Jim Kramer offered plenty of tips for locating New River smallmouth.
“I target shoreline cover, like overhanging trees, but they are also around mid-river, deep-water ledges and rock eddies,” he said. “Where shoals with current empty into long, slow pools is often where I will focus my attention a lot of days.”
A not so obvious spot for smallmouth is upstream from rocks or boulders. Depending on the speed of the current and the size of the rock or boulder is a spot where the current creates a bulge on the surface called a “push.” Often, the most aggressive smallmouth will be not near the rock itself but in the push above the rock. Don’t overlook these spots.
Ledges may not be so easy to spot. The telltale is a series of rocks roughly perpendicular to the current. Smallmouth linger in the slack current downstream of the ledge waiting for some morsel to be brought to them.
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