Darren and his son Brian had done a little smallmouth fishing in some lakes near their home in Ohio and in West Virginia but had no experience fishing for them on rivers. In fact, Darren told me at the ramp before we blasted off that this was going to be their first...

I had the pleasure of guiding Tommy and Janet from Alabama today. Unfortunately, we had to battle the dreaded cold front conditions on this trip. The high temperature had dropped from the low 70's on my scouting trip a couple of days ago to the high 50's. The Little...

Did a little scouting trip with a good friend of mine (Jim) before my guide season starts in earnest. We had unseasonably warm weather over the past couple of weeks. I made the assumption that the smallmouth pre-spawn migration into the Little Pigeon River was going...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. I will  continue to guide full...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. I will  continue to guide full...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. I will  continue to guide full...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. It has been a long time since I...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. With the cold nights over the...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. Another beautiful partly sunny fall day. A...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. Another beautiful fall day with light...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. The weather conditions improved...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. The "cold front conditions" were...

Starting at the beginning of May and running thru the end of October 2023 I will be guiding full time for river smallies in Wisconsin. The rivers you will fish include the Chippewa, Flambeau, and Jump near Lake Holcombe in Rusk County. In this report I had friends of...

Today is one of those days we all face as fishermen and guides. A day when the bite is tough. Of course I could be fishing the wrong spots with the wrong baits at the wrong time, but I've been out there enough to know when the fish have shutdown. It comes with the...

I had the pleasure of taking Jake and Heather fishing today. I have taken Jake's brother Scott and his nephews on a couple of trips over the past few years. They hammered the smallies on those late spring trips but the fishing over the past few weeks has been...

I had the pleasure of taking Tim and Nancy fishing today. We started their trip below Douglas Dam. TVA was generating at an average of 18,000 cfs. The water had a slight stain and for the most part was unusually clear for the dam. The water temperature was 78 degrees....

Today we made a run back up the Flambeau River to fish that same section we did yesterday where we caught some really nice fish. The rain from yesterday exited the area overnight and we were greeted with sunny skies and a light northwest wind. I would characterize...

We made a trip up the Flambeau River today to fish a section of the river where I had caught some football smallies a few days earlier. Rain was in the forecast and it was overcast. I was hoping with the cloud cover I might get a good top water bite. Right out of the...

Today was hot, sunny, and humid with little to no wind. We fished a small section of the Chippewa River for five hours. The area we fished is only about a hundred yards long. We slowly and methodically worked the area over and ended up catching a total of of 26...

Cindy took the day off while I fished another section of the Flambeau River that has been running hot and cold over the past few years. It wasn't that long ago that we would regularly have 60-80 fish days on this beautiful rock infested section of the river. This part...

We fished a section of the Flambeau River I haven't spent much time on in the past few years. The water in this stretch is a little deeper compared to other areas I ordinarily fish during the summer. With the water so low I thought it would be a good bet to fish this...

Today we took a trip up the Flambeau River. It is the lowest I have seen it in several years.  We skated over several shallow spots with my jet boat that were only inches deep. The majority of the fish we caught today were in sparsely covered weed beds in water less...

My wife and I took a trip to fish for smallies on the Flambeau and Chippewa Rivers in northwest Wisconsin. As I write this first report we have already returned from our two week trip.The number of smallies we caught were lower compared to prior years, but we caught a...

I had an enjoyable afternoon on the French Broad River with Mark and his fourteen year old son Seth. They are from Pennsylvania on vacation in the Pigeon Forge area. Mark said that they were novice fishermen and wanted to learn more about fishing and the techniques I...

I had a great late afternoon and evening fishing trip with Billy and his thirteen year old son Traylon. They caught a variety of fish that included smallies, white bass, channel cats, skipjacks and a kicker walleye. They are from Louisiana so Traylon had a couple of...

Had another action packed fishing trip with a nice family from the Nashville area. Ryan, his father- in-law Dan, and his two sons nine year old Hank and seven year old George worked the fish over today. They had to cast into a gusty south wind, but they were not...

