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!

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!

Fall Fishing Excursions

Autumn on the beautiful Tennessee River in North Alabama.

Not long ago, my fall calendar looked oddly barren, with only a couple of things set in stone and plenty of days between plans. As seems to happen late in the summer, though, that has changed in a hurry. In fact, as things stand now, it looks like I'll need fishing licenses from about eight different states to cover September and October adventures. Destinations are spread from Oklahoma to Louisiana to West Virginia, and fishing trips range from a float in a raft for a river smallmouths to a day in flats boat trip for seatrout. One trip in early October will last the better part of two weeks and will include fishing in three different states.

In truth destinations could have been even more widespread. I gave hard thought to continuing west after fishing in Oklahoma to do a little trout fishing in Colorado and Wyoming. Trout streams in the Wild West remain only places of dreams for me at this point, and one day I'll make it out there. I decided, though, that this fall was not the right time.

Considering the variety in the fishing I'll be doing, I should have the opportunity to add to my 2013 list of species caught. It's currently at 15 species and somewhat sadly hasn't grown since June. Last year, I had caught 25 different species of fish by the end of August. Of course most of my fishing this summer has been with my children in local ponds, where we mostly catch the same few species.

The number of miles logged and the days away from home will get wearisome, and I'll have to be efficient to get all my writing done between fishing days; Still, if I'm going to get extra busy with fishing trips for a while, fall is a mighty good time to do so. The fish tend to feed well (often on top!), the weather typically is nice, and many rivers and lakes put on their fall attire and become as pretty as they will be all year.

The run of travel begins in a little more than a week. I guess I'd better get some fish stories written!