I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but it’s the kind of broken record I don’t mind repeating. Today was another great day on the Little Pigeon! I was between guide trips and the weather and water conditions were just too good for me not to wet a line for some river smallies. My buddy Greg from Knoxville was at the ready like he was few weeks ago when we caught a total of twenty-seven. By the end of the trip today we would almost double that number. With light winds, sunny skies, and the water clarity being slightly stained I just didn’t want to waste a fishing day like this knowing that they don’t happen that often. For the past couple of weeks the smallie migration has been in full swing and my clients have had some outstanding days on the water. I went to fish that same section of the Little Pigeon where we have had the hot bite wondering if the action might begin to slow as an increasing number of smallies make their way to the beds. I don’t bed fish and concentrate on fishing the areas away from the spawning sites. The smallmouths don’t all spawn at the same time and you will see pushes of new prespawn fish throughout the spring. I was relieved to find that the smallies were on fire again today. By the end of the trip we had caught a total of 51. What was different today was that the majority of the fish were running a little smaller than what we have seen the past couple of weeks. Most of them were between fourteen and sixteen inches. Maybe there was a upstream movement of males into this section of the river we fished today. There were some nice eighteen and nineteen inch fish thrown into the mix as well as two citation smallies that were over twenty inches. The picture included in this report is one of those citation fish Greg caught today. The good times keep on rolling and thankfully that broken record keeps on playing.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report April 27, 2020
