I want to finish the Pamunkey River, so here is the downstream report.
After we fished upstream, as described in the other report, I spent another hour moving about half a mile downstream to see if the river’s character had changed.
Immediately downstream of the bridge, the water is pretty deep. I had to skirt around the outside and hug the bank to move back into a section where it was shallow enough to wade. The two guys fishing from the bank under the bridge were working it pretty hard, and I did not want to mess up their water.
After getting around the initial deep section, the river returned to the same sandy/muddy bottom that I observed upstream. The key difference is that this small stretch had plenty of deep holes on the northern bank. As I worked my popper in the slow current, I picked up a smallie and a bunch of bluegills.
Immediately before the turn shown on the map, there is another deep hole split by a shallow section on a ridge. I waded down the ridge to the beachy-looking area that characterized the run. The south bank here is very, very deep—maybe 10 feet.
I was hurried so I did not get a good shot at whatever fish would be in here. I had one hit on the grasshopper I was floating by a bluegill and was about to switch to a deep pattern when I realized that it had been almost an hour since I left Lon back at the launch.
I quickly jogged down to the turn to take a quick picture and see what was there. The river was almost hidden by the fallen trees and other structure that interrupted its flow. There are probably any number of good spots downstream. I did fleetingly wonder how you would get a canoe through all that mess – maybe it’s not that bad when the water is higher in the spring.
Pamunkey River Fishing Bottom line: If I were to come back, I would definitely head downstream. The deeper water here might hold more fish that the shallower stretch we saw upstream. The fact the two bridge guys repeatedly return to that spot to bank fish indicates that there has to be a good population of bass. But, there are better places to go.
Getting There: Take exit 98 from I95 onto Route 30 east. Follow it until it intersects with Route 301. Turn right (south) and follow it until you cross the Pamunkey River. The canoe area is on the south side of the bridge
Google Local Coordinates: 37.788930, -77.369890
Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in the Virginia VDGIF and the Flyfisher’s Guide to Virginia
Downstream from canoe launch
Looking upstream back to the canoe launch
Slackwater at the corner
Downstream from the corner looks the same
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore