Sunday, July 16, 2006
Fishing slow, but rapids are fun
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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It is morning, but it is already hot and steamy when we reach the Roanoke River.
It is flowing robustly, tinted slightly off green, seemingly ideal for both paddling and fishing.
With me is my brother-in-law, Henry Whelchel, in town for a weekend visit. I had considered taking him on a float on the James River, but we'd done that before. I wanted to show him something new, different and great.
We pull the canoe off the roof rack and load it with our gear.
I tell the shuttle driver -- my wife -- that I will call her 15 minutes before we reach the take-out at Wasena Park. From our starting point near the intersection of Apperson Street and Electric Road in Salem, it should take us about three hours.
And then we are moving downstream.
I am always amazed at how tippy a canoe feels when I haven't been in one for a while. Making things more interesting on this morning is the size of this boat's load. Together, Henry and I push 430 pounds.
"What are these pads on the bottom of the boat?" he asks.
"Kneepads," I tell him. "We'll need to get down through some sections to lower our center of gravity."
Sitting in the front, Henry paddles to keep the nose pointing downstream as I cast a tiny Rebel Wee Craw crankbait into shoreline shadows. I expect strikes from redbreast sunfish and small smallmouth bass. But nothing hits.
"There's a muskrat," I say, pointing to the scurrying brown creature on the bank.
Henry doesn't see it, but he does see another one downstream.
Soon, we come to the first swift chute.
Kneeling, we get through it easily.
The riffles come quickly. so there is little time for fishing.
Rounding a tight corner, I am surprised to come upon a fisherman standing knee-deep just 15 feet away.
"Sorry about that," I say. "I didn't see you there."
"No problem," he answers.
"You doing any good?" I ask.
"It's a good morning," he says.
"What are you catching?" I ask.
"Small bass," he says with a satisfied smile.
After passing under the bridge near the Roanoke City line, we head into what is the most remote stretch of the float. Faint industrial sounds echo from the nearby railroad yard. We have the river to ourselves.
The fishing is still slow.
The rapids are still fun.
"This is better than the log flume ride at Busch Gardens," Henry says after one rocky chute.
And what makes it better is that it comes in this surprisingly wild setting, with huge riverside trees towering overhead and herons watching from the shallows.
This is a natural water ride, not a man-made one.
At least for now.
"This will all be different in a few years," I tell Henry.
"Why?"
I tell him about the $65 million flood-control project that is under way along the river in Roanoke. A joint effort of the city and the Army Corps of Engineers, the project won't eliminate flooding, just reduce the impact of moderate floods.
It will affect more than six miles of the river, widening the channel, removing streamside trees, creating expansive flat benches designed to spread out high water.
The rocks and ledges will remain in the river, but the shady shoreline pockets will largely disappear when the trees that create them are removed.
"Wouldn't it be cheaper if they just bought up all the flood-prone properties?" Henry wonders.
Cheaper? Maybe. Better? Hard to say.
The project, scheduled for completion in 2010, will help pave the way for construction of a 10-mile riverside greenway. The new river will certainly have a cleaner appearance, if not a more clinical one.
In terms of aesthetics, this remaining wild section of the Roanoke River, even with the tattered plastic bags hanging in streamside trees, is more appealing to me than the downstream section that has already been altered.
But I suspect the new river will appeal to a broader cross section of our community. They will come to the greenway and some will probably even take their kayaks and canoes down the river.
They will enjoy it, just like they enjoy the log flume ride at Busch Gardens.
