I don't know where you're located but the James covers a lot of area. I've never fished the central and eastern parts of the state for freshwater but there's a guy on here, Vic In Va, that catches some big catfish somewhere in the eastern part I think.
The James runs through Botetourt County near Arcadia which is more in the western part of the state, not far from the Blue Ridge Pkwy. I've fished that area years back for smallmouth bass and channel catfish. There used to be good fishing for a lot of species there and there's a good trout stream, Jennings Creek, that runs into the James. If you follow Jennings Creek up into the Jefferson National Forest there are two other decent, smaller trout streams that run into Jennings Creek but they get low and hard to fish by mid summer. Smith Mountain Lake in Bedford and Franklin counties has over 500 miles of shoreline with very good Largemouth fishing.
Further north off the Parkway the Shenandoah and Maury Rivers used to be good to great smallmouth and channel cat fishing. Back to the east there's the Rappahannock and a lot of other Rivers.
Last edited by 43Shooter; 05/26/18.
