Home Forums Fishing Freshwater some creek smallmouth from Virginia

I think one was pushing 5 lbs. Fished that creek my entire life and never caught one like that

Wow! That’s a HAWG! Nice work man!

Post spawner pretty beat up.

What’d you catch him on?

River smallmouth fishing is the BEST!

Congratulations! Beauty!

Osky

Those olive bass are amazing, love to fish for them.

Nice Smallmouth. I grew up with the South fork of the Shenandoah pretty much in my backyard. Smallmouth have always been my favorite fish.

Just a plain 3" white grub. Caught lots of red eyes too. They had been on a decline in recent years so hopefully they are bouncing back.

3" white or yellow grub is tough to beat. My favorite is early morning or late evening top water. Tiny torpedo, floating Rapala or a baby spook

I like top water too for the fun of it, but when in a canoe you need to anchor down to really fish a hole with topwater. Its already a 3 hour float and a grub just covers more water faster.

That’s a beauty I’ll get some nice ones on my fly rod when I’m fishing for Muskie.

Ever try the Banjo Minnow? Sounds crazy, and it was a TV lure, but that thing is almost cheating. When we float rivers for smallies, I can pretty much leave everything else at home.

One of the old timers I used to work with swore by those things and those multiblade Ninja spinnerbaits for river smallies. I don't think I've ever actually seen either of them, aside from the TV commercials back in the 90s.

They are back in production. I just bought a bunch.

The greatest fish on earth.

CONGRATS, that's a great Smallmouth,. creek or river. I've caught a lot of them on the James, Shenandoah and Maury in western Virginia but never got one that big. River Smallmouth is great fishing. Got some good Channel Catfish on those rivers too using chicken livers.

Smallmouth from rivers and creeks are the hardest fighting fish and the best eating

I'd never eat a smallmouth. Took them a long time to get that big. Makes me sick to see a stringer full of bass taken out of a stretch of creek. Takes a long time for the population to recover from that.

I agree, I'm no smallmouth killer. Crappie, bluegill and catfish occasionally go in the freezer. And I wouldn't blink an eye at keeping a few undersized largemouth or white bass from a reservoir for fish tacos. But not smallmouth, ever. With that said, if it is legal and another fisherman keeps a few to eat that isn't my business.

Very nice fish, i used to catch 3-5 lb smallmouth fairly often on the shenandoah but fish kills in 2004-2005 hurt it bad and it doesnt seem like the fish are coming back that big . Largmouth are booming right now with lots of bigger fish.the smallmouth citation weight is 5 lbs for virginia and raised to that from 4 lbs after the big smallie boom at lake moomaw. They should drop it back to 4 lbs again. Thats a nice fish anywhere.