I had the pleasure of guiding Richard and Jerry  from Ohio today. Even though the flow was reduced to one generator at Douglas Dam the fish were on fire during the entire four hour trip. It was another multi-species day with both anglers catching smallies, white bass,...

I'm starting to sound like a broken record and yet we had another action-packed day of fishing. I fished Eric and a couple of his friends in June 2021 and he was kind enough to book a trip this summer with his nephews Drew and Constantine. The bite was fantastic right...

I had the pleasure of guiding Kevin today from my home state of Iowa. The fish were on fire. Kevin caught twenty-five fish during his four hour trip. He caught six species that included walleyes, white bass, drum, channel catfish, skipjacks and a really nice kicker...

Another action packed fishing trip today with Ryan and his three sons Landon, Ryder, and Declan from Pennsylvania. They caught 24 fish in their four hour fishing adventure that included white bass, channel catfish, drum, skipjacks, and a nice kicker 17 in. walleye...

The action was fast and furious on today's four hour trip with Dustin, Joey, and Donnie from Louisiana. They caught 45 fish that included white bass, walleyes, drum, and large skipjacks. Included in this report is a picture of Dustin with one of the many good-sized...

Had a great four hour adventure today with Jared and Ben. They caught a total of twenty fish that included white bass, channel cats, and large skipjacks. The action was fast and furious with both anglers hooking up at the same time on several drifts. The picture...

On Wednesday, July 20 I guided the men (Adam, Adam Jr., Aiden) from this nice family from Texas. They caught twenty fish that day. Today the ladies (Maria, Alison) joined the guys for another fun day on the water where the group caught multiple species of fish. We had...

Had a great afternoon of fishing with Bender and his son Andy from Dallas, Texas. They caught twenty fish in their four hour trip that included smallies, white bass, channel catfish, and a nice kicker walleye. A picture of a mixed double that included a smallie and...

Fun-filled four hour trip with Adam and his two sons Adam Jr. and Aiden from Odessa, Texas. They caught a mixed bag of fish that included white bass, a few smallies, and a dandy hybrid bass.  A picture of Adam Jr. with his 7 ½ hybrid is included in this report.

It had been a couple of years since I guided Randy and his brother in law Mike on the Little Pigeon. They had a good trip a couple of years ago and my hope was that the productive smallie bite that we have had over the past several days would continue. The water...

I had the pleasure of guiding Dean, Jerry, and Kevin from Georgia and North Carloina. For the first time in almost the thirty years I have been fishing this water I had an angler catch a tagged smallmouth. I came to learn after the fact that TWRA tagged smallmouths in...

The river was high enough today with the recent rain that I was able to again fish some water further upstream that I only get a handful of opportunities to guide on during this time of year. Ben from Oakridge, TN found the smallies to be cooperative during this eight...

Greg is good friend and angler from Knoxville who I have guided more than anyone else since I opened River Smallie Adventures. By this time of the year I would had have him after those river smallies on several trips during the prespawn migration on the Little Pigeon...

The river smallies are still on fire as the prespawn migration continues on the Little Pigeon River. I had the pleasure of guiding Ben and his 11 yr. old son Miles. This is my third guide trip with them in as many years, but we have not been able to schedule one...

The river smallie action on Day 2 with my good friends from Missouri started right where we left off the previous evening. We had a enough water in the river to allow me to run upstream in my jet boat and fish some spots I only get an opportunity to fish a handful of...

Good friends of mine from Missouri made the trip to East Tennessee to experience the pre-spawn run of smallies on the Little Pigeon River. I had been sharing with Dave, his son in law Marco, and Dave's grandson Noah during deer camp on Dave's farm last fall how great...

How quickly the conditions can change on the Little Pigeon River. It was unfishable on Tuesday and Wednesday for Brad, Gerald, and Duke due to heavy rain that unfortunately arrived on Tuesday morning. Although stained it had dropped to fishable levels today with a...

Our expectations were high today for a good trip, but they were dashed by the mid-morning arrival of heavy rain and thunderstorms that made the Little Pigeon River unfishable. I shared with Brad, Gerald and Brad's eleven year old son Duke that we may be able to...

