This story, “Horseshoe Bass,” appeared within the July 1965 difficulty of Out of doors Life.
Wade Clinedinst shoved our aluminum canoe away from the launching space and picked up his paddle. Bob Sumner adopted shut behind us in an aluminum boat. Within the bow of the canoe, I organized my gear to offer me leg room and positioned my fly rod alongside the gunwale. Then I relaxed, having fun with the peaceable surroundings and ready till we got here to the primary productive water.
Ten seconds later, Wade requested anxiously, “Is something improper?”
“Nothing I do know of,” I mentioned. “Why?”
“I puzzled why you weren’t fishing,” he replied. “We’ve passed by two good spots already.”
“We’ve!” I yelped, grabbing my rod. “I assumed the water was too shallow right here.”
“The river’s low from lack of rain.” Wade defined, “however that is all good water. Forged to that log beside the financial institution.”
Out of the nook of my eye, I noticed that Bob Sumner was already casting. Whipping out line, I tossed my deer-hair bug into the shadowy pocket Wade had indicated and twitched it as soon as.
Earlier than I may twitch it once more, a smallmouth bass exploded underneath it and carried it a foot into the air in a bathe of spray. As he shot underneath the log my rod bowed sharply and the reel gave an indignant buzz. He went up once more on the far facet of the log and 3 times extra within the flat water beside the canoe earlier than I labored him inside attain of Wade’s web. He wasn’t massive, about 1 1/2 kilos, however he was hard-fleshed and filled with struggle from the chilly, clear waters of the Potomac River’s South Department.
Catching him in shallow water so close to the launching website was my second shock. The primary was the river itself. This pleasant stream, purling and chattering its manner via shady woods and fertile farmlands flanked by inexperienced, rolling hills, appeared a far cry from the mighty Potomac that sweeps majestically previous Washington. D.C. And it’s certainly a far cry, for a distance of some 300 miles, because the river flows, separates Washington from Romney, West Virginia, the place this bass-fishing journey happened.
The South Department rises in a collection of rivulets and chilly springs within the rugged Allegheny Mountains and flows northeast for 140 miles to affix the North Department close to Cumberland, Maryland. On its manner, it tumbles via the wild Smoke Gap area of the Monongahela Nationwide Forest, via Petersburg Hole and the well-known “Trough” beneath Moorefield. From there to its junction with the North Department it winds via a large valley enclosed by wooded mountain ridges. It’s this 50-mile stretch, from Moorefield to Inexperienced Spring, which offers a few of the finest smallmouth-bass fishing within the East and which I had come to West Virginia to research.
I did my investigating underneath the succesful steering of Wade Clinedinst who grew up on this Japanese Panhandle nation. He is among the high fishermen within the space. With John Ailes, editor and writer
John Ailes. editor and a writer of the Hampshire Overview, Wade operates Hampshire Float Journeys out of Romney from Could via November.
Their service offers boats, guides, and transportation to and from any part of the South Department. Both aluminum boats or canoes can be found, geared up with coolers and ice. Field lunches are furnished and, at additional value, bait for many who wish to use it. They may also provide boats with out guides, however it might be impractical, to say the least, for a nonresident to attempt to fish the river on his personal. On our journey, in addition to Wade and myself, Bob Sumner, a biologist for the State Division of Pure Sources, was alongside in a separate boat as companion, observer, and basic counselor.
As I unhooked my first bass and launched it, I noticed that Bob was quick to an acrobatic smallmouth solely 100 yards from our launching place. Whereas I watched, he reeled it in shut, grabbed it by the decrease jaw, and held it up for us to see – a bass virtually a twin of mine. It was an auspicious starting, two fish in about two minutes. I made a decision that this was one place that was going to dwell as much as its advance billing. I used to be much more satisfied when, minutes later, I had one other vicious strike that threw my bug midway again to the canoe.
However my optimism proved untimely for about that point the solar rolled over a excessive, wooded ridge to the east and shined upon the water. Virtually as if at a sign, the bass stopped hitting. It was a heat day for late Could and this, mixed with the brilliant sunshine slanting via the shadows, put the fish off their feed. We may see the bass silhouetted in opposition to the rocks, however they may see us, too, and so they both lay immobile or swirled away at our method.
