One day my son, some friends and I were all fishing for smallmouth on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. Toward the evening most of the friends had gone home. We had three hours of daylight. I suggested we fish some of the large flat pools the others had not fished.
We are strong believers that large smallmouth are attracted to shady areas in water 3-5 feet deep over cobblestones. My son chose to fish upstream by wading 30 feet out from the right bank. Covering all of the water from the bank out 50 feet with a Shenandoah Blue Popper, he did well.
I waded upstream, beside Jeff, but 50 feet out in the river from him. There was no shade this far out in the river. Most of the water was flat and 3-5 feet deep over ledge bottoms. Then I put on a Murray’s Heavy Hellgrammite and fished upstream right along the stream bottom. Surprisingly, soon after we started, I landed a very large smallmouth out in the open flat water. We were both surprised that the bass had not been closer to the shaded bank.
After releasing the bass, I waded out to investigate. Right away I saw why the bass chose a feeding station at this spot. The ledge blocked the western sun from the stream bottom in a small area to provide a perfect shady spot.
Smallmouth frequently choose shaded areas as their primary feeding station because there is food and cover available.