This was going to be the third trip that Greg, Paul, and seven year old Benjamin had booked with me this spring. The plan was that Greg was going to fish the first four hours, and then we would race back to the ramp, where we would then pick up Paul and Benjamin, to catch the evening bite. It was a beautiful partly sunny and breezy day. Douglas Dam was generating at an average of 18,800 cfs. The Little Pigeon was low and clear. I ran Greg up the Little Pigeon in my jet boat, and stopped at a spot that he has fished several times before. It is one of those places that is a little fickle when it comes to producing smallies on a consistent basis. One day you’re a hero, and the next you’re a zero with this “hole”. I always stop, and have my clients make a few casts, just in case today is the day it fishes well. Today was one of those days when the smallies were cooperative. Greg caught thirteen that were a variety of sizes, with the biggest fish measured at nineteen and a half inches. The picture of that fish is included in this report. From there, we hit a couple of other spots that only produced one eleven inch smallie, before we had to blast off, and pick up Paul and Benjamin for our last assault of the day. We fished an area where all three of them had absolutely hammered them on their first two outings. It started out a little slow, and Benjamin was quick to show his frustration, when he was not hauling then in one after the other, like he had experienced before on the other two trips. His Dad told him that the large numbers of fish they caught on those trips is not usually what happens, and that his expectations were set way too high. He reminded him of a recent guided trout fishing trip they had taken in east Tennessee where they didn’t catch one fish. We only had about an hour before dark, and I decided to make a move to a spot that produced for us a few weeks ago. It hadn’t fish well over the past week, but it was about time for it to heat up again. Fortunately, the tables had turned, and the smallies were back in full force. They caught nineteen smallies, a sixteen inch largemouth, and a hard fighting Hydrid Striper that was just under six pounds to round out the day. I have really enjoyed watching Benjamin improve as an angler over the past couple of months. He appears to really enjoy his time on the water. I hope he continues to fish as he gets older, because we need more young people hunting and fishing, if we want future generations to enjoy these great American pastimes.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report April 28, 2019
