Here are some 2005 fishing reports so you can judge how the rivers are fishing and how well I'm guiding.  I'll try to make these as specific as possible.  Please phone or email with questions or booking requests: Contact Jeff  Kelble at:       540-837-1478   or email at:    jeff@fishinginvirginia.net To Save the Shenandoah Visit: www.potomacriverkeeper.org

Service Info Float Descriptions Fishing Reports 2005 Photo Gallery Home Page

Client's Feedback following our September Float     2001 Fishing Reports     2002 Fishing Reports   2003 Fishing Reports  2004 Fishing Reports

Playing Hookie Has Moved!  Now based out of the town of Boyce, Virginia in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley. 

March 9th to April 13th      Fishing:   Third Coldest March on Record set up for two weeks of winter style fishing-water temps remained in the 38 to 40 degree range.  With one day as the exception anglers fished hard for four or five bites per day.  Rising water temps coincided with rising river levels - above the optimum level for this river.  We did manage 19 smallmouth over 20".  Five of those weighed in at over 5 lbs with the following measurements:  20.75" 5lbs 0oz, 22" 5lbs 0oz, 22" 5lbs 4oz, 21" 5lbs 8oz, 22" 5lbs 10oz. 

 April 13th June 9, 2005     Fishing:   Difficult to boil down this time period, a tremendous number of things transpired here.  First, our smallmouth began to spawn on the 12th, and due to continued unseasonably cold temps, they went on and off nests with varied amounts of success until June 9th, which is very very late.  Got to observe a nice number of big fish on nests, many with fry. Uncertain about the actual recruitment of this year's class of young due to the rabid 2004 year class group which are ranging from 6-8.5" depending on river.  They are a veracious group, growing fast and soon to be dominating the river.   At any rate, April and May witnessed the excruciating loss of the entire Shenandoah river fishery, with the death of most of the mature fish through the watershed.  State and Federal agencies are doing some work to figure out the cause - but not concrete answers yet.  So I've been guiding other rivers, and working harder hours to stay in business.

June 10th through July 6th     Fishing:  With the lack of rain rivers have been dropping steadily since the beginning of June.  This has meant great early season bug fishing for my flyrodders and earlier than usual soft jerkbait fishing for the spin-heads.  Every big fish since June 9th has been on flyrod.  Dead-drifting cicada and dragonfly imitations over moderate depth, chunk rock or ledge bottom areas has brought up the big fish.  And all big fish are grouped in schools of 2-8 fish.  On the ball flyrodders are getting multiple big fish hookups.  Snap the fly down, let it dead-drift, keep it ahead of the boat, long leader - that's been the name of the game.

July 7th through July 25th    Fishing:  Declining fishing until the end of this period with the passing of Hurricane Emily and it's rain effects as well as about two weeks of persistent thundershowers.  River conditions have remained soiled, the topwater bite has dissipated, and numbers and size are down.  Towards the end of this period things are looking up as river levels are dropping, yesterday July 24th, on the Potomac River my anglers caught 84 smallmouth bass, 1 walleye, 1 catfish, 2 redbreast sunfish, 1 largemouth - big fish was 15.5".  We've had some excellent numbers days, but size is down for sure.  Big numbers days have come on jerkbaits - jerked - that's all I have to say.

July 26th Through September 18th    Fishing:  Marked by stabilization of the rivers, rains moderated during the beginning of this period and disappeared completely for the past month.  This has provided me with stable conditions in which the smallmouth take up residence and but with some exceptions, they stay put.  The topwater big fish flyrod bite materialized but never hit overdrive.   I have found three floats with really good numbers of big fish but they have become very difficult to catch on flyrod.  This year I booked the last week of July and the entire month of August with all flyrodders.  Check out the photo gallery to see the results if you will.  We did well thanks to a lot of hard fishing from my fishermen but I felt like we could have done better, maybe with some more multiple big fish days.  I will say that I had to learn a lot of my floats on the fly due having to relocate 90% of my guide floats this year due to the Shenandoah fish kill.  Taking that into account I'm proud of my late summer season.  Essentially black bugs took front stage over dragonfly's and damsels, and when they would not come up the CK Baitfish prevailed in light and dark colors.  I don't want to leave out the red-hot carp season my flyrodder's had.  We had as many as 12 carp in a day and 8 for an angler.  Big fish was a 35" and round, most fish came on crayfish flies.  The learning curve was very steep but we worke hard and had a very good time.  This is a brutally tough fish, some days we had 75 shots and the carp would spook on EVERY cast before the fly had a chance.  We had to get creative with our approach and presentation.  With the falling rivers and carp feeding and cruising in 10-30" of water, this required long leaders and accurate gentle casts, followed by good fly manipulation to get it to come to rest in front of the carp.  Enough for now, My wife will be going into labor soon with our first child so this may be the last report of the season - I am still guiding  - maybe not sleeping - definitely catching up on cuddling with my wife!