Today was one of those days when all of the conditions were going to come together for a good day on the river catching smallies. TVA was not going to run two generators or more until 5 pm, the Little Pigeon was slightly stained and running a little above normal, water temperature on the Little Pigeon was nearing sixty degrees, a cold front was moving in slowly from the west and the weather was cloudy. I had shared that information with Greg the evening before even though on Tuesday I only caught four smallies in as many hours of fishing. He has fished with me many times and knows that I will shoot him straight on whether or not I think he will have a productive day on the water. And true to my prediction the French Broad River and the Little Pigeon did not disappoint. Right out of the gate in the first spot he fished he landed a nice seventeen-inch smallmouth. After that it was off to the races as Greg managed to land twenty-nine smallies and two largemouths. The smallies were real quality fish averaging about seventeen inches. Greg caught a few eighteens, two nineteens, and one fish pictured with this report that was slightly over twenty inches. I am finally starting to see larger bellies on some of these fish assuming that they are pre-spawn females. The best river smallie fishing is right at our doorstep and should continue to improve over the next several weeks as the pre-spawn migration continues on the French Broad and Little Pigeon Rivers.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report March 28, 2018
