Springtime offers some excellent smallmouth bass fishing here in the mountains of North Carolina. Most anglers are focused on catching trout in the creeks and rivers that are stocked, but I would like to encourage you to consider chasing bronzebacks in the spring.
Normally by the second week of March the river smallmouth are moving out of their wintering holes and starting their annual prespawn ritual which involves bulking up for the spawn. The spawn normally begins towards the later half of April and extends well into May. Over the past two years the spawn has ended the second/third week of May. Most of the fish we catch during this time have spawned out. All the weight the fish packed on during the prespawn is worked off during the spawn.
The best prespawn fishing occurs when the water temperatures reach 50 degrees in mid March and lasts until the end of April. Once the smallmouth are solely focused on spawning they aren’t actively eating. The good news is that the post spawn bite begins towards the later half of May and fishing will be great till the end of October. Normally smallmouth bass fishing peaks on our WNC rivers the second week of June.
We are throwing a variety of baits and flies for prespawn smallmouth. This is the time fly anglers can get by with throwing 4-6 inch streamers on sinking lines. River smallmouth need to put on as much weight as possible after being in a lethargic state of mind all winter long. Don’t leave the house without some sort of crankbait, swimbait, or suspending bait. The key to catching fish in the Spring is slowing down your presentation. You’ve got to realize that everything in the river is moving slow.
There is a time and place for fast retrieves but that’s during the summer. One of our favorite streamer patterns in the Spring is the feather game changer. This is must have fly in every smallmouth anglers fly box.
North Carolina has some of the best smallmouth rivers in the South and the prespawn period offers anglers the chance of catching a trophy smallmouth. Below are some of our best catches in March and April.