Nonetheless, Wade saved me on the sting of the canoe seat, casting enthusiastically, together with his tales of fishing this stream. Every pool and riffle, every submerged stump and brush-pile, reminded him of monster bass which he or one in all his fishermen had caught on some earlier journey.
I believed him as a result of within the low, clear water I may see fish finning beside the financial institution, however I couldn’t tease one right into a strike. Lastly, at Wade’s suggestion, I attempted an underwater lure on my spinning rod. That didn’t work both. After some time, Wade picked up his rod and commenced pinpointing targets with a popper, however he went fishless too. If I hadn’t seen the bass, I might have thought there wasn’t a fish within the river.
But when I couldn’t catch smallmouths, I may benefit from the surroundings. It’s stunning. We’d drift alongside a stretch of quiet water, then go dancing down a sweep of rapids round a bend into a large, nonetheless pool. Cattle grazed in lush meadows, alternating with well-kept orchards and fields of corn. Grassy banks and leafy timber mirrored in clear, inexperienced water.
Lastly, Wade put me ashore on a gravel bar the place the rapids quieted right into a deep, darkish pool. “Let’s cease and provides this spot a going-over,” he mentioned. “There are some good fish on this gap.”
Bob joined us and, being apprised of our plans, waded in footwear and all to a spot on the head of the rapids. Wade moved down the shore and I took up a place above him. We had the pool fairly effectively coated and for a time we had been all busily engaged. Then I caught a fish. It hit my deep-running plug and streaked away in a run that put a superb bend in my gentle spinning rod. But it surely wasn’t a smallmouth. It was a goggle-eye, a nine-incher that did its finest to mimic the antics of one in all its giant cousins.
I had simply launched it once I heard a hail from Wade and turned to see his rod jerking up and right down to the frenzied runs of a hooked fish which all of the sudden somersaulted into the air. I reeled in and ran to the canoe for the online, however earlier than I obtained to Wade he had beached a pleasant two-pound smallmouth.
The one different pleasure was when a very good fish adopted Bob’s plug into quick water solely to swirl away on the final second. However this pool gave us the tip-off, and from then on we solid the flats after which got here ashore on the finish of every rapids to pound the deep gap at its base. We managed to choose up 4 extra bass and a number of other goggle-eyes throughout the morning.
At midday we beached on a gravel bar for lunch. Whereas we ate, Bob and Wade crammed me in on a few of the early historical past of this space. All of what’s now West Virginia, they advised me, was previously a abandoned wilderness used solely as a typical looking floor by numerous Indian tribes. Three nice paths traversed the area, one in all which — the Seneca Path — adopted the South Department from its mouth to Seneca Rocks, then westward to the current city of Elkins.
It wasn’t till lengthy after seaboard Virginia had been settled that first explorers and fur merchants penetrated into the rugged, mountainous inside. They had been adopted by German settlers from Pennsylvania and later by Englishmen who took up homesteads within the “Northern Neck” grant of Lord Fairfax between the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers. A lot of this space was surveyed by George Washington between 1748 and 1751. In 1753, with the expansion of those South Department settlements, it turned evident {that a} native seat of presidency was wanted. Hampshire County was fashioned in that yr and the presiding justice, Thomas Martin, started his courtroom at Romney, the primary included city in West Virginia. Throughout the Seven Years’ Battle, this frontier valley turned a bloody battleground within the wrestle between France and England for the continent of North America.
That afternoon was a repetition of the morning, drifting lazily and casting flies, plugs, and popping bugs in an effort to awaken the sluggish bass. Right here and there, principally by going ashore on the head of the rapids, we teased fish into hanging. When John Ailes met us at Joe Pancake’s farm in late afternoon, we had caught and launched a dozen or so smallmouths and a like variety of goggle-eyes, none of them giant. Personally, I used to be glad for I’d had some motion and a totally pleasant day, however the others had been upset.
“I assumed you’d do higher than that,” John mentioned. “It is best to have caught a dozen apiece, even on a day as poor as this one is.”
“It’s simply too vibrant and sizzling, John,” Wade declared. “We noticed loads of fish, however we couldn’t make ’em hit on this low water.”
“What’s the climate imagined to be like tomorrow?” Bob requested.
“Sizzling and humid with an opportunity of scattered showers,” John reported gloomily.
