- (252) 945-9715
- RICHARD@TARPAMGUIDE.COM
Float fishing for smallmouth combines the experience and scenery of a classic western style float trip with all the benefits of bass fishing. You’ll float several miles of river in our Flycraft raft while Capt. Richard rows and positions you for the best casts. The rivers here run through extremely rural country with almost no development along the banks. On most floats, you won’t see another person, much less another fisherman.
The fishing is active. You’re casting to structure the entire float: rock gardens, boulder runs, riffles, ledges, undercut banks, and deep bends. Smallmouth stack up behind anything that breaks current, and they’re aggressive feeders in these fertile, limestone-based rivers.
The pinnacle of river smallmouth fishing is catching them on topwater lures on spinning gear. Watching a bronzeback blow up on a topwater plug is what keeps anglers coming back. When the fish aren’t looking up, we go subsurface with finesse soft plastics, small jigs, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits depending on conditions. Capt. Richard reads the river and matches the approach to what the fish want that day.
“Smallies” are hard fighting, often very aggressive scrappy fish. Their growth rate is slow, so larger fish are very old. The majority of the fish we catch are in the 10 to 17 inch range. Fish over 18 inches show up regularly, and 20-inch trophy fish are always possible. A 20-inch river smallmouth might be a 20 year old fish. Two decades is a long time living in a river and surviving many droughts, floods, and other dramatic changes in their habitat.
These are limestone rivers with high water quality and diverse forage: crayfish, minnows, darters, sculpin, and other baitfish. That abundance of food produces well-conditioned, hard-fighting smallmouth from the pre-spawn in late March through the early fall.
The North Fork of the Holston River is a top smallmouth bass fishery in Virginia, flowing 140 miles and providing ideal habitats.
The Clinch, the crown jewel of the mountain empire, hosts 50 species of mussels and over 100 fish species, feeding smallmouth, walleye, and musky.
The Powell River is the second most biodiverse in Appalachia. Its clear water and habitat offer great bass fishing with varied structures.
Choose from full-day float trips or multi-day fishing packages with lodging on Southwest Virginia’s premier smallmouth rivers.
Yes. Spinning gear is straightforward to learn, and Capt. Richard will coach you on technique throughout the day. No experience necessary.
As a general guideline, spin trips are best in May and June when higher flows keep the rivers at good floating levels and make spinning presentations most productive. That is just a guideline and not a rule, as we catch fish on spinning gear all summer.
Absolutely. If you have a preferred spinning rod, bring it. Capt. Richard can recommend line and lure setups for the rivers we’ll be fishing.
It varies with conditions, but a good day is 20 to 40 fish between two anglers. Some days are better. The fish aren’t always cooperative, and we’ll be honest about that.
Our season runs mid-May through mid-August. Prime weekends fill early. Give us a call to lock in your dates.
