It is amazing how quickly the conditions can change when fishing the tailrace of any river. Yesterday, Dan and Ed were able to complete a full eight hours of fishing on the French Broad with stable flows that averaged around 500 cfs. Their third and final day of fishing presented a challenge when TVA decided to open the spigot at Douglas Dam and run 15,000 cfs for the majority of the day. Due to the weather forecast over the past couple of days that were calling for a decent chance of rain and uncertainty surrounding the generation at the dam we were relieved that they were able get in two full days of fishing let alone three. Fly fishing was off the table for the French Broad today, but it was an option for them later once we made our way up the Little Pigeon River. I know of one spot that fishes really well when they run two or more generators at Douglas so we started our day there. We had to search for a while to find the fish, but once they did the smallies bit well and they managed to catch twenty-one smallies in that one spot. The majority of the fish were in the fifteen to nineteen inch range with the biggest being a twenty-one inch smallie that weighed 3 lb. 8 oz. that was caught by Dan. The picture of that fish is included in this report. This spot also produced the first walleye of Dan’s life that measured twenty-one inches. We did venture up the Little Pigeon River to do some fly fishing, but it was sunny and the top water bite just wasn’t there. However, they were able to catch several more nice smallies between sixteen and nineteen inches on the LP. We decided to end the day where we started and they caught four more quality smallies including a feisty five pound hybrid that was landed by Ed. Twenty-six smallies, a nice walleye and a chunky hybrid on their last day. Not bad, considering at the beginning of the week we would have been happy to get in one full day of fishing. Dan and Ed were great guys to have in the boat and I thoroughly enjoyed guiding them on their three day River Smallie Adventure.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report May 17, 2018
