Upper James River Clean Up Report

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2013

James River Association River Rat volunteer John Mays sent this report about a river cleanup on the Upper James.

 

Another 140 tires and a dump truck full of debris were collected from the Upper James River Water Trail this last week.  This was the 5th year the river clean up event has been conducted in Botetourt County.   The river cleanup efforts were coordinated by Twin River Outfitters out of Buchanan, VA with the logistical help of the Botetourt County Parks and Recreation & Solid Waste departments who help with properly disposing of the collected river trash.  This year the group collected 143 tires, several chairs, two tables, air conditioner, clothing items, and a basket ball with lots of holes in it.  The debris collected filled up a 30 yard dumpster and 1 small dump truck.

 

The clean up event was sponsored by Botetourt County Parks & Recreation Department, Botetourt Division of Solid Waste, Twin River Outfitters, the Clean Valley Council, and numerous private citizens who all share the goal of a tire free Upper James River.     This year's cleanup efforts were concentrated from Horseshoe Bend to Arcadia boat landings, and from the Iron Gate to the Craig Creek / Eagle Rock river access points.  The clean up was done on several days by Twin River Outfitters staff, with a group of about 14 volunteers concentrating on the section from Springwood to Buchanan Saturday Oct 5, 2013. 

A partial list of river cleanup volunteers included George Delvin, Adam Delvin, Walter Saundberg. Stephen Austin, Jacob Stump, Wayne Patterson, Jackie Stern, Milford Stern, Chris Adelinann, Tim McKee, Valentina Donnini, Zak Keith, Anastasia Donnini, Sharon Keith, James River High School Interact club, John Mays, Dan Mays, Michael Denton, Kevin Brookman, James Manuel, Dan Mays, John Mays, Mike Perdue, and Greg Perdue. 

The river cleanup efforts were started by Twin River Outfitters right as the Upper James River Water Trail initiative was being rolled out.  The outfitter's staff was tired of hearing the comment of "Hey that's a great river, but what's up with all those tires."   That motivated us to do something about it and with the help of many concerned volunteers and support of Botetourt County we are starting to make a difference.  With the 140 tires collected this year the cleanup efforts the group has now removed more than 800 tires from the Upper James River in Botetourt County significant visual difference as you float the river.

Thanks again to all those that helped keep our river looking great. Interested in helping out next year? We have already set next year's river clean up date for Saturday October 4, 2014. To volunteer, contact John and Dan Mays of Twin River Outfitters, 653 Lowe Street, Buchanan, Virginia, 24066. Email tro@canoevirginia.net or phone the office at 540-261-7334.

Upper James River Fishing Report - Blog Post #4

Welcome to the fourth of our seasonal blogs for fishing updates on our guided rivers in the Twin Rivers Fishing area.  Summer is on the “run” and early fall is already waiting in the wings.  Water levels are good, water temperatures have already started to move downward from the “bathtub” syndrome, and the weather has started to level off from many of the extreme downpours that we have seen this fishing season.  The sun position has already moved to a lower angle in the later part of the day – this is the first sign to a bass, especially a small mouth, that the season is about to change.  We should have already noticed that it is also getting dark at a much earlier time of the day, another  indicator for the wily small mouth.  The only real problem that we have is the slime that is showing up in many of our favorite fishing holes and areas.  This is, in my opinion, a problem that is principally brought on by mankind’s unwillingness to really address the nutrient overloading in the Upper James watershed.  Gathright Dam has started scheduled “pulses” of dam release or water purging, if you will, this season to help alleviate some of this algae that collects on the stream bed in the Jackson River and Upper James.   The leaves have also started to fall and are creating a few problems with getting crank baits and surface baits to stay in the strike zone for most of a retrieve. 

