Every now and again I’ll get emails from people lamenting the quality of the smallmouth bass fishing in the James River, specfically here in Richmond along the fall line. I always tell them, that while this isn’t the New River, the fish are out there — big ones, too.

I tell them that, but it’s easier to make my case when I can show them some visual evidence. So, here it is. Both of the below pics are of friends (Dave Vladimirou on the left, Mike Ostrander on the right) who have snagged beastly bass on the James in the fall line during the past month. I won’t give away where exactly they were or what they were using, but suffice it to say, their success had more to do with doggedness than any proprietary knowledge. The more you fish, the better chance you have to catch one of these. It’s that simple.

And it’s not just smallmouth bass, either. Check out this largemouth friend Sam Rosenthal caught on a trip we took last week above Bosher’s dam. Not gigantic, but pretty darn nice for that stretch of river.