Customer Reviews

Fishing the New River Valley: An Angler's Guide

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Mike Smith provides informative tips for fishing the New River, its tributaries, and Claytor Lake in this delightfully concise book that should fit into a tackle box, glove box, or back pocket when folded up. He tackles times of year, water conditions, bait selection, lure presentation, and methodology (whether wading or paddling a canoe) to help readers make a more informed decision about where and how to fish in order to change the act of fishing into the action of catching. Moreover, Smith goes into species specific strategies as well as more general tactics called "Big Fish Tips" such as my two favorites from the book, which are found on pages 32 and 57: "Practice stealth" and "One word--topwater." You can tell that Smith knows his fish and his prose flows effortlessly and steadily like the river he details. From time to time, he punctuates his tactics with anecdotes that range from nostalgic musings about trips with his grandfather to more recent waxings on conservation and the plight of trout and smallmouth as civilization encroaches on their habitat. I read this book on a flight from Atlanta to Lexington, KY and was impressed with the scope of Smith's knowledge in such a brief work. It really made me homesick for Virginia and a float down the New where I have seen and caught some of the big fish for which Smith gives his expert tips. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fishing and more particularly to anyone who will be fishing in southwestern Virginia.

This guide to the NRV is a quick easy read, partially due to the fact that the books only around 80 pages of content and furthered by wide margins and deep line spacing; but also because it is quick to get to the point and moves from one location to the next rather quickly. I recommend a highlighter and a few hours and you can be through this read easily and have good notes ready as you need them.

All in all, I think this is a well written and accurate guide book. Smith's knowledge is apparent and his experience as a guide shows throughout the pages. For me, the guide mentality was too much at times. I got the feeling that sometimes it was more about where they launch at and what rapids to play with instead of focusing more on the actual fishing. This was definitely well keyed for a canoeist or rafters; but if you spend your time in a nice wide flat bottom boat or bank fishing much of the content is lost...

For the complete review, please visit FishingtheNRV.com where there is an official review here: [...].

Thanks,
David