going camping

Question
Im  going camping on the shanndoah river i heard the small mouth and catfish is whats being caut right now.  im not a fly fisherman. im going to use lures and live bait .whats the #1 got to try lure and live bait

Answer
Ed, It has been a few years since I fished the Shenandoah River but I am sure the things I used then would still work.  Your information is correct that river has many smallmouth bass and channel catfish.  My brother used to live about two miles from the river on Va.Route 1 the bridge known as Cattleman's Ferry Bridge over the Shenandoah.  As you probably know this river is not easy to get on to fish. Virginia law requires that one have written permission to enter any private lands along the river.  We were lucky that my brother had a friend who owned a plot of land about a mile above the bridge and we had permission to go there.  Sometimes we fished for smallmouth bass using lures.  At other times we hunted down whatever we could find of live bait.  It was hard to come by though.  We used a small net to catch some crawfish in a tiny creek and caught a few minnows.  We also found a few worms in his garden.  During the day we would fish for smallmouth with either small lures such as spinnerbaits or small crankbaits.  We tried using jigs but they hung up in the many rocks too bad.  In the late afternoon we would put on our crawfish or minnows and just toss them out for whatever would bite.  Sometimes it would be a smallmouth and sometimes it would be a channel cat.  Also just before sunset a tiny torpedo tossed out and popped along the surface caught bass.  As soon as the sunset came the bass mostly quit biting and the channel cats really started.

I don't know what part of the river you plan on camping but from what I have heard it is all good fishing.  The bass do not run big but there are a lot of them.  One method of catching bass I learned one day while fishing with a couple of guys who live near Manassas.  We were canoeing down a stretch of the Rapahannok River using plastic worms.  But not rigged in the usual way.  This guy taught us how to rig them to catch the smallmouth.  First he tied a small hook with a down turned eye and short shank to the line leaving six inches past the know.  To this line he tied another hook leaving 5 inches.  To this he tied another hook about 1 3/4 inches behind the third.  We then hooked the first hook in the nose of the worm about  1/4 inch then the second hook was pushed through the egg sack of the worm the third hook was hooked into the tail after bending the worm into a "J" and hooking the tail to hold it in a "J".  A 1/4 ounce egg sinker was fixed above this worm about three inches held with a tiny swivel.  It cast well with a spinning rod and six pound line and when reeled in the worm would spin.  Normally one does not want a worm to spin but with this rig the worm looked from below and straight above just like a small snake swimming along.  The bass went crazy on it.  Four of us boated and unhooked over two hundred fish that day and probably lost twice that many.  It was not unusual to have a bass hit and jump spitting out the worm and having the worm hit the water and another bass would have it.
Sometimes as many as five bass might hit before you reeled the worm in.  Very seldom did one not catch on bass per cast.  They were not big.  The biggest was one hooked by the guy who was our guide.  It jumped and got off but we saw it and it would have gone at least five pounds.  Most were about one to one and a half pounds.  12-15 inches.  But did they fight.

We never caught as many in the Shenandoah but still we caught a lot of both bass and catfish.
I think a spinning rod about 7 feet long, an open faced reel with six pound line would work well.
If one wanted to use streamer flies He could get a small clear plastic float and tie the fly three feet below it and cast the float and work it across current after casting upstream.  1/2oz crank baits crawfish color or minnow color or some very bright color should work.  Both inline spinners and safety pin type spinners in small sizes should work.

I assume you have a place to camp on the river.  The river is wadable in mid summer unless there has been some big rain but if you are not familiar with wading such a stream be careful as the current can be misleading.  It may not look swift but it can fool you and the rocks are slick.
A canoe is the ideal way to fish this river but a flat bottomed jon boat will work too.  You do not need a motor unless you must go upstream.  A float downstream is fun but be sure you have a place to pull out without trespassing.

I envy you as I greatly love fishing this river even though I now live on one of the best bass lakes east of the Mississippi River.

I hope this has been of some help to you and also hope that you have a safe enjoyable campout and fishing trip.

Thank you for calling on me to answer your question.  I guess the #1 lure to use for bass would be the tiny torpedo.  Live bait the crawfish as both bass and catfish like them.  Best size is under 2 inches.

I am
Jack L. Gaither       (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia