An abundance of natural foods such as minnows, hellgrammites, and crayfish are essential for smallmouth bass to live on and grow well. This is no problem on the Shenandoah River because as a youngster, I could easily seine a days supply of natural bait in a few minutes.
Smallmouth bass have a great affinity to cobblestone streambottoms where there are moderate currents flowing over them. These areas are ideal cover for the bass and they break the strong current off the basses bodies.
For their natural protection, bass often choose water which is from three to six feet deep for both their homes and feeding stations.
The final requirement that smallmouth seek is shade. This is often provided by the large oak trees that grow right along the river banks. In many areas, the low interlocking tree limbs may extend 30 feet out over the river and hang down within a foot or two above the surface of the river. Many large smallmouth bass feed in these areas all day and provide great fishing.
My favorite way to fish these shaded banks is with a Shenandoah Blue Popper size 4, or a Murray’s Chartreuse Popper size 6. In many areas where the tree limbs hang down to within a foot or more above the water, it is easy to shoot these bugs way back below the limbs with a strong sidearm cast. If some of the limbs actually brush the surface of the river, I make a regular over hand cast to an opening between the limbs upstream of the area. I plan to fish and let the current pull it downstream to the feeding stations. Here I impart a slow slide-pause-slide bug action.
By understanding the features that the bass like, you can get great fishing.