new to smallies

[VTechHokie]

hey there fellas.  i am a freshman at Virginia Tech this year and i just love to fish.  I am used to just fishing for a lot of largemouths in ponds and lakes back at home in greensboro, NC.  

But up here in Virginia i have found fishing to be pretty dang different, i went over to the New river last weekend.  I have heard how this can be some of the best smallmouth fishing around.  we went to a spot that we were told about from a guy who said he caught almost 30 in a day.  so we went and we didnt catch anything.  one fella who i was with caught one fairly small one, and then later at a different spot i caught one tiny one.  

I was trying all sorts of different baits, from plastic craw imitations, worm, grubs, tubes, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and i cant really remember what all else.  

so i just want to know how exactly to fish for these guys.  where we were fishing was an area with alot of rapids and fairly fast moving water.  We tried alot slower water too and didnt have any luck there either.  So i guess what im asking is what is best to use and how to fish it. it would be a great help!

im going again this weekend so hopefully i'll do a little better.

thanks!!

[roadwarrior]

Well, I think the best advice would be to browse back through the last

twenty pages of this section for suggestions. Otherwise, I would fish

tubes and single tail grubs from the bank.

8-)

[Dan:]

The New River is one of the premier smallmouth fisheries on the East coast. Make a post in the Southeast Section, someone local may be able to help you. I've fished it twice but I don't know enough to give you any worthwhile tips...

[fretfishman]

roadwarrior pointed out single tail grubs, which are a great first bait to learn smallies. they're very reliable, because they offer a profile smallies like and can be fished in a variety of ways.

another option you should try is a doubletail hula grub (yamamoto) with a pegged 3/16 or 1/4 oz. bullet. this is my confidence smallie bait - whereas I'd fish a fat ika more often for lmb. both will work. cast out, 2 quick snaps, let it fall, 6-18 inch sweep - let it fall and repeat two more times, two more small snaps and end with a large pop. chances are, the smallies hit your bait long before you completed all that. if they haven't hit it at all then they're simply not there, imo. move on.

the biggest thing is letting the bait fall on slight slack - enough so it falls straight but not so much that you have to reel forever when you see your line jump - they hit it on the fall a lot. pay attention to your slack at all times between your cadences.

just a suggestion to get you started, g'luck!