Today the weather conditions were changeable to say the least. One moment it would be cloudy and raining and the next it would be sunny and I would have to shed my rain gear. I think the wind blew from all four directions, but the smallies didn’t seem to mind. There was an cold front slowly approaching from the west which always bodes well for a good bite. Both the French Broad and Little Pigeon were fishable. Today I spent most of my time on the Broad. I decided I was going to spend a significant portion of the day stripping streamers. I really like fishing for smallies during this time of year with a Murdich Minnow. The type I fished with today is white and silver and does a great job of imitating an injured baitfish like a shiner or a threadfin shad. Normally I give it a a couple of hard strips and pause it for about two seconds before my next strip. The smallies for some reason today were more willing to take the fly if I let it drift for about five seconds or at times even longer after the strip. I caught several nice fish on the Murdich and had a number of other smallies that would nip at the fly and not fully commit. I threw some Clouser Minnows at them but the results were still the same. They would grab the fly and give it a pretty good tug without fully inhaling it to the point where I could get a good hook set. I also tried a variety of crawfish patterns without any success. By the end of the trip I caught twenty-four smallies using a variety of other baits and methods. Several of those fish were in the eighteen inch plus category. The drought for those fish over twenty inches continues. At least it does for me. I believe it is a matter of time before that will change because I am still seeing a lot of pre-spawn fish moving into the Little Pigeon and my hope is that those rare fish over twenty will start showing up again.