Hi Folks, Did a double dip yesterday guiding river smallmouth bass in the morning with the fly rods and a spin trip in the afternoon from my boat. Pretty warm day for the first of September. The threat of rain never developed and we had sun and clouds all day. In the morning the lower Lamoille was 74 degrees and extremely low. It is still so warm out there that we are wet wading. We crossed the river which is not an every day event and were able to fish some pools that I am sure do get cast into very often. We landed 17 river bass with the largest fish pressing 3lbs. We cast frog poppers early with great success until the sun came up and then top water bite ended. We switched up tactics and cast #8 cone headed olive bunny buggers and nymphed with an indicator and a strike indicator. We did really well with the streamer in slow long pools by fishing it slowly and twitching it on the retrieve. Really good morning of river fishing. The lake we fished was gin clear and 73 degrees on the surface. Pretty warm for this lake which is in the kingdom and holds both bass and trout. In the afternoon, I had a crazy incident take place. One of my clients dropped his spin rod into 14' of water after hooking a fish. The water is so clear that you could see the rod and reel on the bottom. So, with my best Jacques Cousteau imitation and dove over board to retrieve the rod. What a trip but with the rod in the boat we got back to fishing. Pretty slow fishing until dusk and then it really turned on. We ended up landing 3 smallmouth and 1 largemouth bass all between 1 to 3lbs. Even had a few pickerel attempt to eat the top water. We found all of the fish around weed beds and downed wood. Looks like rain on the way and we could use it as our rivers are low. Trout fishing in the big rivers is not a great option until things cool off. Small stream fishing is the way to go presently though those streams are low and spooky. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
