Hi Folks, Doubled up yesterday with the guiding operation chasing river bass. Hot humid day with afternoon showers. Water temperature has reached 70 degrees and the clarity in the water was pretty good. We used spin gear in the morning and fly fished in the afternoon. In each case, I had anglers who are learning the craft of fishing. We fished smallmouth in the morning using rubber and dry fly fished in the afternoon with big #10 foam terrestrial patterns. In each case the key ingredient was managing your line. With the spin gear it was critical in order to detect some of the subtle strikes but also so you could get a good hook set. With the fly rods, beginners struggle mightily with controlling their fly line. Too much slack makes it tough to achieve a good drift and even harder to set the hook when a fish rises to eat off the top. We worked out the kinks and managed to land quite a few fish between morning and evening outings. All of the smallmouth were holding in slow moving pools that had downed wood and the larger fish were positioned in large eddies. I am off to do it again today with the boat this morning and the river in the afternoon. Looks like a big cold front has moved in and could make fishing interesting today. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. have fun, Willy
