Jeff Zurawski

Had the pleasure of river trippin with @Jessco87 yesterday. He figured out the big fish equation under difficult high pressure, ultra low crystal clear water, bluebird sky conditions after a slow start and tying on a homemade little black jig which he pitched into micro eddies behind rocks in shallow riffle water. 20" post-spawn beauty

I'll still fish the spawning areas. It seems smallmouth and rock bass use some of the same spots around here, with the smallies doing their thing first and then the rock bass moving in later. I think big post-spawn female smallies will hang in the general area and feed on the rock bass. I'll also fish the feeding areas like you described. There are good numbers of smallmouth out in the shallow riffle water eating a buzzbait or super shallow running crankbait.

Immature eagle perching along the riverside

West Virginia river during my favorite dark, cloudy, rainy, foggy fishing weather.

Very pretty 20.5" fish I caught on Monday during a 4-day/3-night River Camping Adventure.

Upper Greenbrier River, Pocahontas Co, WV, 05/05/2023

Morels are up.

Beast Smallie ! Ima go ahead and call bs on the "lack of skill" part. ?

That's an awesome 4 days right there! Heck, I'm happy to get three 20" and overs in a whole season. I like throwing the same stuff as you minus the weightless fluke and adding an occasional crankbait. Plus the past couple years when water is still in the 40s to low 50s I been doing good with a regular (not superfluke) 4" fluke-style minnowbait rigged on a light jighead and drifted close to bottom.

Aye. These two been working good for me on the River when water is clear and sun is bright.

Fantastic day and monster biggie. Great write up. Congrats!

Never saw a Trillium before I moved to West Virginia. They're up thick around here right now.

Upper Greenbrier River, Pocahontas Co, WV

Slender Pointer 97, Pointer 98, Luck-E-Strike STX, and ShadowRap Shad deep diver (w/lead tape applied on belly right behind the bill to make it suspend) have been working good on the River.

Today's put in: Lindsey Slide on the Lower Greenbrier River, Summers Co., WV

THE one for me happened many years ago while a buddy, my brother, and I were on our annual Little Bay de Noc Fall Walleye trip. We were out late one night trolling stickbaits off illuminated planer boards over the reefs trying to connect with >30" hawgs the Bay was known for. During a long, quiet lull in the fish-catching action, my buddy Randy grabbed the pee bucket and went up to the bow to relieve himself. He's up there kneeling with the bucket, I'm at the helm using the GPS map to steer the boat along a contour line, and my brother is in the passenger seat facing the stern watching the boards waiting for a pull back. All of a sudden I hear the sound of a bird flapping its wings directly overhead. It got louder and closer and out of the fog drops a big white colored bird. It hovered briefly before landing on my buddy Randy's head while he's still kneeling there busy answering nature's call. It perched there for a few seconds then flew off. A Snowy Owl. Most people thought we were nuts when we told the story the next day, offering comments like, "And how many beers did you all drink?" or "What were you smoking?" After some research and a definitive id, I found out that, while not very common, Snowy Owls were known to migrate that far south.

You know exactly what I'm talking about then! I'd rather not hook up with those big ones on bass gear, really. I ended up getting some muskie gear and occasionally target them specifically, but have never seen one while I'm prepared like that and actually trying to catch them. Ain't that something? I've caught them on the New, Greenbrier, and Upper James Rivers. They also live in sections of the Gauley and Elk that I don't fish.

I start packing some topwater stuff when water gets up near 60F. That's happening around here now and I'll probably try throwing it tomorrow for the first time this year.

The ones in that size range are a lot of fun, for sure! You can still get them under control, in the net, and back in the water pretty quickly with bass gear. The great big ones are troublesome - just hang on while they spin the kayak around hoping not to drift into a deadfall or t-bone a rock or something and flip. If you make it that far, then you got to find a decent place to pull over before the next rapid and hand land the beast since it don't fit in the net. That all can take a long enough time to where I worry about accidentally killing the fish from over-exhausting it.

Not the giant Smallmouth I was after, but a nice surprise nevertheless.

Lots of turtles out today. I love turtles.

A scene from today on the Upper James River in East Virginia

Heck yeah !

In my experience, both are accurate and it's best to fish both types of spots.