Favorite Fishing Destinations Countdown: Honorable Mentions

A 9-2 largemouth from Mexico's Lake El Salto, fishing out of Anglers Inn International

Last week I noted that I would soon start a countdown of favorite fishing destinations. I've been mulling that one, and have my list mostly together, although it continues to shift in my mind, as I suppose it always will. Ten was the target, but I couldn't quite cut it that small, so I had to acknowledge a handful of honorable mentions before beginning the Top 10 listings. I'll hit these quickly in a single post and in no particular order. Top 10 will get individual posts and will count down to No. 1, although as I noted in last week's post, there isn't a lot of separation between any of the honorable mentions and the last ones I'll highlight in the countdown. I'm more than a little bit fond of all of them!

Lake El Salto - Given the spectacular fishing and scenery and the entire experience at Anglers Inn International, El Salto probably couldn't stay out of the Top 10, except that it's more accurately dubbed a place I "have fished" than one I "do fish." I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to fish their twice and of course I hope to return someday, but it's tough to say whether that will ever happen.

Big Pier 60 - Big Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach is similar, but very different. It's very accessible and I've spent dozens of days (and nights) fishing there. Most were more than three decades ago, though. It will forever remain one of my favorite places to fish, especially at night, under the lights, for speckled trout.

Reelfoot Lake - I've often likened Reelfoot to the world's largest farm pond, based on appearance and the way it fishes. I've gotten to spend some crazily fun days catching big bluegills, channel cats, crappie or bass from Tennessee's earthquake lake, and I always enjoy hanging out at Blue Bank Resort.

Buffalo River - Flowing freely for its entire 135 miles through Arkansas' Ozark Mountains, the Buffalo National River is quite simply a spectacular place to explore, whether by wading or floating. Great smallmouth opportunities are truly a bonus. The only downside from my standpoint is that the Buffalo is about a 15-hour drive from my house.

New River - Speaking of spectacular smallmouth rivers, the New is another of my absolute favorites, and I've had opportunities at times to fish sections spread from the relatively gentle upper reaches in Western North Carolina to the famous whitewater section of New River Gorge in West Virginia. Check out New River Outdoor Company in Virginia or Adventures On the Gorge in West Virginia if you want to discover this spectacular River for yourself.

Plans on the Fly

Today's High Country fishing plan had been to float the South Fork of the New River and flyfish for smallmouth bass. Then came the rain. Yesterday afternoon's rain showers turned into thunderstorms that kept regenerating and continued into the morning, and the normally clear South Fork turned into chocolate milk. Obviously that the river less pretty for floating. More importantly to our plans, it tends to put the fish in shutdown mode until the water begins clearing at least a little bit.

The plan was for us to go to the RiverGirl Fishing Co. outpost in Todd, North Carolina, which is right on the South Fork. Instead Kelly McCoy, RiverGirl founder and namesake, came to our group, and took us trout fishing farther up in the New River watershed. Even well upstream, the water was higher and more stained than what McCoy had hoped to find. That meant different flies and a bit of added challenge in wading conditions.

She also hadn't planned to try to guide three people on a single smallish stream. She adapted exceptionally well, though, taking everything as it came, and taking time with each of us to make sure we were doing all that was within her control to catch some fish.

I caught a few fish, a brown and a couple of rainbows and brown, and one of the rainbows definitely was a wild fish. (That one flopped out of my hand before I could get a photo, of course.) As important as catching fish, I learned a lot that I can apply for future stories, and I really appreciate McCoy adapting to accommodate us.

Fishing Week Celebration

National Boating & Fishing Week is going on right now. It began with the weekend and continues through next weekend. With that I mind, I'm headed back to the North Carolina mountains tomorrow for a few days of fishing.

OK, maybe that's not my main reason, but it sounds like as good an excuse as any.

Whatever the reason, I'm looking forward to exploring the North Carolina High Country region and fishing the streams that head up on Grandfather Mountain. We'll mostly fish for trout on this trip, but Tuesday's plan is a float trip down the upper New River for smallmouth bass. Looking at the agenda, it looks like each day's fishing trip will differ from the others quite a bit in character. The common denominator is that we'll be fly fishing.

