For avid anglers living in Virginia, January can be the worst month of the year. Most anglers put the rods away, cozy up next to a fire, and dream of springtime. But for the diehard anglers like myself, this time of year means one thing. Chasing bronze colored footballs. Travis Eden of Kingfisher Guide Service is a routine guest on the podcast, and like me is a passionate wintertime angler. Probably the majority of my personal citation fish throughout the year are caught in the wintertime. So when Travis told me that wintertime fishing in the Shenandoah River was absolute fire right now, and he offered me a chance to experience it, I had to say yes. Welcome to the Shenandoah River. So the day before I go out with Travis, he's telling me that jerk bait bite is absolutely on fire. So when we get to his first spot, I'm super pumped. But when you know it, we're trying this place for an hour, nothing, not a sniff. So we go to his next spot, and I just have this gut feeling that there's something that jerk bait bites just not on. Travis had one look at his bait, but nothing happened. So I tie on a blade bait, and like the third cast, boom hooked up. We're going to get some sand. Yeah, we're going to get some sand. He's got one crab on it, so. That's a blade bait. Oh my god, he's caught here. Travis decides like, you know what, let's go back and try that first spot again. So we get there, he's still working the jerk bait, and there's something in my mind that tells me like, listen, the jerk bait bite was on, and it was on fire. And they're off of it. That means the spy bait has to be the deal. So I tie one on real quick, throw it out there. That one. Guess what I just switched to. Spy bait. Oh, dude. I'm not seeing you yet. Oh my god, six counters on there. Oh yeah, listen, nicely. He's got one hook in. You know, I have to add that to your repertoire. I don't know, I got that on the main camera, guys. Spy bait. We'll talk about, we got to talk about that someday. All right, buddy. See, it's color to me. What's crazy is after I caught that one on the spy bait, the bite just shut off. So Travis calls an audible, we head downstream a little bit, we get to the next spot, and what did you know it? Travis came through with a absolute beast on a jerk bait. There he is. Yeah. Yeah. Next buddy. Huh. This thing is a monster, a 19 inch Shenandoah stud. Now for some of you that live near the Susquehanna or up near the Great Lakes, a 19 inch smallmouth is not that big of a deal. But for us in the Shenandoah Valley, this is a huge deal. The Shenandoah River was ground zero for one of the worst fish kills in history. Jeff Calvary was Shenandoah Riverkeeper and a guide back when the river went through its darkest period. Called me around April 9th, he said, Calvary, are you out there? I said, I've just got back from the river, I haven't been out. He said, we have dead fish in every Eddie, all over the place on the upper south work. He said, it's dependent on where you were. In the upper south work, we had about 95% mortality of the smallmouth. We had about 100% mortality of rock bass. Somewhere around 90% of mortality was sunfish. When we get down it, the main stem was closer between 50 and 70% depending on where you were. Potomac had some impact, but it wasn't as significant. I think the game department estimated like the average about 80% fish kill. Most fish kills are related to a spill or an inoxic environment, crash of algae. Algae blooms, algae dies, decay of the algae pulls all the oxygen out of the water. Actually you have mortality associated with it, I really have you turn over and fall. It's not on that. So for us locals to the Shenandoah Valley, this fish means a lot that the river is on the comeback. After Travis caught that 19 inch fish, we had a little bit of a lunch break and collected ourselves. We did piece together that it wasn't just deep wintering holes, but there had to be some submerged wood associated with it. As we blast off to our next spot, I made an audible and tied on my power network setup. First cast wouldn't you know it. Get in the boat. Finally, I catch a small mouth that's actually worthy of a photo. Constantly adjust, make adjustments, don't just die out with one bait. It's really important. I think we caught a net rig, a jerk bait, a spy bait and then a blade bait. By the end of the afternoon, Travis and I had caught so many fish, I couldn't possibly fit them all in one video. We're running out of daylight, but Travis says he's got one more stretch that has some deep submerged wood on it. So we pull up to this thing, we fire a couple of casts. I fire in like the last cast of the day. Don't go. I'm fighting this thing and it's different. It's a little bit heavier and all of a sudden that thing goes broadside. I'm like, oh my god. Wood again. The hell do I got? Oh my god. Oh my god. On it. It's a chunk walleye. It's a walleye. It is my first shinin' to a walleye. Got him on it? Yeah. I got wippy. Look at him, do you hear? Welcome to the Shinin' to a river. Huge shout out to Travis Eden of Kingfisher Guide Service for taking me out. Guys, if you would like the opportunity to go out with him, his guide serves, link in the description down below to his services. Also, let me know in the comments section what else would you like him to do a hidden gyms episode on. See you next time.