Staunton River Smallmouth Adventure

One Of The More Underrated Smallie Systems in Virginia

Virginia has some incredible Smallie river systems throughout the Commonwealth and while many anglers are likely more familiar with the James River, New River and Shenandoah River watersheds for Smallmouth, Virginia does boast some additional rivers hold densely populated smallie populations.

One of those river systems we had the opportunity to visit this last week was the Staunton River which feeds Virginia’s largest lake in Buggs Island or Kerr Reservoir to some across the state line down in North Carolina. It was certainly one of the longer treks for many of us that fish in our community events. Many forget that Virginia is some four hundred miles across and some two hundred and fifty miles from NC to the Potomac River. We headed southwest to South Boston, Virginia in the early morning.

Kayak Adventure Series which is one of the newer national kayak bass fishing series in the country scheduled their Bassathon event with base camp in South Boston. The event was the first time the series had scheduled Virginia fisheries since its inception last year so our community wanted to support the event as an effort to encourage other national event trails to come to Virginia or DMV (District, Maryland, Virginia) because of the outstanding fisheries that exist not only for smallmouth but also largemouth bass and a multitude of other specie.

We arrived later the most down on the Staunton but we did make it in time for the Friday morning breakfast called BASS-U-Brunch hosted by the Factory Street Brewing Company in downtown South Boston. We had the opportunity to catch Drew Gregory’s presentation on tournament fishing preparation. Gregory is widely regarded as one of the best kayak tournament anglers in the country having won multiple events on various national event trails.Many anglers had already been down fishing the various lakes and rivers that were available for the event and given the inclusion of Buggs Island with its 50,000 or more acres of water this event was massive for the region. Typically events are scheduled in most event series for kayak bass fishing on single lakes or rivers with defined boundaries but Kayak Adventure Series opens up a multitude of options for participants over a two day period to diagnose, breakdown and fish.

We knew going in we were chasing smallies. For us it had more to do with getting together and chasing smallies outside of our own events in a more relaxed situation knowing that majority of anglers would be targeting the big green fish in places like Briery Creek outside Farmville, Va. The event included Briery Creek along with a host of other lakes in Virginia and North Carolina in addition to Buggs Island. We opted to focus on the Staunton River.

The Staunton River and often also called the Roanoke River by many Virginians travels through the counties of Campbell, Pittsylvania, Halifax and Charlotte. Many consider the head of the Staunton River to be Leesville Dam just outside AltaVista, Va running 81 miles to the confluence with Buggs Island.

The river hosts various float events throughout the year but unlike the James River there is far more limited access on the Staunton. Altavista really becomes a central hub for the upper portion of the river in terms of access though in recent years additional launches have been constructed to shorten various float points. One such launch is the relatively new Dalton’s Landing just off Highway 43 which is about seven miles upriver from AltaVista boat ramp at English Park. Altavista downriver to the next access point in Long Island is some 20 miles away and while it offers some incredible smallmouth fishing access is limited and in places restricted due to private property ownership. The stretch is also home to Roanoke Bass pictured here:

The next stretch of the Staunton travels some eleven miles from Long Island to Brookneal and is known for quality striper fishing as well as smallmouth but in recent years it has seen its walleye thrive as well. The rocky nature of this section and quality of riffles and runs of the topography provide outstanding habitat for a multitude of specie but also includes some of the more dangerous class of rapids in the watershed. Class II and III’s exist and anglers should always consider the water levels and skill levels in terms of attempting to navigate some portions of this section.

From Brookneal the river will run some 28 miles before any other access until Watkins Bridge. On day one of the Kayak Adventure Series event we decided to forgo the upper portion of the river and enter the watershed at Watkins Bridge floating down river to Clover Boat ramp which is just about over eight miles but felt like twelve on this day. The river was not really flowing so a ton of paddling was required in stretches that felt like miles. We did not bank on not having the normal level of current flow either naturally due to topography or the Leesville Dam so in terms of the event we didnt make it the area we wanted before seven in the evening which was the lines out time but when we found we arrived at the causeway we knew this area in the future would produce. As we event time expired and the night began wake we approach the juiciest area we had seen all afternoon and evening. Just beyond the causeway pictured here we found our first real ripple area and witnessed smallie after smallie jumping as the sun continued to fall. We still had some miles to get to the ramp though but we thought about whether we should return to this area the next day or opt to give somewhere else in the watershed a chase.

