Sunday, August 29, 2010
Time to canoe on Roanoke River
An appealing recreational resource, the river is gaining much more appreciation and use by local enthusiasts.
ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times
Mark Taylor fishes in the Roanoke River. The river gains quite a bit of attention from wading anglers during the cool-weather trout stocking season.
MARK TAYLOR The Roanoke Times
This small redbreast sunfish hit a Rebel Wee Craw crankbait fished near a rocky shoreline of the Roanoke River.
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
mark.taylor
@roanoke.com
981-3395
Mark Taylor
Outdoors coverage
- Notebook: Outer Banks beach-driving plan kicks up sand
- Outdoors commentary: Many Sunday hunting cons
- Winter tourneys invite fishermen out in the cold
- Visit our Outdoors page
The Wild Life blog
After an afternoon of errant casts, this one was due.
The little green Rebel Wee Craw crankbait had been landing in trees and on rocks and everywhere but where I had been aiming.
Finally, it plopped perfectly just a couple of feet off the bank in the shade cast by a streamside sycamore.
I had finally figured out the trick to this new ultralight spincast rig: Give it to my kid.
Elisabeth had this thing wired, and it was especially gratifying to see the lure disappear in a swirl as a redbreast sunfish nailed it.
We were in our canoe on the Roanoke River, just a few minutes from our house.
This was to be my final adventure for this summer's Fun in the Sun series. And after three months of running around and even beyond Western Virginia, it seemed fitting to do this one close to home.
It's easy to find outdoor fun just minutes outside the region's cities and towns.
But part of what makes this area such an outdoors paradise is that it's pretty easy to find outdoor fun in the cities and towns, too.
The Roanoke River is an appealing recreational resource, one that is gaining more appreciation and use.
It's far from perfect, of course.
Consider one of the first observations from the girls after we launched my beat up Dagger Legend just above the Franklin Road Bridge.
"Look," one said, pointing at the river bottom. "A tire."
Her sister, Maddy, joined in.
"There's another one," she observed. "Did a car crash here?"
It could be worse, and has been. The river is much cleaner today than it has been in generations past.
The Roanoke River Greenway, which runs for 5 miles along the river through the heart of the city, and eventually will follow its path through the entire valley, probably has helped.
It has put many more recreation-minded people near the river, and those people are the ones who take ownership of resources.
They volunteer to plant trees or place mileage markers, and to pick up the trash left by others knowing that it all adds up.
While the Greenway gets a lot of use, and the river gains quite a bit of attention from wading anglers during the cool-weather trout stocking season, it's not a big draw for paddling.
Low water bridges have been an impediment. The one between Wasena and Smith Parks was recently replaced, and paddlers can now pass without having to portage.
But there's still another just downstream. And there is no decent portage there.
In fact, there are not any developed canoe launching areas on the river. At least none of which I am aware.
Having those specific spots -- and letting people know where they are -- can really increase river usage.
Our plan was to float a mile or so, fishing along the way, park the canoe then walk the greenway back to the truck.
The river was up a bit from recent rain, which was good for floating. It was maybe a bit too murky for the best fishing, but it wasn't as bad as it had been during my previous trip on this section.
On that evening a few weeks ago I'd fished this section from my float tube, an ideal way to work the relatively deep water near Carilion Memorial.
There had been another big thunderstorm earlier that afternoon and the water was the color of coffee with cream. The fly rod popper I cast drew a few pecks but no serious strikes in the tough conditions.
Madeleine wanted to paddle, so I let her control the canoe while Elisabeth and I fished.
The Roanoke River isn't a great warm-water fishery, but it's better than some might think.
It's got some smallmouth rock bass. But redbreast sunfish are the stars.
They're pretty abundant, with good days on the best sections producing one hand-sized fish after another.
The best fishing is in the river's most remote sections, those areas reached only by canoe or kayak. But there are decent numbers of redbreasts around Carilion, too.
Unless I'm casting fly rod poppers I rarely use anything but a Rebel Wee Craw, a dynamite sunfish lure that will catch rock bass and smallmouths, too.
Elisabeth is a big fan of Zoom Baby Brush Hogs, so that's what she was casting.
Unlike the Wee Craw, it wasn't producing but she didn't seem to mind. She was having fun casting while watching the mallards and herons take flight as we slowly moved downstream.
Usually we'll hit the bank around Walnut Street and walk the Greenway back to the truck.
On this day I decided to try something different and paddle back upstream.
Other than one fairly swift section near the pedestrian bridge to the old Victory Stadium site, it wasn't bad.
Because I was paddling, Elisabeth decided to take over the rod with the Wee Craw, and that's when she started getting some action.
She was disappointed when we finally got to our take out site just below the Franklin Street bridge.
I told her not to sweat it.
We'd be back on the river soon.
More info
The Roanoke River offers several canoe or kayak trip options.
The float from the Franklin Road bridge to the Walnut Street bridge is about a mile, most of which is calm water.
Continuing on to the terminus of the Greenway, at 13th Street, extends the trip to about 4 miles.
Although there is a canoe launch sign at the Greenway parking lot at 13th street, there isn't a developed launch site so paddlers need to haul their craft over a rocky shoreline.
Other undeveloped but commonly used canoe put-in and take-out sites on the river include at the roadside park near Dixie Caverns, at Green Hill Park, along the Greenway in Salem downstream from the Colorado Street Bridge, at Rotary Park and at Wasena Park.
The trip from Rotary Park to Wasena Park is surprisingly secluded, and can take the better part of a day for an angler who spends time carefully working the best fishing spots.
All of the launch sites are easy to locate using a good map of the Roanoke metro area.
As it flows through the valley, the Roanoke River offers some rocky runs and riffles, but no serious whitewater at low to moderate flows.
Paddlers need to be aware of obstacles such as fallen trees, however. Known as sweepers, they can easily knock boaters into the water.
At lower flows paddlers can expect to spend some time dragging their craft through shallow sections.
River-worthy footwear and, of course, good personal flotation devices, are a must.
--Mark Taylor