 

              

Caught by client on a jig & pig           

 

We had the good fortune to have a couple of guided fishing trips on the James during the past week and found the fishing to be quite good – our clients caught and released several good fish in the 2 to 3 pound size class and lost a couple of near citations (the big ones do always seem to get away).  Hard and soft minnow baits usually become fairly successful at this time of year with top-water, a small jig/pig, tubes, and creature baits rounding out the tackle box.  These small mouths will be getting ready to stock up on food for the upcoming winter months and the fall can not only provide for some real beauty on the river but can also provide for some good days of angling.  Keep this in mind:  the gradual lowering of air and water temperatures, the changes in daylight, and the lowering of the sun angle at dusk will cause you to find that your most productive fall fishing will generally, but not always, be in the last three hours of the day.  Take extra care of your fish, respect the river, and keep a tight line.  Contact John or Dan at Twin Rivers if you are interested in a personal guided fishing trip via canoe, kayaks, or raft @ canoevirginia.net/ or 540-261-7334.

Sincerely,

Richard Furman

Twin Rivers Fishing Guide

Grand Opening of the Public River Access Point on the Cowpasture River at Sharon Park

Twin River Outfitters Fishing Blog Post #3

July 23,  2013

This will be the third of our seasonal blogs for fishing updates on our guided rivers in the Twin River Outfitters fishing area.  Water conditions are at unprecedented levels, flow, and color for this time of year.  Being it as it may, you can look at this as a good thing or a bad thing – I prefer to look at this as a semi-good thing.  Each time that the river rises and stains it is like refreshing your computer image on your screen, everything starts over and what happened previously is forgotten, hopefully by the fish.  Normally, we would be dealing with very low flow, almost gin clear waters, very high water temperatures, and the dreaded green slime that gets all over the bottom at mid summer.  Instead, we have almost spring like water levels and color except for the temperatures.  All of this creates new opportunities for the larger fish to come to the banks out of their normal deep and dark summer hiding places to search and gorge for food, especially crayfish.  Twin Rivers Outfitters recently had the good fortune to take outdoor writer, Bruce Ingram, on a guided fishing trip this past week and the river gave up quite a few smallmouths during the day.  The bite – artificial crawdads.  We caught the vast majority of our fish on some type of crawfish imitation whether it be a tube, jig and pig, or some brown variation of a crankbait.  The one thing that Bruce and I noticed was that the “new” normal flow and stain caused the fish to be sort of “checking” the bait.  In other words, they have seen so much food source this past summer that many of the fish would be dumping the plastic bait before you would normally get a good hook set – the crankbait was a good solution for this, once something grabs it you can figure that there is a hook holding onto something somewhere.  Sooner or later water levels will get to our usual flows and then we will find ourselves dealing with fish that want to stay in the deep holes getting ready for the impending fall bite, but those are conditions for a later blog.  In the meantime, keep a semi-tight line, treat your fish and the river carefully, and don’t be afraid to fish the stain.  Contact John or Dan at Twin River Outfitters if you are interested in a personal guided fishing trip via canoe, kayaks, or raft @ canoevirginia.net/ or 540-261-7334.

Sincerely,

Richard Furman
Twin River Outfitters Fishing Guide

New Cowpasture River Access Point at Sharron Park Now Open

A new boat landing on the Cowpasture River is officially opening today July 17, 2013 at 4PM.  It is located at Sharron Park about 8 miles upstream of the James River Lick Run access point. 

This new boat landing opens up an scenic section of Cowpasture River with mostly moving water with a few easy straight forward rapids with great views of the surrounding mountains. Near Iron Gate, the Cowpasture meets the Jackson River to form the James River, which flows through neighboring Botetourt and Rockbridge counties on its way to the Chesapeake Bay.

The Cow pasture river is normally runnable in the Spring but can be runnable latter in the season depending on rain events.  The new boat landing was constructed adjacent to the Sharron Community park which features a picnic pavilion, parking lot, and a trail to the ramp access down to the river.

The park and boat landing owned and managed by the Alleghany County Parks & Recreation Department.   Check out this YouTube video to see clips of the access point and some river shots.

 

 

For more info see:  http://alleghanyhighlandsblueway.com