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.

Waist Deep to Beat the Heat

When Northern Minnesota guide Billy Rosner floats the Vermilion River,  he likes to get out and wade gravel bars and rapids to work those areas more thoroughly. Wading is also a nice way to cool down a bit on a hot summer afternoon.

Only a week ago I reported that summer had found its way to Georgia, mentioning that an outlook for days in the upper 80s represented pretty hot weather around here. Well, the temps have gone up another notch or two since then. We're supposed to hit the mid 90s today and then climb into triple digits for the weekend! And looking at the national weather map, it doesn't look like we're alone. Big numbers thoughout the South and the Midwest.

What that says to me is that it's time to abandon boats and step in a creek or a river somewhere. Little is more refreshing on mid-summer day than to stand waist deep in cool stream and fish. Adding even greater virtue, stream fish don't seem to be as bothered by the heat as lake fish, and often  you can find excellent action from smalmouth bass, trout, channel catfish or some other kind of fish by wading up a stream this time of year.

My favroite type of area for really hot days is the head of a big hole, where current from an upstream shoal meets notably deeper water. The fish hold behind boulders in the deeper water and watch the current for dinner. A Rebel Wee-Crawfish will poduce everything that swims in these types of areas and a Zell Pop worked overhead will bring fish crashing to the surface. A good alternative to the artificial approach is to dead drift night crawlers or freshly caught hellgrammites, creek minnows or crawfish into the same types of holes wiht a simple split shot rig.

Vermilion River Bounties

My first two casts of this morning and three of the first four produced topwater fish and within five minutes of launching Billy Rosner's canoe on the Vermilion River, we had caught and released three different kinds of fish (largemouth, smallmouth, northern pike). We caught a dozen fish before we drifted out of sight of the launch area.

I won't claim that the action stayed quite that frantic. We caught fish throughout the day, though, with the bulk of mine attacking an XCalibur Zell Pop and most of Billy's nabbing a BOOYAH Blade spinnerbait. We floated about six miles, making a couple of modest portages along the way.

The river, which flows from Lake Vermilion to Crane Lake, near the Canadian border, is mostly placid, but several stretches of crashing rapids break the river's run. The water is dark but quite clear. Boulders, sand, gravel, current, downed trees and many different kinds of vegetation provide great habitat for smallmouth bass, which are the most prevalent game fish, and the smallies obviously stay very well fed.

Along the way we saw a few mature bald eagles. Occasionally Billy sees black bears or moose. We did not see any other fishermen -- and that on a beautiful June Sunday. That's the norm, according to Billy, who spends a lot of days floating the Vermilion River every summer.

Almost River Time

Canoe is atop Billy Rosner's truck and we're ready to roll. Yesterday evening Billy showed me a bit of the river, including Vermilion Falls. Spectacular. Coffee drank. Time to catch smallmouths! More later.

Northern Minnesota by Late Afternoon

Today's travel began with a drive in my new truck, which Nathaniel, Asher and I picked up late yesterday afternoon. It was sad saying farewell to my pickup, which has served me well and taken us so many places, but practicality won, and I know there is much about the new truck that we'll like much better when we travel.
Next travel legs are by plane, first to Detroit and then to Duluth, Minnesota. Then I hop into a rental car and travel even farther north to the Vermilion River.
Tomorrow begins two days of floating a beautiful river and casting for mean and chunky smallmouth bass with Billy Rosner of Wild Country Guide Service. Fish stories to follow!

Pack Bags, Shop Trucks, Write Fish Stories

Chunky smallmouth bass are the main attraction in the Vermilion River in Northern Minnesota. Photo courtesy of Bill Rosner, Wild Country Guide Service.

Today's to-do list seems pretty packed, with trip preparation and an appointment to go look at a truck in South Carolina both complicating the need to make headway on some writing projects.

The day before a trip is usually somewhat broken. Beyond the obvious need to pack, I typically must take care of a host of things like banking, paying bills, making sure stuff is in order at home and making reservations or gathering phone numbers for the trip. Today's list includes a bit of all of the above, plus plans to go look at a Ford Expedition that I had transferred from one Carmax store to another and that arrived yesterday.

The trip that begins tomorrow, which will be my last work trip until late summer, promises to be fun and productive. In fact, I've been anticipating a float down Minnesota's Vermilion River ever since Billy Rosner of Wild Country Guide Service began telling me about his favorite stretch of river a couple of years ago. It's a super scenic stretch of river through the Minnesota Northwoods that is loaded with fat and angry smallmouth bass and northern pike and includes a couple of portages around river-wide waterfalls. We'll also spend on a day fishing Lake Vermilion, which the river feeds and which is also highly scenic, and then I'll travel to Mille Lacs lake for a day of walleye fishing.

Before I can go anywhere, though, I really need to make headway on some fish stories, so I supposed I'd better focus on writing for a while.