August is normally our hottest month here in the mountains, but we’ve seen some cooler temperatures as of late that has kept the smallmouth and trout bite consistent. The temperature reading on my truck this morning said it was 57 degrees outside. You can’t beat that in late August. We are thirty days away from the end of summer (September 22). It’s been a wonderful summer full of some really good fishing. The smallmouth bite has been lights out all summer long and we have consistently been catching quality fish on every trip. There are a lot of 10-14 inch fish in the Toe River so the next few years we should some true trophies caught out of the river. The French Broad has been off colored since the beginning of July so I haven’t gotten the opportunity to fish it that much. We should be drying out here in the mountains over the next month and the fishing on the French Broad should be excellent. Fall time anywhere from the second week of September to the end of October is when you can plan on catching your trophy smallmouth out of the river. A trophy smallmouth out of the river is anything over 18”. We are starting to book up in September and October so do not hesitate to call to get your preferred date. We are getting a lot of repeat clients in the fall that want to chase those big smallmouth on fly or spinning tackle. Don’t forget the Catawba Tailrace will be cranking back up in November so we will have some good tailwater trout fishing down there all winter long. We will go into more details about that when the time is right. Below are some highlights of some good fish we caught in August, 2022.
What a wonderful summer it has been! I want to thank my savior Jesus Christ for creating these wonderful fisheries and beautiful places that I get the opportunity to work in every day! I want to thank him for my wife for getting up at the crack of dawn with me before heading to the river. I couldn’t do it without her support. I also want to thank him for the clients he allows me to fish with because it’s a cool experience getting to show people the fisheries I have grown up on and fished my whole life.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.