{"id":11699,"date":"2026-07-21T17:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/?p=11699"},"modified":"2026-07-21T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:21:35","slug":"11699","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/?p=11699","title":{"rendered":"Smallmouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

That was fun. I had never fished for smallmouth bass before. I have caught some while muskie fishing and while fishing for striped bass at Smith Mountain Lake. Today, I joined Sam Scott<\/span> at Blue Ridge Musky<\/span> to target them. It really was a lot like fishing for speckled trout. The water is moving a lot more. The same size tackle and baits. I caught bass on topwater, on jigs, and on jerk baits. There were plenty of blowups on topwater that I did not catch, and I lost the big fish of the day right at the boat…just like speckled trout. The river is very low and there were spots where the boat needed to be dragged over the rocks. Sam did the dragging, I took pictures. It is gorgeous up there. We did see some muskie but none bit the bass lures.<\/p>\n