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Home › Waters › Virginia › James River
River · The upper James in the Virginia Blue Ridge, running northeast past Buchanan and through the Balcony Falls gorge toward Lynchburg · Virginia

James River Fishing Guides

The upper James above Lynchburg, one of the best smallmouth float rivers in the East, running clear over ledge and shoal through the Blue Ridge.

A wide river below a ridge in full autumn colour in the Appalachians

Map of the James River

30 numbered points: 28 access points, 1 regulation section limit, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 25, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (28)
  • Regulation section limit (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

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All 30 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1James River bass regulation reach - upper boundary
VA DWR geographic exception - upper limit		Regulation section limit37.78416, -79.77593Upstream end of DWR's named James River reach: the Jackson and Cowpasture confluence in Botetourt County, running downstream to the 14th Street Bridge in Richmond. Check the current digest for what applies.
2Iron Gate Access
VA DWR - Botetourt Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.77372, -79.78268Head of the James, at the Jackson and Cowpasture confluence. Hand launch off Rt 220; the top of the whole float river.
3Craig Creek Access
VA DWR - Botetourt Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.64566, -79.81440Hand launch under the Rt 220 bridge at Rt 683, at the Craig Creek mouth.
4Horseshoe Bend Access
VA DWR - Botetourt Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.58909, -79.72784Hand launch seven miles west of Buchanan on Rt 43.
5Springwood Access
VA DWR - Botetourt Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.54802, -79.74262Hand launch at Springwood, reached from Buchanan by Rt 43 and Rt 630.
6Buchanan Access
VA DWR - Botetourt Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.52999, -79.67940Hand launch in the town of Buchanan, at the USGS gauge. The reference point for the upper river.
7James River at Buchanan
USGS 02019500 - real-time stage and flow		USGS gauge37.53069, -79.67893Roster gauge for this water. The whole upper float river - Iron Gate down to Lynchburg - is read off this one.
8Arcadia Access
VA DWR - Botetourt Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.55482, -79.63704Hand launch at Arcadia, below Buchanan off Rt 614.
9Glasgow Access
VA DWR - Rockbridge Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.62378, -79.44542Ramp at Glasgow off Rt 130, just below the Maury River confluence; shared parking.
10Snowden Access
VA DWR - Amherst Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.59685, -79.38941Ramp at Snowden on Rt 501/130, below the Blue Ridge water gap.
11Reed Creek Landing
VA DWR - Bedford Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.52468, -79.34985Ramp south of Big Island on Rt 501. DWR files this one under a misspelled waterbody, 'Jame River'.
12Joshua Falls Access
VA DWR - Campbell Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.41931, -79.04058Hand launch off Rt 726 north of Rt 460, below Lynchburg.
13Bent Creek Access
VA DWR - Appomattox Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.53557, -78.82762Ramp at Bent Creek where Rt 60 meets Rt 26.
14Wingina Access
VA DWR - Nelson Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.63601, -78.71989Ramp on Rt 56 south of Wingina.
15Midway Access
VA DWR - Nelson Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.66930, -78.71469Ramp in the James River WMA off Rt 743, north-east of Wingina.
16Howardsville Access
VA DWR - Albemarle Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.73307, -78.64523Ramp at Howardsville. DWR spells the county 'Albermarle' in its own layer.
17Scottsville Access
VA DWR - Albemarle Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.79700, -78.49323Ramp on Ferry Street in the town of Scottsville - the busiest launch on the middle river.
18Hardware River Access
VA DWR - Fluvanna Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.74026, -78.40782Hand launch at the Hardware River mouth, reached from Scottsville by Rt 6 east then Rt 646.
19New Canton Access
VA DWR - Buckingham Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.70966, -78.29986Ramp at New Canton, north of Arvonia off Rt 15 and Rt 670.
20Columbia Access
VA DWR - Cumberland Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.74941, -78.16276Ramp south of Columbia on Rt 690, at the Rivanna River mouth.
21Cartersville Access
VA DWR - Cumberland Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.66942, -78.08684Ramp in Cartersville on Rt 45.
22West View Access
VA DWR - Goochland Co. - 1 ramp		Access / boat ramp37.64255, -78.01037Ramp reached from Goochland by Rt 6 west, Rt 600 and Rt 643.
23Beaumont Access
VA DWR - Powhatan Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.66447, -77.89042Hand launch a mile south of Maidens on Rt 522.
24Watkins Landing
VA DWR - Powhatan Co. - 2 ramps		Access / boat ramp37.58830, -77.71291Two ramps, reached from Bon Air by Rt 147, Rt 711 and Rt 625.
25Robious Landing
VA DWR - Chesterfield Co. - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.55920, -77.64734Hand launch at Robious Landing Park, above the Richmond fall line.
26Huguenot Bridge Access
VA DWR - Richmond City - hand launch		Access / boat ramp37.56049, -77.54581Hand launch just west of the Huguenot Bridge off Southampton Street - the top of the Richmond whitewater reach.
27Ancarrow's Landing
VA DWR - Richmond City - 2 ramps		Access / boat ramp37.51986, -77.41871Two ramps on Maury Street, below the fall line at the head of tidewater.
28Osborne Pike Landing
VA DWR - Henrico Co. - 6 ramps		Access / boat ramp37.40093, -77.38585Six ramps at Kingsland Road and Osborne Turnpike - the largest launch on the river, on the tidal James.
29Dutch Gap Access
VA DWR - Chesterfield Co. - 2 ramps		Access / boat ramp37.38200, -77.37668Two ramps at Dutch Gap on the tidal river, reached by Rt 10, Rt 732 and Rt 615.
30Deep Bottom Access
VA DWR - Henrico Co. - 2 ramps		Access / boat ramp37.40716, -77.30541Two ramps on Deep Bottom Road, eight miles south of Seven Pines. Lowest access mapped here.