My agenda for the media trip that I'm attending begins mid-afternoon tomorrow, but I believe I'm going to blast out dark and early and do a little exploration along the way.

Thursday Tips: Don't Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

Brian "Squirrel" Hager just shook his head and grinned when he saw the two rods I'd brought for our day on the river. One was a medium-light spinning outfit rigged with 6-pound test. The other, an ultralight, was spooled with 4-pound line. A long-time guide on the West Virginia portion of the New River, Squirrel likes at least 8-pound test, and he prefers 10.

I should have known better, having fished that section of river several times. Sometimes I forget, though. I quite commonly target stream smallmouths with 4- or 6-pound-test and pretty light rods, but the New is a large, crashing mountain river, which calls for making longer casts and and contending with quite a bit of current. It also lends itself to bigger lures than I often throw for stream smallies, so heavier line and stiffer rod are more effective for making good presentations. The New is also loaded with abrasive rocks, and it holds some giant smallmouths, which will break your heart if they end up breaking your line.

I don't know that I lost any heavyweights on my most recent trip. I don't know that I didn't, either, though, because I broke my line on a few hooksets and failed to hook quite a few fish that I never saw or felt enough to sense their size. I do know that I missed an inordinate number of solid strikes from fish of all sizes.

The major shortfall of my light tackle was that I didn't get good enough hook penetration and missed far too many fish, either by not them at all or by them shaking off partway through the fight. Between rods that were too soft and a drag that I had to keep a little loose because of my light line, my hooksets simply weren't as effective as they should have been. I also didn't end up using the ultralight much because it was just too light, so it was hard for me to keep complementary lures rigged and ready and to fish spots all the ways I would have liked.

I still caught an enormous number of bass on that particular day because the action so incredible. Had the bite been slower my sub-par hook-up ratio would have been frustrating. I enjoy ultralight fishing as much as anyone, and I'll still carry little stuff when the situation reasonably allows for it. I was reminded, though, to keep in mind that a number of factors (including fish size, river size, cover thickness, lure size and style and hook size) affect the right rod, reel and line size for a day of fishing, and that it's generally better to err heavy than light.

For more information about the tremendous smallmouth fishing on the New River, visit Mountain State Anglers.

Squirrelly Fine Smallmouth Action

For starters I simply have to acknowledge that I have no idea how many fish Nathaniel and I caught yesterday. In fact, I couldn't guess within 50 fish. We made no attempt to count, and Nathaniel, who was in the back of the raft, probably caught a few dozen smallmouths that I never saw. Often my attention was on the fish I was landing, my next cast or the path of the raft, and unless a fish was bigger than average, attacked with added gusto, got serious air or did something else of note, Nathaniel would just land it, unhook it with a grin, slip it back into the river, and fire off another cast.

Squirrel, as veteran guide Brian Hager is best known, said he had little doubt that we eclipsed the 200-fish mark, and I believe him. Squirrel has led a load of fast-action days on West Virginia's New River, often with anglers intentionally counting every fish, so he has an excellent gauge of the action. I do know that Nathaniel and I both hit snaps where we'd catch a fish every cast for several casts in a row, and the only thing that broke some of those snaps was missing or losing fish that hit hard and probably should have been landed. I also know without question that Nathaniel and I had never caught nearly that many fish together in a day.

Don't misunderstand. Fish-catching action is only one measure of a day of fishing in my mind. However, if you consider the setting, those other values would have earned the highest of marks had we not caught a fish. I got to share a raft with my son and a guide who loves to show off the New River and its spectacular gorge. We spent the day crashing through rapids -- sometimes picking a smallie from an eddy pocket on the way through, and working the deep green runs that separate the rapids, all between the boulders and cliff walls of 1,000-foot-deep gorge.

