Fishing
The Blackwater originates as a coastal plain swamp in Prince George County. It flows east through braided channels of bald cypress and tupelo in Surry County. The river then turns south into Southampton County where several boat ramps are accessible for anglers, hunters and boaters alike. The Blackwater then joins with the Nottoway to form the Chowan at the Virginia-North Carolina state line. On any one trip you can see whitetail deer, numerous waterfowl, raccoons, squirrels and many unique reptile and amphibian species, not to mention a healthy fish population swimming under the water's surface. The dark, tannin stained waters of the Blackwater River host runs of striped bass, river herring (alewives and blueback), American and hickory shad in the spring. Angling for redbreast sunfish ("red throats" or "red robins") is also quite good in the spring. The river also hosts largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, flier, and chain pickerel populations. Bowfin and gar are common in the lower main stem. Angling for bowfin provides a great opportunity to catch many hard-fighting fish in a short amount of time. The possibility also exists to land a trophy bowfin over ten pounds.
Read more about this topic: Blackwater River (Virginia)
Famous quotes containing the word fishing:
“Once fishing was a rabbit’s foot—
O wind blow cold, O wind blow hot,”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“O mud
For watermelons gutted to the crust,
Mud for the mole-tide harbor, mud for mouse,
Mud for the armored Diesel fishing tubs that thud
A year and a day to wind and tide; the dust
Is on this skipping heart that shakes my house,”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally shiftlessness and a groveling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, viewed from the shore, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less frivolous.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)