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!