Today’s trip was with Greg. He has been a long-term and loyal client of mine and he booked another outing to ply the waters of the French Broad and Little Pigeon Rivers. I did some scouting yesterday for him and found that the big smallies were on the feed and hit well from about noon until five and then they turned off. I anticipated due to the weather and water conditions that today would be another good day for big fish and that the bite would probably be similar to what I had experienced yesterday. But I would be wrong. He started fishing around around one in the afternoon and the fishing was slow until around five o’clock. After that, the dinner bell rang and the smallies really began to feed up until dark. Not only that, the big fish had all but disappeared. Out of the thirty smallies Greg caught not one fish measured over eighteen inches and the majority of them were in the thirteen to fifteen inch range. It will never cease to amaze me how quickly the conditions, the bite, and the size of the fish can change on the river. Of course, that goes for just about any species of fish you might be chasing. Based on the results from my scouting trip yesterday I would have bet you money it would have been a big fish day and that the bite would have generally occurred during the same time. But that is one of the reasons why I keep coming back. I can never quite figure these fish out and throughly enjoy the challenge and their unpredictable nature. I guess that’s why they call it fishing instead of catching.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report April 11, 2018
