Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Waded into the North Fork of the Shenandoah for two hours on Saturday evening.  Unfortunately I'm also contributing to all the other stories I've heard about this being a year of small smallmouth bass.

I went in around 6:30, and started working crankbaits.  Got some strikes, but the fish kept shaking the hooks.  None felt big, the only one I saw was a largemouth that was maybe 9".  Switched up to dropshot rig, got a bite or two on a black and white  2" plastic minnow.  Switching to the all white version finally got me on fish.  I got two smallmouths, one 6" and one 10" and a low side of average shellcracker.

River was warm like you would expect.  There's a cold spring feeding into the stretch I fished.  I figured the confluence of this with the main river would be a great spot, but none of my fish were from there.