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Post by uncross on Sept 15, 2014 21:37:32 GMT -5
I have been asked several times about doing tournaments or a series of tournaments here in Southwest VA. I am thinking of doing a small series of 4 or 5 tournaments for next year, or at least see how much interest we have and get some input on where people would like to fish in them. If you all would please take the time to pick up to your top 5 spots or add a location with post below, and I will add it to the poll. If you have no interest in fishing tournaments, please select that in the box, so I can get input on that also. Thanks! If it works out that we have enough interest, I will be asking for input on dates, format, volunteers, getting some sponsors ect...
I am going to try to add the poll to the facebook page also, please only vote on here or facebook, so we can get an accurate count
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Post by madriverheath on Sept 16, 2014 6:39:32 GMT -5
North Fork Holston
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Post by hennedup on Sept 16, 2014 11:01:01 GMT -5
like the idea of the holston also
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Post by uncross on Sept 16, 2014 21:50:07 GMT -5
Looks like after 1 nite there has been some interest... 7 voters on here and 5 on face book Claytor Lake 2 Gatewood Reservoir 3 Hungry Mother State Park 3 Rural Retreat Lake 1 Upper New River (NC line to Claytor Lake)5 Lower New River (Claytor lake dam to WV line)8 Upper James River 7 Smith Mountain Lake 4 Philpott Reservoir 4 James River (Big Island)5
Also had a couple of suggestions for North Fork Holston River. My concerns are public access, small size of the river and state boundaries.
Amy thoughts
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Post by famous on Sept 19, 2014 21:14:22 GMT -5
The North Fork isn't that great except for a few spots between Glade Springs and Abingdon. Fishing in the South Fork is amazing (although I wouldn't recommend eating any of the fish from any part of that river). The biggest problem with either one, is that they aren't considered "navigable" waterways and, therefore, don't yield a right-of-way to fisherman. I've had my fishing ruined many times on both rivers by folks charging from their back doors to chase me away from their "private" fishing holes.
I'm glad to see some votes for Hungry Mother. I know that lake like the back of my hand. There are some huge bass there, but they are very slow to bite anything. The best way to catch them is to catch your bait directly from Hungry Mother with a minnow trap.
In June, I spoke with a Game Warden while fishing at Laurel Bed Lake. He claimed that VADGIF was shocking the lake for population studies and caught/documented a largemouth that beat the VA state record by a longshot. I'm not sure whether that is true or not. I do know that the bass there tend to be a little larger than bass from most of the other small lakes in this area. This is because they stock a large amount of tiny brown trout there every year just to feed the larger fish of that lake.
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Post by uncross on Sept 19, 2014 22:38:39 GMT -5
Never been to Laurel bed lake, not sure I know anyone that has.
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Post by madriverheath on Sept 20, 2014 9:17:59 GMT -5
Never been to Laurel bed lake, not sure I know anyone that has. It's beautiful but the wind can ruin your day. It's 330 acres and pretty much just an open body of water except for the very upper end at the creek mouth which gives you some shelter. I was up there back in early July and fished it for a few hours. I had just hooked my first fish which was a really fiesty 16.5 incher when the wind kicked up and even in the upper end my stake out pole wouldn't hold me so I ended up tying off to the standing timber and fished another half hour missing a few fish. As soon as I came around the bend out of the upper end I had a 500 yard paddle into whitecaps over the bow. Since the weather is so unpredictable up there I'd say it would be hard to do a tourney with any success. It's a great catch & release smallmouth fishery though and I read on the VDGIF site recently that they shocked a musky out of it for the first time last year. I like Hungry Mother as well and there's no telling what you'll catch. I took my boat there one night in June hoping to get on some walleyes and ended up catching Hybrid stripers.
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Post by uncross on Sept 26, 2014 23:13:26 GMT -5
Poll update 8 votes on here 15 on facebook
Claytor Lake 4 Gatewood Reservoir 5 Hungry Mother State Park 5 Rural Retreat Lake 5 Upper New River (NC line to Claytor Lake)11 Lower New River (Claytor lake dam to WV line)14 Upper James River 10 Smith Mountain Lake 9 Philpott Reservoir 6 James River (Big Island)10
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Post by Kayaksticks on Sept 27, 2014 10:01:48 GMT -5
Looks good. I say we call it and use the top 5 and start getting the planning going.
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Post by uncross on Sept 27, 2014 22:20:28 GMT -5
I had planned on looking at the top 6 or 7, and talking to locations for host sites camping ect... I figured I would talk to some places and see if they wanted to host/sponsor the events. I really wanted to see where all there was interest and not just a vote that way say if somewhere wanted to host/sponsor event and throw in free or discounted camping, but were number 6 on the list they would not get eliminated. I had planned to start calling and visiting some places in a month or so when the weather was getting colder and days shorter. I have a few contacts at a lot of these locations, and I travel throughout the area every week. I am starting to put a list of possible places now, I will probably ask for help on the ones on the east end.
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Post by madriverheath on Sept 28, 2014 21:07:35 GMT -5
I had planned on looking at the top 6 or 7, and talking to locations for host sites camping ect... I figured I would talk to some places and see if they wanted to host/sponsor the events. I really wanted to see where all there was interest and not just a vote that way say if somewhere wanted to host/sponsor event and throw in free or discounted camping, but were number 6 on the list they would not get eliminated. I had planned to start calling and visiting some places in a month or so when the weather was getting colder and days shorter. I have a few contacts at a lot of these locations, and I travel throughout the area every week. I am starting to put a list of possible places now, I will probably ask for help on the ones on the east end. That sounds like a pretty good plan to me. I'm really hoping this works out and looking forward to doing as many as I can next year.
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