Hi Folks, Been guiding river smallmouth yesterday afternoon and this morning. Actually going to go do it again here in a little bit. Pretty darn hot. Water levels have now receded and once again things are low. It was nice yesterday afternoon as I can tell from the lack of footprints that we were the first people to fish a stretch of river since the high water. We were rewarded with 9 smallmouth, 2 stocked rainbows, and two Fall fish. The water temperature was 68 to 69 degrees. This morning on the same river but in a different beat the temperature was 67 to 68 degrees. I had a spin and fly couple and I have to tip my hat to the fly angler who watched his wife the spin angler hook a few fish before he got his line to come tight. It always good when learning to fly fish to commit to it. The only way you will get better at fly fishing as by doing it and putting down the spin gear. We located most of the bass holding tight to down wood. Used for shade and cover form predation and current. We did have two nice smallmouth crush a #8 orange belly rubber legged frog popper. Spinning the baby bass 3.5" swim Senko was consistent. At dusk there was a nice little hatch of #14 light cahill. A fair number of fish began to rise from stocked rainbows to Fall Fish. My fly guy caught two rising rainbows on a #14 cahill compara dun. Good long casts with good mending resulted in takes. Nice to see. This morning the bass fishing was consistent. We landed 10 smallmouth drifting 3.5" swim Senkos into deeper slow pools. The takes were pretty subtle for the most part. However, once hooked the smallies gave us some good dancing on the surface. Well, hopefully no thunderstorms until I am done tonight. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
