Fly Fishing the Greenbrier River

My fishing buddy and I decided that we would head to West Virginia to fly fish the Greenbrier River for a few days, primarily for smallmouth bass. We also heard stories of largemouth and spotted bass, musky, carp, and even trout could be other species for the trip. We decided that this was to be a float trip, I had the task of researching for someone to help us with a shuttle service.

After doing some research, I decided that we would contact Outdoor Adventures. Tracy Asbury, of Outdoor Adventures reached back and could support us for the two days. We opted to float a section of the Greenbrier River known as the 6-mile section, between Caldwell to Ronceverte. This section is a great choice as my fishing buddy has never paddled his Jackson Mayfly in a river that consists of some rapids or shoals. This section is has a restriction on keeping bass; any bass between 12 – 20 inches must be released.

I managed to catch a lot of smallmouth bass and even a rock bass for both days. The biggest smallmouth for me was nearly 12 inches but the average length was more like 9 inches. Most of the fish were caught on flies designed by Chuck Kraft; his Kreelex Fly was hot, I also caught a few on his Crawdad and the CK Baitfish patterns; all in a size 4.

I had brought two fly rods; one was a 6 weight with floating line and the other a 7 weight with a sink tip. I All the fish were caught on the sink tip. The Jackson Mayfly made carrying two fly rod setups very easy, as while one rod was being used the other was secured in the built in fly rod holder and rod tip protector. My flies were stored under the seat in two tackle storage trays that were water proof.

In some sections of the Greenbrier we had to slow out drift down. We both used an Anchor Wizard and a drag chain system that worked really well. Using this system allowed us to control our time on the water allowing us to cast our flies to key targets on the water.

While I didn’t catch any monster bass, my buddy managed to hook into a 15 inch smallmouth. A little further down the river, he hooked into a monster that was definitely bigger than his 15 incher, he guesstamated that it might have been close to 20 inches. At the end of our adventure we both agreed that we need to do another trip. If you are interested in kayak fishing the same section of the Greenbrier or another section I highly recommend that you reach out to Outdoor Adventures for either a shuttle service or even a float trip down the Greenbrier. Their website is https://wvoutdooradventures.com/, I know that you will not be disappointed with their service.