South River Fly Shop

This shop guides the middle James between Bent Creek in Amherst County and New Canton in Fluvanna, and sells the water on a May-through-September calendar. It is candid about how the season reads: May and June can bring high water, which favours streamer fishing, while the best topwater bug fishing arrives later in the summer. Half days run $375 for one or two anglers; a full day is $425 for one angler and $475 for two, with lunch included. Guides work both fly and conventional tackle, and trophy-class smallmouth are the stated draw.

Float trips on the South Fork of the Shenandoah are sold alongside the James, working the sections that begin where the North River and the South River meet at Port Republic and running downstream through Elkton and the town of Shenandoah to Luray. Smallmouth of ten to fourteen inches are plentiful there, with solid numbers of trophy fish from sixteen to twenty inches, and both fly and conventional gear are offered. March and April target pre-spawn trophies and suit experienced anglers willing to work for limited shots; May and June fish well for all abilities on poppers, frogs and topwater; July to October is sight fishing to shade lines over cicadas and damselflies; and the cold months concentrate fish for jig work and larger streamers.