Hi, new to smallie fishing how do you guys know where to fish on a river and where to look for fish. I feel like many spots I try are just dead and no action. Thank you

Are you fishing from a boat, wading or fishing from shore? How deep is the river, how much current is there? Generally, you want to look for areas with fast water, if it’s dead calm, or with a barely moving current, you need to move. If you find faster water, then look for things that interrupt that flow. A big rock, a fallen tree, the tip of an island, a point off the shore. Look for the bass to use that obstruction to hide behind. Let your lure drift naturally down stream so it passes very close to that big rock. As the lure is moving quickly, the bass won’t have much time to decide so he’s not going to be too picky. Finding those eddies and the break lines where the faster water is moving past slower moving or not moving at all water is the key. Bass can be in a lot of places but if you only fish the places I described, you’ll do well. 

Current seams, eddies, dead water behind bridge pilings, island or rock, grass beds, dams. I usually do not find them around timber or a soft bottom. I wish usually stay away from any soft bottom period. There are some occasions where they are on the front side of structure instead of the backside.
 

Sometimes a bait coming with the current works best other times going against the current or perpendicular works better.

 

When you do figure the pattern out for the day it can be very repeatable for that day in other areas. 
 

Usually around the same size of fish hang around each other. If you are catching small ones in a particular area you generally will not get a bigger one out of that area. 

Fish it all til ya learn the best spots 

@TnRiver46 facts! There are good rules to go by in what to look for. However, the smallies do not know how to read the rules 😂

Scott and Susky give some really good advice. But I've been fishing rivers a long time so it makes perfect sense to me. 

 

In the simplest sense rivers consist of riffles, holes and runs. The riffle water is usually shallow fast water. A hole is the deeper slower water after the riffles. The run is after the hole and is deeper than riffle water but not as deep as a "hole". Usually the fish can be found in the holes. Sometimes they'll be in the riffle water (think heat of the summer). If the run has some boulders or wood they might be there. As the river size goes up these features multiply. So within a given pool you might a few riffles, holes and runs. Fish location is dependent on water temperature and current flow.

 

Below is a link to a previous discussion about smallmouth books. Check it out and checkout out some of the books. They'll help a lot!

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/183993-good-read-about-smallmouth-book/

Which river are you fishing?  In your other post you said you're NJ based and fishing from a kayak (at least in lakes).  There are 3 rivers that you could be talking about- two worth fishing for smallies and one not.  And among the 3 there are some differences worth noting.

Here's a couple of videos to help you out!