too low to float in a raft or drift boat in the last several weeks, and canoests and kayakers will find several riffles that will require portaging in the late summer like conditions.
For those willing to wade fish, the river has been on fire recently, producing many average-sized 8-10 inch Greenbrier River smallies. The larger fish are there, but you’ll be hard pressed to get one to bite during the daylight hours. The New River always has enough water to float, and this is where we’ve been spending the bulk of our float fishing this spring and summer. Water conditions are clear, which requires long leaders and often, subtle presentations and approaches, especially in the low water flats.
