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I had a feeling that it was going to be a good day of fishing when Greg and I eased into our first spot and a smallmouth was chasing a  threadfin shad in about a foot of water. I asked him to cast to the spot where we saw the activity, but there were no takers. On his second attempt, I asked him to cast about ten feet behind the first and into a little deeper water. As he was retrieving the bait into that shallow water I saw a wake materialize behind the bait and I asked him to stop reeling. Once the bait settled, the fish took and he set the hook hard on the first of what would be another twenty-five smallies he would catch on this trip in early May. Greg is a good friend of mine that I met in the industry that I worked in prior to me starting my guide business. The smallmouth fishing  has been exceptionally good over the past few weeks and it appears that a number of hungry post spawn fish are starting to arrive on the scene. We didn’t have to move the boat more than fifty yards during the entire trip. TVA  did generate about 4000 cfs in the middle of what was turning out to be a great day of fishing, so I had to reposition the boat several times to stay on the fish. Most of the smallies were in that fifteen to seventeen inch range, but five of the twenty-six he caught were between eighteen and twenty inches long. The bigger fish have been showing up again here recently and Greg did manage to catch two smallies over twenty inches in length. The first one he caught was 21 ¾ in. long and weighed 4 lb. 5 oz. The second smallie was 20 ½ in. and weighed 3 lb. 11 oz. A picture of both of those fish are included in this report. It was fun getting caught up on past events while watching him slam some nice smallies. I really am looking forward to the fishing over the next several weeks as these fish that are recovering from the rigors of spawning start to feed and produce what I hope will be some future exciting days on the water.