Weather: Sunny and warm. The water was clear and very low.

Methodology: Kayaks where the water was deep enough and wadding where it wasn't. Flukes and worms as bait.

King of the Boat: A draw.

John’s Thoughts on the Day: I have floated the Greenbrier River several times before and knew that it tends to have very low water levels in late summer. However the chance to knock off West Virginia for Fish Fifty, float a new stretch I had not done before and most importantly, baptize my new kayak in piscatorial pursuit were all more than enough reasons to get me motivated.

We launched with beautiful weather, storms threatened all around us, but they avoided us all day. The water was very low, and the day became a cycle of “walking the dog”, floating and fishing the deeper stretches and then walking our kayaks through the ultra low water we encountered at the riffles and rapids. I think we probably walked at least a quarter of the entire float! But we caught fish, nothing huge and not in big numbers, but the sunny skies, gin clear water and low water levels made the fish very skittish and hard to sneak up on. I used mainly flukes, and had a blast fishing them on top, through the text book spots and was rewarded with savage strikes the smallmouth is famous for.

The Greenbrier River is beautiful scenic river and we saw all manner of wildlife, most notably a bald eagle and deer. In fact I was able to silently float to within 30 yards of a fawn grazing on the bank. We had the river to ourselves that day, and had a great time crossing West Virginia off our list!