Guides on the James River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the James River

The James is Virginia’s river in the way that few states have a single obvious candidate, and the upper reach around Buchanan is where it is best as a fishery. Above Lynchburg the river runs clear and relatively shallow over long ledge shelves and gravel shoals, dropping through the Blue Ridge with the Jefferson National Forest on both sides in places. It is broad enough to float comfortably and shallow enough to wade in summer, which is an unusual and valuable combination.

Smallmouth bass are the reason to come and the upper James is genuinely one of the better smallmouth rivers in the eastern United States. The ledge structure is exactly what they want – current breaks, depth changes and ambush points repeating for mile after mile. The river produces both numbers and size, and it fishes well on everything from a fly rod popper to a tube jig. Rock bass and redbreast sunfish are everywhere and abundant enough to keep a beginner busy all day.

Muskellunge are the other story and they are a serious fishery here rather than a curiosity. Virginia manages musky on the upper James and they reach substantial size, holding in the deeper slow water, the eddies behind ledges and the log-strewn banks. Anglers targeting them specifically fish large flies and big baits in the cooler months. Flathead catfish, an introduced species, have established themselves and get large in the deeper holes.

This is float country. The standard approach is a canoe, kayak or raft between mapped accesses, and the Upper James River Water Trail has made that straightforward with published launches and mileages. Summer low water means dragging in places and excellent wading everywhere else. Check the gauge before committing, and note that the Balcony Falls reach below Glasgow is substantially more serious water than the rest.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

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Flow alert

Tell me when the James River cfs

Now: 492 cfs, read 7:00 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 02019500, JAMES RIVER AT BUCHANAN, VA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Buchanan - the gauge reach and a developed town access on the upper river.
Arcadia - a popular launch on the upper James float water.
Springwood - access on the middle upper reach.
Glasgow - the launch above the Balcony Falls gorge.
Snowden - access below the gorge on the lower reach.
Natural Bridge Station - access on the Maury near the confluence.
Lynchburg - the bottom of the upper river reach.

Seasons

Spring: high water and the strongest musky fishing, with smallmouth turning on late.
Summer: the prime smallmouth season, with low clear water and excellent wading.
Fall: cooling water, aggressive smallmouth and the best colour in the Blue Ridge.
Winter: slow and cold, but the best big-musky period of the year.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the James River?

As of Nov 2, 7:00 am, the USGS gauge JAMES RIVER AT BUCHANAN, VA reads 492 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the James River?

Anglers target Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, Redbreast Sunfish, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass on the James River in Virginia.

Are there fishing guides on the James River?

GuidedFloats lists 4 guides and outfitters on the James River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the James River?

Buchanan - the gauge reach and a developed town access on the upper river. Arcadia - a popular launch on the upper James float water. Springwood - access on the middle upper reach. Glasgow - the launch above the Balcony Falls gorge. Snowden - access below the gorge on the lower reach. Natural Bridge Station - access on the Maury near the confluence. Lynchburg - the bottom of the upper river reach.

When is the best time to fish the James River?

Spring: high water and the strongest musky fishing, with smallmouth turning on late. Summer: the prime smallmouth season, with low clear water and excellent wading. Fall: cooling water, aggressive smallmouth and the best colour in the Blue Ridge. Winter: slow and cold, but the best big-musky period of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the James River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Virginia agency site: https://dwr.virginia.gov/fishing/regulations/