This past Monday the 26th of April Mickey and I headed to Pembroke Va. to fish the New River with Britt from the New River Outdoor Co. for my first smallmouth fishing experience. We stayed in a brand new Amish built three story log cabin that was five star. Tuesday we met Britt and rode to the river which was very clear. After backing in the raft and loading the boat we were off to go fishing!

After fishing top water lures for about 30 minutes Mickey tied on a Megabass suspending jerk bait, on his first cast he hung into huge Muskie that he fought for about 15 seconds before its gills cut the 20 pound braid like scissors. As soon as he broke the line we all tied on suspending jerk baits in a hurry. Not long after that Mickey landed 3 small mouths up to 19”. I was having a little trouble getting strikes until Britt showed me the proper way to work the jerk bait. It wasn’t long after that I landed my first ever small mouth, which was 18” and had three hooks and a tube jig lodged in its mouth! Just before we stopped for a nice shore lunch Mickey landed a 20.4” citation Small mouth!

We headed out after lunch and had trouble getting strikes on the jerk baits. We began to experiment with different lures until Mickey hung into another Muskie on a soft plastic stick bait. After a battling the fish a few minutes the fish once again snapped his line. After seeing Mickey lose 2 muskies, Britt began to call him “Muskie Mickey”, which we are still laughing about. About 3 PM I hung into another nice sized smallmouth which we got in and measured to be 20”, MY FIRST SMALLMOUTH CITATION MY FIRST TIME FISHING FOR THEM.

Around 5PM the wind picked up which made fishing pretty difficult.

We made our way down river out of the wind and “Muskie Mickey” once again hung another Muskie and gave him a serious fight. After about a 10 minute fight “Muskie Mickey” held up a 20 lbs.+ Muskie for the picture worth 10,000 words(and laughs). I ended the day with 8 fish and 3 over 17 inches and Mickey had 10 small mouths with 4 between 17” and 20.4” and 1 20lbs.+ Muskie. We had a fantastic trip!

            The people at New River outdoors are a top of the line group that I would recommend to anyone. These folks are professional and knowledgeable and well equipped with top of the line equipment: G Loomis Rods and Shimano reels. Anyone preparing to go after Smallies and Muskies please stop in Green Top to talk with “Muskie Mickey” and myself, we would love to hear from you.

-Dave Madison

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