The weather did a complete turn around today from less than favorable "cold front conditions"  yesterday to cloudy skies and warmer weather. The smallie bite improved as well for Crystal, her husband David and their eleven year old son Clayton. Everyone got in on the...

I had the pleasure of guiding Seth and his Dad (Jack) from West Virginia today. Seth has done a lot of smallmouth fishing on a variety of lakes including the well known Michigan smallie fishery of Lake St. Clair. The skies became clear overnight and with a northwest...

It was one of those days where we both questioned whether or not we should be fishing. It was another cold and raw day on the Little Pigeon River. There were ice pellets (graupel) raining down on us periodically throughout the trip. I have guided Dave several times...

It was a cold and blustery day on the Little Pigeon River with Christopher and Will from SE Ohio. The smallies didn't seem to mind the nasty weather as they continued to make their prespawn run. They caught a total of 47 smallies in six hours of fishing.The majority...

I had Jeff and Sean from Virginia scheduled for April 6, but due to a forecast of thunderstorms and heavy rain for that day we decided to move them up a couple of days to fish on April 4. I'm glad we made the change. The water temperatures continued to climb over the...

The weather finally warmed up after several days of unseasonably cold weather that shut the fish down. Paul and his eight year old son Nico from Illinois were able to enjoy the rebound in temperatures and a much better smallmouth bite on the Little Pigeon River. They...

Today I had the pleasure of taking Patrick and his sons Sean (10 yrs.) and Matthew (8 yrs.) on a guided smallmouth trip on the Little Pigeon and French Broad Rivers. The cold weather has persisted over the past few days. This in turn has significantly dropped the...

I had the pleasure of guiding Jeanne, her husband David, and eleven year old son Jaeger back in 2020. The fishing was slow yesterday and today would prove to be more of a challenge. We were still experiencing "Cold Front Conditions" but my hope was that the bite would...

A tough day on the water with Jason and his sixteen year old son Tyler from Michigan. We had classic "cold front conditions". A rising barometer, clear skies, and a persistent northwest wind shut down the bite. Not to mention the water temperature on the Little Pigeon...

I had a great day on the water with Joel and his wife Sam same from the Chicagoland area. It was a blustery day which made casting a bit of a challenge for this couple who are experienced fishermen.Nonetheless they fished hard and caught a total of twenty-five...

I had the pleasure of guiding Luke and his two daughters Jo and Izzy. They are from Indianapolis and wanted to get in on some river smallie action while they were in the area on Spring Break. Luke has fished for smallies in other areas of the upper Midwest but not yet...

I had a great time guiding Amanda, her fourteen year old son Garrett, and his friend Dinco. Dinco had never been fishing before, but had been in the area in the past playing in one of the baseball tournaments that are held in Pigeon Forge at The Ripkin Experience....

I had the pleasure today guiding Jody and his two sons Anthony (15 yrs.) and Timothy (11 yrs.). They are avid fishermen from Texas and have caught a lot of largemouths in their fishing pursuits. Jody had caught smallmouth in the rivers of Virginia when he lived there...

I had a rare day on the water when I got a chance to fish with my wife for a few hours. The Little Pigeon River is still running high but was fishable enough for us to scratch out a few smallies. The warm temperatures last week did raise the water temperatures into...

I had the pleasure of taking  Jesse and his stepson Chunk smallmouth fishing on this early winter day. I shared with Jesse that the fishing continued to be slow due to the inconsistent flows at Douglas Dam. There has been one section of the river where I have been...

It was another chilly day fishing for smallies on the French Broad River. The water temperature has been hovering around the fifty degree mark for the past couple of weeks. The generation schedule at Douglas Dam continues to be all over the board throughout the day...

Inconsistent releases from Douglas Dam continue to make the smallmouth fishing challenging. I always shoot my customers straight on what the recent fishing trips have been like over the past several days. I let them decide at that point if they want to move forward...