That evening at dinner and, later, again on the motel the place I used to be staying, there was appreciable dialogue on what a part of the river we should always fish subsequent day. John Ailes and Bob had been anxious to have me see the Trough part, a wild, uninhabited stretch which runs via a seven-mile gorge famous for its surroundings and its fishing. However Wade suggested going farther downstream the place the swimming pools had been bigger and deeper.
“We aren’t out after surroundings,” he declared bluntly. “We’re out after bass.” Ultimately his counsel prevailed, and I used to be glad it did.
Subsequent morning dawned sizzling and humid, however once more within the first jiffy of fishing I tied right into a cartwheeling smallmouth. This was a bigger fish, a couple of three-pounder, and I had him on for a number of minutes earlier than he tore free in an explosive leap. A couple of minutes later, I took a smaller fish beside a submerged ledge. Then, because the solar started to bore down into the swimming pools, motion tapered off because it had the day earlier than.
We had put in a number of miles beneath Romney, planning to finish our float at Inexperienced Spring close to the junction of the North and South branches. Deepening and widening, this stretch of river winds between wooded hills and inexperienced fields in a collection of lengthy swimming pools and swirling rapids. Round every bend new and picturesque vistas got here into view. We might not have been out after surroundings, however we had been getting it and we weren’t getting bass, though we knew that they had been there.
Wade advised me extra in regards to the countryside via which we had been passing. It’s a peaceable valley now, however, throughout the Civil Battle, bloody combating happened in these fields. Owing to its proximity to the strategic Shenandoah Valley, this part bore the brunt of the wrestle in West Virginia. Accomplice cavalry criss-crossed the realm in swift raids, destroying property, taking prisoners, and disrupting communication strains. Southern sentiment ran excessive, and within the vicious and bitter partisan warfare that swept over the valley, the city of Romney modified fingers 56 occasions.
Because the morning wore on it grew hotter, and I used to be grateful for the cooler full of ice water and soda. We took six small bass and some goggle-eyes, however by midday it regarded as if this was going to be one other shoulda-been-here-last-week journey.
“I want you could possibly see this river when it’s proper,” Bob mentioned as we sat within the shade, consuming our sandwiches.
“I do know the bass are right here,” I advised him. “You may’t assist the climate.”
Simply then Wade, who had been stretching his legs alongside the financial institution, bent and picked one thing up from the tangled grass. “Right here,” he referred to as. “That is going to alter our luck.” He tossed a pink plastic horseshoe down beside me. It was apparently one in all a set of footwear from a teen’s horseshoe-pitching sport and the way it had obtained right here can be exhausting to say, however I went together with the gag and positioned it within the bow of the canoe once we set out once more after lunch. Its magic properties had been sluggish in manifesting themselves. The very first thing I did was snag a bankside tree. Once we paddled in to retrieve the lure, the largest bass I had seen but swam lazily away from shore. A couple of minutes later, although, I foul-hooked a small bass by the tail, so I figured the shoe hadn’t misplaced all its energy.
About an hour later, a strong financial institution of clouds came to visit the hills and a breeze sprang up. Out of the west we may see a misty grey curtain of rain bearing down upon us, and when it settled round us the bass started to hit. Not unexpectedly, however a particular change of tempo started to happen within the fishing. The small bass appeared first, slashing out of the shallows to belt flies and plugs.
Then Wade hooked into a very good fish, a rampaging smallmouth that leaped and plunged and skittered throughout the water on its tail. “That is extra prefer it,” he mentioned with a smile as he drew the fish in for me to web. Once I fixed my scales in its jaw, the pointer slid to 3½ kilos. Minutes later, he snagged one other good bass beside a half-submerged tree.
“Strive an underwater plug,” he advised. “I feel you’ll get greater fish. The small bass are beating the large ones to your topwater bug.”
I switched to a diving plug and caught a bass not for much longer than the lure, however just a few casts later I hung a deep-bellied fish that leaped proper over a log to take the plug. By now issues had been getting sizzling, and it appeared as if each time I regarded up Wade or Bob was enjoying a fish. As soon as, Wade and I each had bass on on the identical time. I’ve been in bass hotspots earlier than — Maine’s St. Croix River, Vermillion Lake in Ontario, and Maryland’s Northeast River, to call just a few — and this fishing was comparable.
