The smallmouth fishing around western North Carolina has been excellent since the beginning of May and will continue to be good all summer. We’ve been getting just enough rain to keep the rivers higher than years past, but still fishable. When the water is clear we’ve been having great success on flies which we will go into detail of what has been working and what we can expect the rest of the summer. There is no better way to beat the heat of summer than spending a day on the water chasing smallmouth bass. Give us a call today to schedule your fishing adventure this summer.
It is important to understand what types of baitfish, aquatic insects, and crayfish that are in a river system before you can have success using the fly rod. We’ve all heard of “matching the hatch” which is good and all, but I would go farther than that and say it’s even more important to match the movement of the forage you are mimicking. A crayfish pattern isn’t supposed to be fished fast and a fleeing minnow isn’t supposed to be fished slow so I’m big on informing my clients how fast you need to retrieve certain flies.
Lisa and I chased red breasted sunfish, trout, and smallmouth on a local fishery and we managed to catch close to 20 fish on the fly rod. She is currently competing for Angler of the Year for IWFA so it was good to help her knock off a couples of species that can only be caught in western NC. We threw a lot of smaller black streamers to mimic the stoneflies and hellgramites in the river so Lisa did a good job of slowly fishing the streamers.
Ryan and Mike have been fishing with me the last couple of years and I enjoy fishing with them because they like to get after it. They fish hard from the time we push off from the put in to the time we take out. We had a phenomenal day on the water this year and we managed to catch 51 total fish. We ended up catching a bunch of 1 to 1.75 lb. fish, but hooked up with a true trophy at the end of the day. The fish measured 19.5 inches and weighed right at 3.4lbs. Anytime you can bring a 19inch fish to the boat it’s a good day. These guys put a lot of time on the water which is the best teacher of all. I appreciate the hard work they put in on the guided trips we’ve been on over the last couple of years.
Bennett Jordan and his dad make their annual outing to the mountains every year and I’m fortunate enough to take them fishing each year. We had a great day of fishing on the Nolichucky River and Bennett reeled in a true trophy river smallmouth. What was cool about catching this fish is that I’ve had a few encounters with it over the last few years where I see it chase out smaller fish we hook. Bennett made a beautiful cast in the deep, slack water and the fish took off with the jig. After an intense fight we netted the fish and it was nothing but smiles the rest of the day. This was Bennett’s personal best river smallmouth and the biggest smallmouth to hit my net this year.
Kirk and his son Houston had a great day on the water. The bite started off hot during the morning, but tapered off mid day then the bite picked up significantly in the afternoon. We caught most of our fish on the bottom that day which involves a more finesse style of fishing. In order to fish the bottom of the river well you got to be willing to fish slowly. That’s the key when fishing crawfish patterns.
We all hope for the days when the smallmouth hit on top and top and his son got just that. We caught a lot of smallmouth on top using hardbaits and soft plastics. This is exciting fishing because it’s all visual. If I could predict when the smallmouth turn on to topwater I’d be a rich man. The topwater bite can be very sporadic, but this day it was consistent all day. I think between the warmer water temperature (72 degrees) and overcast day it created an ideal scenario.
The Prachyl’s wanted to fish a smaller smallmouth river so we did just that and had a great day targeting smallmouth using spinning tackle. The fish were hitting on top in the shallow water and fished subsurface jigs in the faster, deep water. We had a great day and we managed to get a good trout as well.
We took the McKay family on a two boat float trip down the lower end of the Nolichucky and had a fantastic day. The fish were smacking topwater baits, but the key was to cast them a foot off the bank. If you weren’t within a foot of the bank you were catching fish. It is exciting when the fish blow these baits up right at the bank. The topwater bite should continue to get better with the water temperature warming up.
Travis and Jordan are good buddies of mine from way back in the day when we all used be apart of collegiate track and field teams. We spent the day together on a local smallmouth river and had a blast catching the fish on a variety of methods. Fishing trips are fun for beginners and experienced anglers. We cater our trips to all anglers so no matter your experience level we’ve got fisheries just for you.
We were able to hit a local wild trout fishery early morning last week because the smallmouth rivers were blown out. The water temperature was 59 when we started and 63 when we finished. It’s important to check the water temperatures on the wild trout streams because catching wild trout in water temperatures above 70 degrees can be fatal to the trout. We were fortunate to hit this local creek after a cold front came through and cooled the water down to a desired level. We managed close to 20 fish to the net. All fish were caught on a yellow stimulator and a parachute adams.
The French Broad River is finally at a fishable level so we were able to take a trip there and it fished excellent.
The smallmouth bite is good all summer. July and August is excellent for catching smallmouth on topwater! Book your trip today! We look forward to seeing you on the water!