Day 2 with Ross and Matt fishing for those East Tennessee river smallies. Yesterday the generation schedule at Douglas Dam was all over the board and very inconsistent throughout the day, so I decided that we would focus only on the Little Pigeon. TVA was not going to begin to generate until later in the afternoon, so that opened up an opportunity for us to fish the French Broad River today. Due to the excessive amount of precipitation we have had this spring and Douglas Dam generating heavily for the past few months I have not been able to fish one of my favorite spots on the French Broad. This was my first guide trip to that “Honey Hole” in quite some time. The longer TVA doesn’t generate over an extended period of time the better this particular spot fishes. It had only “rested” for about 12 hours with low flows, but it did produce a couple of nineteen inch smallies. A picture of one of those fish that Ross caught is included in this report. We decided to make a move and conclude the four hour trip on the Little Pigeon. Yesterday the fish were scattered, but today the pattern had again changed and the smallies had settled into some of the “holes” that I fish on a consistent basis. The water was low and crystal clear and they were again able to do some more sight fishing. It’s a blast to watch a client cast to a smallie they can see and watch it ease up to the bait and vacuum it in before the hook set. Ross and Matt were great guys to have in the boat. I was happy that they were able to enjoy a couple of days of fishing for those hard fighting Little Pigeon and French Broad River smallies.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report May 14, 2020