When given a choice early in the morning, I briefly pondered whether to fish the gorge or an upstream section, only because the river has run so high all spring and summer that Mountain State Anglers hadn't run any fishing trips through the gorge section. I really didn't have to think about it for long, though. Squirrel was confident that we'd catch 'em, and he quietly suspected it might be exactly the sort of day it turned out to be. I'd fished the gorge twice previously, and while other sections are beautiful as well, the total experience of running New River Gorge is without rival in my mind.

This part probably goes without saying, but I sure am glad we opted to fish the gorge!

Dreams of Bronze

Nathaniel and I had a wonderful time crashing through waves and plunging over drops on the Lower Gauley River today, but I can't deny looking longingly behind more than a few boulders and thinking about how much I wished I could work them with a popper or a little plastic craw. I've fished the same waters before, and the smallmouth fishing was spectacular, and at today's water level, I think the fish would have bitten aggressively. Not that I really could have had a rod on a regular whitewater trip. I needed my paddle and full attention on rapids. Still, some of those spots looked so, so good!

Tomorrow is all about fishing. Nathaniel and I are doing a full-day float on the New River, and catching smallmouths is the main objective. Of course we'll still enjoy sliding through some rapids and taking in the site of New Rive Gorge. We'll be in an rowed raft, though, so our hands will be free for casting. Shawn, the guide we are going with, said that the river is in really good condition and he feels like it's going to be a great day. He also said that he's going to bring a fly rod because the river is just right for the long-rod approach right now, and apparently he has a specific little fly that he believes will be the ticket.

I do have my starting line-up selected and tied on; however, I'm already debating changing one of the baits. One will remain a little gold Zell Pop. That much I know. I won't say what the other will be, just in case I change what is tied on now between now and tomorrow morning.

Campfire Music & Streams of Bronze

Truck still lacks instruments and a few travel essentials, but
the fishing gear is in place.

Truck is mostly loaded and will pull out five hours or so from now for my first trip of fall. I know: Early September is a serious stretch of the term fall in this part of the world. Still, this is the first of a string of trips that will carry me well into fall, so to me it seems like a fall trip. College football games also have started, so that makes it fall in my mind.

Nathaniel and I actually are not going far on the first leg of the trip. We're going to see Merle Haggard in concert tonight at the Smoky Mountain Center in Franklin, North Carolina. From there we'll head north to Carter Caves State Park in northern Kentucky, where an informal music festival is taking place. We're going there to camp and so that Nathaniel can spend time jamming with friends. However, rumor has it that a smallmouth stream cuts pretty little gorge right through the park. I might have to do some exploration while Nathaniel is picking out tunes. Watch here and on my facebook fishing page for reports.

The final stop is in West Virginia, where we get to raft the Gauley River and then spend a day smallmouth fishing from a raft on the New River. I've fished the New several times over the years, and it seems to always deliver excellent fishing action. September normally offers very low water and outstanding topwater fishing. I suspect it will be a moderate level this year because of the enormous amount of rain that has fallen throughout Southern Appalachia this summer. My hope is that a little higher water will make the big fish extra aggressive.

We'll find out soon enough!

7 Spectacular Smallmouth Rivers

Fourth-generation guide Billy Rosner with a chunk of Vermilion River bronze.

A question I'm often asked is what species or type of fishing I enjoy the most. I'm an all-species angler in every sense, and there are aspects I cherish about everything from crawling up a tiny mountain creek to flipping from the deck of a bass boat to fishing from a big boat for ocean fish. Forced to choose, though, river smallmouth would get the nod. The places they call home; the floating, wading or jet boat approach; and the way they attack and fight puts river smallies ahead of the pack in that mind.

With June being an outstanding time to target stream smallmouth bass, it seemed fitting to share a list of my favorite moving waters for smallmouths.

A couple of disclaimers, for starters. I'm not attempting to name the seven best smallmouth rivers in the country. 1) These are personal favorites -- waters I've fished and enjoyed immensely -- but all are legitimately spectacular places to fish for smallmouth bass. 2) Order is alphabetical.