I had the pleasure of guiding Matthew from North Carolina today. The generation schedule at Douglas Dam has been all over the board the past couple of weeks. Inconsistent flows at times can make the fishing challenging. With that said we have managed to catch a few...

I was contacted by Colin a couple of days before he wanted to go fishing on Friday, November 26. He is a 17 yr. old angler from south Alabama. I shared with him my concerns that Friday might be a tough day on the water due to the dreaded "Cold Front Conditions". That...

I had the pleasure of taking Mallory and her father Kevin for a fall fishing trip on the French Broad River. It was a chilly day with the water temperatures in the mid-fifties. Over the past several weeks my customers have been catching a mixed bag of fish. Today...

I had a great 4 hour trip with Derek from West Virginia today. TVA  generated heavily at Douglas Dam with an average of 19000 cfs. The Little Pigeon continued to slowly drop from last week's heavy rain. It was a beautiful sunny day with a high in the low 80's and...

I had a great time guiding Ryan and his two sons Sam and seven year old A.J. When we talked prior to the trip Ryan said that A.J. had limited fishing experience. I assured him that I have kids in the boat all of the time who have never fished or who have gone only a...

Had a great day on the water with Brad and his son Andrew. They had made a trip down from Michigan for spring break. Both Brad and Andrew are avid anglers and were excited to fish for some East Tennessee river smallies. The Little Pigeon River had receded to fishable...

I had an enjoyable four hour trip today with a family of three from Ohio. David and his two teenage sons Ben and Jake are all experienced fishermen. In his younger days David used to fish for smallies in the streams and rivers in the Ozark region of Arkansas. The...

I had the pleasure of guiding brother in laws Russ and Mike. We were greeted with Chamber Of Commerce weather. With a high in the mid-seventies, light winds, and sunny skies it was a beautiful day to be on the water fishing for river smallies. At the time we started...

No guide trip today so my wife and I hit the water to do some scouting. TVA was generating heavily today at Douglas Dam so we spent the majority of our time on the Little Pigeon River. The river was stained from recent rains and the water temperature was 55 degrees....

I had the pleasure of guiding Leslie today from northern Illinois. The rivers had been running high for the past several days and were unfishable. However, today they had dropped enough and the clarity had improved to the point were I believed they would again be...

I was contacted by Mark a few weeks ago. He and his family have been visiting the Pigeon Forge area since 2009. They were on Spring Break and he wanted to take his son Ethan out for a few hours of river smallie fishing. They are from Ohio and have a cabin in Michigan...

I had a great time guiding Marty and his seven year old son Jude today. They are from northern Ohio and made a special trip to East Tennessee for a couple of days to fish for river smallies. Douglas Dam was generating about 12,000 cfs so we spent most of the trip...

My wife and I did a little scouting today on the French Broad and Little Pigeon Rivers. The Little Pigeon was running a little high and was slightly stained. The water temperature was fifty-eight degrees. The French Broad smallies are beginning to trickle into the...

I made an early season trip up the Little Pigeon River with long time friend and client Greg and his buddy Jerry. In my opinion it doesn't appear that the spring migration of smallies from the French Broad has started. The water temperature was 54 degrees and was gin...

I am getting geared up and excited for the 2021 River Smallie Adventures fishing season! I have been out exploring some new water here lately to expand the fishing opportunities for my clients. Today my wife and I fished some water near Chilhowee Mountain. The water...

I was contacted several weeks ago by Catherine from Oklahoma. She was going to take her husband (Danny) on a surprise trip to East Tennessee. Upon arrival in Pigeon Forge she had each days activities already planned. Each day would be a new surprise for Danny to...

I had a great time guiding Jordan and Rosa today. They are young newlyweds who were taking time to enjoy their honeymoon here in East Tennessee. Rosa called me a few weeks before the trip to secure a date and during our conversation she said that Jordan who is an avid...

Back in May of 2020 I took Mike and his son A.J. and A.J.'s high school buddy Tom fishing for river smallies. They had a successful day on the Little Pigeon River and caught over thirty smallies as well as a few fish over twenty inches. A.J. had a fall break from...

