Background

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/waterbodies/display.asp?id=147

The Clinch River and its tributaries in Southwest Virginia make up 1,773 miles of waterway and form the Clinch River watershed (Kilgore, 3). The headwaters begin in Tazewell, County Virginia, from a series of freshwater cave springs. From there the river flows through Wise, Russell, Scott and Lee county. It drains a tiny piece of Dickenson County in West Dante and moves to Tennessee (Kilgore, 3). In Tennessee dams harness the Clinch River. Eventually the clinch meets the Tennessee river, flows west to the Ohio River, a tributary of the Mississippi which then drains into the Gulf of Mexico and on into the Atlantic Ocean (Kilgore, 3).

          There are 805,322 acres of land within Virginia’s Clinch River watershed (Kilgore). Over half the land is forested and approximately 36% is farmland, 7% is urban land .33 % is categorized as wetland (Kilgore). Mining and quarrying lands are placed in other land uses but actually make up tens of thousands of acres of this land.

       The forested watershed is home to many organisms, including plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (Kilgore, 12). Some of the native mammals include wild elk, black bear, whitetail deer, squirrel and many more(Kilgore, 12).

  

The Clinch River supports populations of sport fish like smallmouth bass, spotted bass, rock bass, sunfish, crappie, walleye, musky, freshwater drum, longnose gar, channel catfish, and flathead catfish (Hampton, 2010). Two of the only sauger populations in the state are also located in the Clinch (Hampton, 2010). Largemouth, white, and striped bass are also occasionally encountered in the lower portion of the river (Hampton, 2010).