Darren and his son Brian had done a little smallmouth fishing in some lakes near their home in Ohio and in West Virginia but had no experience fishing for them on rivers. In fact, Darren told me at the ramp before we blasted off that this was going to be their first guided fishing trip. We had several cold nights prior to today’s trip and I decided it was best to start fishing around noon and into the evening hours to allow the water to warm up as much as possible. A couple of degrees can make a big difference this time of year. The water temperature at noon was forty-eight in the Little Pigeon River had risen to fifty-one by sundown. The bite was very slow. My longest guide trip is now six hours. However, I made an exception with these two dedicated anglers. They had driven all the way here from near Columbus just to fish on this one day with me so I fished them until sundown in the hope we would get that evening bite. After almost eight hours of fishing they caught seven smallies. Darren caught a couple of nice eighteen inch fish. A picture of Darren with one those nice eighteen inchers is included in this report. They were a couple of great guys to have in the boat. I also shared some pictures with them of some big smallies I caught In Wisconsin last summer. That was my not so subtle attempt to entice them to come to Wisconsin where I will be guiding from May thru October 2023.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report March 16, 2023
