May provides some excellent angling opportunities for river smallmouth around Asheville, North Carolina!

River smallmouth are prized catches here in the mountains of North Carolina. These fish are aggressive predators to smaller baitfish and crayfish. We begin targeting these fish beginning in April, but the fishing doesn’t ramp up till the moth of May. The smallmouth have finished spawning and they go into post spawn mode which means they are hungry after spending all their energy on “love”. We have been running smallmouth guide trips on the Nolichucky and French Broad Rivers. Fishing has been as good as I have seen it in recent years. The water clarity and flows have been great because we haven’t had much rainfall. We’ve been catching most our bass on jigs, swimbaits, and topwater plugs. I’ve mainly guided spin fishermen, but have been fortunate to take out some great fly fishermen. Check out our best smallmouth bass catches from May 2021. The Catawba Angler specializes in guided river smallmouth float trips on the Nolichucky, French Broad, and Catawba Rivers.