Buffalo River, Arkansas
Free flowing for 135 miles, mostly through federally owned wild lands in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains, the Buffalo National River offers spectacular scenery and fast action from smallmouth bass and lends itself to a host of floating and wade-fishing options.

New River, Virginia
Steep-sided, rugged and rural, the New River cuts a south-to-north swath through the western tip of Virginia, and a mix of mild and wild river sections produce some seriously big smallmouths (plus more than a few husky muskies) for anglers who know how to target them.

New River Gorge, West Virginia
I know. Same river. However, West Virginia's gorge section, with its crashing rapids, house-sized boulders and towering bluffs, deserves mention of it's own. Super-abundant fish with occasional giants, and all within a very dramatic canyon.

Penobscot River, Maine
Most Penobscot fish have serious shoulders and they hit topwater lures with absolute abandon. The river winds between dense forest and occasional farms, and you never know when you might spot a moose or a bear.

Spring River, Arkansas
As the name suggests, the Spring River rises from a giant spring, so its waters stay a wonderful temperature for smallmouths year 'round. Expect fun mixed catches of smallmouths, rock bass, rainbow trout, brown trout, walleyes and more. Avoid summer weekends, when giant "canoe hatches" occur.

Upper Mississippi River, Minnesota
Because Minnesotans favor walleyes over bass and lakes over rivers, you can enjoy some of the world's finest action for heavyweight smallmouth bass within an hour's drive of the Twin Cities, and you might not see another fisherman.

Vermilion River, Minnesota
Northwoods beauty, a canoe and big, mean smallmouths make for a fabulously fun fishing trip, and that's exactly what you find on the Vermilion River, which is WAY north in Minnesota -- almost to the Boundary Waters, in fact.

Knee Deep

Writing fish stories for a living allows me to spend a lot of days fishing, and my all-species approach has me doing everything everything from casting micro jigs for bluegills to dropping bait to the ocean floor for much larger quarry. Every style of fishing has its appeals -- as do the many locations -- but if I had to pick a single favorite way to fish, it's probably wading knee deep in a mountain river for smallmouth bass.

On the way home from my recent New River float trip, I spent a wonderful morning stream wading in East Tennessee with a long-time friend, Larry Self. In classic stream wading fashion, we fished with light spinning outfits and worked from "tackle boxes" that fit in shirt pockets. The cool water felt great on an August morning, and the smallies delivered the smashing strikes, strong surges and acrobatic leaps you might expect if you've spent much time casting for swift-water smallmouth bass.

My kind of fishing outing!

Bug Season Bronze

"The bug bite" was everything Britt Stoudenmire had promised and formed the strategical foundation for two days of float-fishing on Virginia's spectacular New River. A river guide who, along with his wife Leigh, operates New River Outdoor Company, Stoudenmire cherishes "bug season" because it provides some of the best opportunities of the year to catch big smallmouth bass. Every summer the fish feast on falling cicadas, which emerge, live short adult lives and die during the dog days, and the dying bugs dictate where the big fish congregate and how and when they feed.

Stoudenmire commonly uses a variety of flies that imitate cicadas this time of year, and he has even helped develop a lure he calls a spin-bug, which serves the same function for spin-fishermen. He and the bass clearly showed me, however, that making the proper presentations in the right types of places and understanding how conditions affect the bug bite are more important than the actual lure that's tied to the end of the line.

My best fish of the trip, a thick-bodied fish that measured barely shy of the 20-inch mark, took an XCalibur Zell Pop Xz2. Stoudenmire's best, which stretched the tape to 21 inches, grabbed a wacky rigged Senko. Both were in textbook "bug water," as it had been described to me from the onset, and fell for total deadstick presentations, and my topwater fish even took my lure exactly the way Stoudenmire had described smallmouths taking popping bugs and real cicadas after they die and crash land in the river.

The bad news is that the bug bite won't last too much longer. The good news is that the team of guides at New River Outdoor Company stay tuned into what the river's abundant smallies are doing throughout seasons.