After having several days of unseasonably cold weather that knocked back the bite I was happy that a warm front was moving through today. The only fly in the ointment were winds that were gusting from 25 to 35 mph. We had two local fisherman who were going to jump in...

A few years ago on one of my summer trips to Wisconsin my wife and I were returning to the  boat ramp right before dark on the Flambeau River. I had just pulled my Stealthcraft Power Drifter Sled out of the water when I saw a pair of headlights appear through the...

I met Jim and his son Jack at a local watering hole several years ago and we have now made it an annual tradition that I take the two of them out for a few hours of smallie fishing. They travel up from the Wisconsin Rapids area to do some bear hunting on a nearby...

Weird weather day. Cold air from Canada had invaded the area chilling things in to the 50's for daytime highs. It would rain for a few minutes, clear up with cobalt blue skies, cloud up, rain again for a few minutes, followed by clearing skies. We were stuck in this...

We made our annual pilgrimage to take some personal time and fish for those fall smallmouths on the beautiful Flambeau and Chippewa Rivers in northwest Wisconsin. Although we were once again greeted with high water on both rivers we did manage to scratch out some nice...

I had the pleasure of taking Frank and his daughter's boyfriend Clay out for a few hours of fishing on the French Broad today. They are from central Texas and have spent the last week on vacation in Sevierville. Neither angler had caught a smallmouth before so my goal...

I had the pleasure of guiding Tim and his 15 year old son Timmy on the French Broad today. They were on vacation in Dandridge and had fished Douglas Lake from shore in several locations but were not having any success. Tim was raised in West Tennessee and had grown up...

Hit the water today with Mike. He is in the military and has moved to Knoxville with his family to complete his master's degree at UT. Mike is an avid angler and wanted to get a feel for what the fishing opportunities are like here in East Tennessee. He wanted to...

I had the pleasure of guiding a family from Mississippi today. They were on vacation in Pigeon Forge and wanted to try their hand at a little river fishing here in beautiful East Tennessee. Todd (Dad), Chelsea (Daughter), and 14 year old JR are all experienced...

Jennifer contacted me from the Chicagoland area and was coordinating a guided fishing trip for her father (Al) and her two uncles Mike and Rich. All three worked for or are retired from the fire department. The smallie fishing has been in a holding pattern for the...

I spoke to Michael a few weeks ago and he said that he and his wife had not been fishing in about twenty-five years. They were going to be having a wedding anniversary and to my surprise the two of them wanted to travel from the Nashville area and take a guided...

Roger had called me several months ago inquiring about the fishing on the French Broad River. He also wanted to know if  I knew of any property for sale along any of the rivers I guide on. We had a great conversation and he said he would call me later in the spring...

Even though it is the middle of June today we experienced what most weather aware fishermen would call "cold front conditions". We had a weak front pass though last night. In addition we had a drop in humidity, clear skies, and a rising barometer. All of those...

I received a phone call from Peggy a few weeks ago. She and her family were going on vacation in East Tennessee and she was the point person to coordinate a fishing trip for her father (Bob), boyfriend (Tyler), and brother-in-law (Jesse). All three are experienced...

Today I had the opportunity to guide Wes and his son Colton. They are from Houston,Texas and were spending a few vacation days in the Sevierville area. I was fascinated to learn that Colton who is still in high school writes beatbox music. He has even created his own...

Today's trip was a birthday present for Will's 17th. birthday from his Dad (Spencer). I spoke to Will on the phone a couple of weeks before we scheduled the trip and it was quite apparent from the first few minutes of our conversation that I was speaking with an...

A late season cold front had passed through overnight. When you fish the backside of a cold front it usually doesn't bode well for a productive day on the water. However, due to the fact it is late in the year my hope was that the front would not shut the fish down...

Today I took out Steve and his brother Scott for some smallmouth fishing on the French Broad and Little Pigeon Rivers. I had taken Steve and his father on a guide trip a couple of years ago. In the spring of 2019 Steve had a trip all lined up to tackle those river...