We arrived at Clover ramp located just beyond US 360 bridge on the river right in the dark. Not best laid plans and we traveled back in forth to Watkins Bridge shuttling others to their vehicle and then returning to Clover. Clover is the last ramp for those who want to float into Buggs Island from the Staunton River and the journey is about thirteen miles but paddlers will also have to deal with another few miles to get to Staunton River State Park once the reach Buggs Island. We were always considering that float for Saturday because of the quality of known smallies above Buggs confluence but given Friday’s float experience and the water flow we knew that may be even more brutal of a float than we had just completed.

Plenty of camping space at Staunton River State Park on Buggs Island and here you also get the confluence from the Dan River which originates over in Patrick County, Va but enters North Carolina before returning to Virginia. This river is some 214 miles and on this weekend provided some of the best fishing for those that competed in the Kayak Adventure Series (KAS) event. Some 95.50 inches caught by Alex Sterling (NC) of bass took the KAS which saw some 343 fish caught by 43 anglers with the biggest bass of the event caught by Jake Suvak with a 22.00. Sterling caught three bass over 20.00 inches with one coming Friday evening and two on Saturday. Elvis Lee came all the way from Minnesota to fish the KAS event and he came in second with 94.75 inches and Tyler Bean from Georgia finished third with 94.25. The rivers seemingly stood out as we expected with top anglers fishing both the Staunton near Long Island and the Dan River.

We decided not to return to Clover on Saturday morning opting instead to head upriver to AltaVista in the morning and see about chasing some Smallmouth and Roanoke Bass. Roanoke Bass are very uncommon anywhere else in Virginia and like Rock Bass are really fun to catch on a river float. I do not think many of us figured on catching Walleye on this trip but that is what actually happened to quite a few of us no matter what section of the Staunton guys were fishing. Just in conversations there were probably over 50 Walleye caught on Saturday alone and it was nice to get the Walleye checked off the Multi Species List for 2025! A limited number of the invasive Alabama Bass were were caught and removed from the fishery as well.

As far as events goes, Kayak Adventure Series much like our community is very different than most other kayak bass fishing event series or trails. With the departure of both Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) and the Hobie Bass Open Series from the national single or multi day event scene KAS offers anglers an opportunity to fish many of the quality river systems across the country that in most instances never get tournaments of the caliber of KAS. We enjoyed our adventure down on the Staunton and it was awesome to see many of our community catch limits with our best angler finish in Thomas Godby (WV). Thomas dropped a solid 85.00 inches in tougher than norm conditions on the river and always proves an ability to catch solid limits no matter what river systems the Smallie Chaser River Bassin Series is fishing. Our community supported the event accounting for 18% of the KAS participants and can’t thank everyone enough for that.

Big shout out to Feel Free Kayaks for the limited edition Autism Awareness kayak provided at the Kayak Adventure Series Bassathon event. I am sure had my daughter been with me this trip she would be seeing about ordering one of the 10 foot Moken’s for her given her autism.

Smallie Chaser River Bassin community is on to the Shenandoah River May 17th in Front Royal, Va for our next meet up and event!!

Contact:

smalliechaserriverbassin@gmail.com

Kayak Adventure Series:

kayakadventureseries.com

Resources:

You Tube:

Smallie Chaser River Bassin:

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallieChaserChannel

J.L. Scott Fishing

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@J.L.ScottFishing

TourneyX: Clubs Tab (Virginia) Tournament Fishing App

https://tourneyx.com/app/category/va---smallie-chaser-river-bassin

Community Event DISCORD: Free To Join (Smallmouth)

https://discord.gg/KtpkAJchUP