What do we see when we arrive at the river? Outer structure is eye candy to us, the smallmouth fishermen. At times, the objects like rocks, wood, overhangs, and such are the things we target when searching for Mr. Bronze. That’s where many of us make our mistakes. Smallmouth Bass are structure-oriented fish for the most part, and spend most of their lives in and around deeper waters, away from obvious shoreline structure.

Sure we can pound the banks, fish visible cover, and catch a few fish. Sometimes under the proper conditions we can actually do very well. But, by paying close attention to the fishermen in your area, watching what they do and where they fish, you can eliminate many areas quickly. I have seen numerous times, boat after boat, pounding the same banks and areas, time after time, hour after hour. Why? Because it's what they SEE, and they can only fish what they can see. Unfortunately for them (the bank pounders) the rewards are sporadic at best. Underneath, unseen structure will by far hold the better, larger, and most wanted bass consistently.

Fishing areas others pass off, ride over, and never even try, day after day, can be very productive indeed. Do the bass like fishing pressure? Where would you go if someone were casting baits all over you day in and day out? You would move, of course! And I feel that is what our fish do as well on pressured waters. The less pressured water, the more chance we, as anglers, have to hook into that elusive trophy fish, if the watershed supports them. A depth finder is a wonderous tool, coupled with a temperature gauge in the same unit! You have helping hands that allow you to see what others may miss.

In order to catch trophy fish with any consistency at all, one must fish where the bigger fish are, along with fishing where most anglers of today WON'T go and don't know how to fish. If we could fly solo over our great rivers and follow the currents, learn to read them, see the underwater changes, structure, sunken boulders, and actually try to become the water ourselves - flowing over and around every turn and twist, boiling into and under the ledges, and becoming trapped in the twirl of things - we would better understand where and when our quality fish are, and how they react to their underwater homes. We would be that much better as anglers.

Bass are cold blooded, meaning they do not have the ability to burn food and raise their body temperature. This also rewards them with continuous growth throughout their entire life span. They must seek out preferred water temps to warm or cool the body to the best of their ability. This means moving vertically in most cases, and horizontally when needed. Smallmouth Bass seem to like 60-70 degree waters best with the 65 degree mark being a good comfort zone for them while allowing for optimum growth.

Bass react heavily to light, after all they have no way of deterring bright light other than moving from it. Shade positions bass on a steady basis. Shade can come from boulders, trees, clouds, grass, and so on. Depth also contains constant shade from the sun's blinding rays. This may explain why fishermen seem to do better on cloudy days: the bass are moving about and scattered throughout the water system, more so than a bright sunny day. Once an angler understands shade, and how it positions bass, he can have those great cloudy days during sunlit times. This is not to say fish are only in shaded areas, only that it may position them at times, making patterning the bass easier. Sunlight will often warm areas during the cooler months of the year and attract bass to the warmer water. This light warms exposed rocky areas and heat is transferred into the nearby waters. Winter bass will seek these slightly warmer waters regularly. Add a deeper ledge nearby and couple this with a 3-day warming trend, and winter smallmouth fishing can be great!

We, as river fishermen, deal with something the lake anglers do not - current. This current places our fish in areas that are very easy to find in most cases (once you learn to read the water). Slack water in front of and behind any form of current break is a likely place. Eddies and deeper current-runs below riffle areas also can hold quality fish. The very first type of structure I learned to fish as a child was "bubbles" (those white floating bubbles on top of the water directed by current below riffle areas). My late uncle Robert instructed me to this structure as a way of finding the riverbed and the deeper part of the river. He was correct and I learned this by holding many bronze as a child. This was probably one of my greater lessons in river fishing, it taught me to read where the water was going, along with how it turned and meandered down its hidden bed.

Next time you head out to your favorite fishing hole, spend some time fishing where you never have before. Learn your river bottom WELL and find those hidden "sweet" spots that will put fish in your boat while others pound the shore in defeat. You just may catch the biggest fish of your life.