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Whispering Bear and I spent Sept. 3-5 on the Nottoway below Delaware. The water was a tad high, tinted, 73 degrees and fast. The weather was a bit cool at night to be on the pontoon boat but tolerable at 56 to 80 degrees, and it was very windy the first day. Trash was extremely light, and there were no derelict limb lines… thank goodness. 

The fishing on this trip was good. I easily caught enough bream for catfish bait on a fly rod bug, casting it with a bobber. I also caught two very nice chain pickerel that I threw back, believe it or not. They are soooo tasty, but I just didn’t feel like cleaning them at the time. I also caught several small bass, including some more of this year’s models. They are truly some aggressive little bass. We must have had a really excellent spawn this past spring. All were caught on a white tail Mepps.

The only problem the entire trip was one encounter with a disrespectful bass boat that was fishing near Monroe Bridge. We were sitting in the lily pads waiting for two of those boats to come back downriver before we anchored in the middle of the river for the night. I try to do this on tournament days so they won’t have to slow down on the way back to weigh in. This one boat was fishing near us, and then at 7:15 or so, took off full bore right at us, which threw a huge wake and pushed us up into the shore. All I’m saying is the guy could have spent that two minutes to idle past us before hitting the gas. Bass boats don’t throw a very big wake except for coming off plane and taking off, and this guy could have spared us that easily enough. It’s what happens sometimes when these tournaments take place and the fishermen have to beat a deadline to get back to weigh in. If they are late, they get penalized by losing some of their total weight of the fish they are going to submit at weigh in. That’s why this type of behavior CAN happen. Anyway, I can’t expect everyone to be safe and nice, I guess, on the two rivers we call the Nottoway and Blackwater.

Jeff Turner is the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard. To contact him about river issues, send him an email at blknotkpr@earthlink.net. He can also be followed on the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard Facebook page. Search for “Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard” on Facebook.