We caught numerous small bass, eight to 10-inchers, which is an efficient signal, particularly in unstocked waters corresponding to this, for it exhibits a wholesome pure replica. And each from time to time we snagged into good fish working from two to 3 kilos, however not one of the actual lunkers which Wade assured me lived in these swimming pools.
After the bathe handed, the fishing slackened nevertheless it didn’t finish. The rain, cooling and stirring up the water, had roused the torpid bass and put them right into a feeding temper. Now we may solid to drowned brush heaps and sunken logs with some assurance of getting a strike. We didn’t trouble to fish the swimming pools beneath the rapids from shore for we had been now having motion as we floated via them.
I’d misplaced depend of the variety of fish Wade and I had caught and put again, however Bob, being a superb scientist, saved observe of his catch. Once we went ashore for a late afternoon stretch, he reported that he had taken 19 bass. Of those, he had saved half a dozen of assorted sizes to take again to the laboratory for experimental functions. Once we set out once more, Wade advised me that there have been solely a few miles of water left earlier than the South and North branches joined. “John will meet us a couple of quarter of a mile this facet,” he mentioned. “That’ll give us about an hour extra to fish and there’s some good water arising.”
For this ultimate two miles, the river winds in a collection of bends between towering inexperienced hills. Runs and eddies alternate with deep, brimming swimming pools shaded by leafy timber.
Close to the tail of one in all these swimming pools I used to be flipping my plug as much as the financial institution when, all of the sudden, there got here a powerful splash behind me. I whirled and noticed little wavelets spreading outward from a patch of froth near the financial institution beside an overhanging tree.
“What was that?” I requested Wade.
“I don’t know,” he replied, “nevertheless it positive made a strong ruckus.”
“Most likely a muskrat,” I mentioned, however I used to be already feverishly reeling in my line.
“Most likely,” Wade agreed, however he was already turning the canoe in a large circle.
Neither of us spoke as we swung again to float quietly towards the spot. Thirty toes away, Wade backed water and I let go a looping solid. The plug arched and plopped underneath the tree. Because it hit, its tiny splash was engulfed in a geyser of water and a darkish bulk cartwheeled into the air. I caught a glimpse of extensive, flaring gills and thrashing tail, then the fish disappeared in a crash of spray.
“Don’t lose that one!” Wade barked, digging in together with his paddle.
I used to be telling myself the identical factor as line whirred from the spool. Wade maneuvered the canoe to midstream whereas I clung to the bucking rod and tried vainly to stress the bass away from the debris-lined shore. It was like attempting to haul a bulldog away from a cat. I used to be utilizing three-pound-test monofilament line and I needed I’d taken time that morning to trade it for my spare spool of six-pound nylon.
However I didn’t have a lot time for regrets. The bass saved boring doggedly towards shore, lunging and vaulting into the air in ponderous leaps. For a time, all I may do was hold on and hope the straining line wouldn’t break. Then, all of the sudden abandoning these ways, the fish turned in a lightning sprint for deep water. He got here straight towards the canoe, dived underneath it, and leaped once more on the far facet. By then, although, Wade had spun the canoe round and I used to be capable of crank in line, holding the rod tip excessive.
Feeling the stress once more, the fish swept round us in a large circle, and my taut line lower the water with an audible hiss. He got here to the floor 20 toes away and tried to leap once more, however his leap was a heavy roll. Straining the sort out, I reeled him in and Wade thrust his web into the water. The outdated battler had sufficient guts left to shy off twice on the sight of the meshes, however on the third swipe Wade scooped him up. It was solely then that I noticed that Bob had come up throughout the struggle and had beached his boat to look at the proceedings. We joined him on shore for the weighing-in ceremonies. The scales confirmed 5¾ kilos, which is an efficient smallmouth from any water.
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I’d seen a wonderful river, I’d caught numerous fish, and now I’d linked with a lunker which, as Bob mentioned, was a becoming approach to wind up a visit. We had been virtually on the take-out place, anyway, for across the subsequent bend we noticed John Ailes ready for us on shore.
As we glided towards him, Wade grinned. “I advised you that horseshoe was going to alter our luck,” he declared.
“I feel the bathe helped,” I advised.
“I don’t know,” Wade mentioned, “nevertheless it’s positive a humorous coincidence. You realize that stretch the place you caught the large bass?”
“Certain,” I nodded. “What about it?”
“Properly,” he replied, “they name it Horseshoe Bend.”
