Bluebird Skies & Falling Water - March 31st

 Joe & I hole hopped our way around Summers County this morning. We lost some jigs had a few hits and landed 2 descent fish each. The water had been high and was falling back to high normal. A high pressure front and much warmer weather was pushing in with the dreaded "bluebird skies". The largest bass was 2.7lbs. Joe caught his fish on a tubes and I caught mine on a regular jig-n-pig (black & blue). We fished from 8am till 1pm. The water is quickly warming and there are even some crawfish around the bank of the river.

         -this poor fellow got his pinchers bitten off.

Bass on a Rock Ledge - March 28th

About 4pm I went out in to the rain and fished the Greenbrier for a couple of hours. It had been raining pretty hard for about 3 hours and the water was rising. It was faily cold water temps in the mid 40's and air about the same maybe a little warmer. I fished an couple differnt colored spider jigs before switching to an orange 1/8th oz. Strike King Bitsy Flip with a black Yamamoto Baby Craw trailer. This is the same color and size that produced for me last Tuesday. Not 5 minutes after making the color change I hooked three fish holding off a deep rock ledge below a set of big shoals. The first bass was 2.3lbs, the second was 4.2 lbs./21inches long, and the third got off right at the bank.  The fish that got off was in the 2 to 2.5 range. He slipped off as I reached down to lip him.  The 4lbs fish was great,he came up close to the bank then took off and ripped some drag off twice before tiring out. The more I do it the more I think this river smallie fishing game is all about fish following the water. The stack up on the banks when it's rising and move back when it's falling.

Warm Sunshine and Falling Water - March 27th

Brad and I fished the new river on a warm sunny afternoon from 3 to 6pm. We failed to catch a fish. The water level was falling and the sun was way bright. Both Brad and I missed a fish each. We pitched, flipped, and fished spider and tube jigs all afternoon. We ran into Pat Brandon and he had only caught 3, all small,  Pat said they weren't hitting very well. I watched Pat catch one of his 3 on a dark green Yum Vibra King tube. Bass just didn't seem to be in much of a mood to hit this day.

Smallmouth Up Shallow in the Mud - March 23rd

Brown & I fished in the cold rain from 9am till 4pm. We stopped and took  a lunch break, but other than that we worked our ways up and down the bank pitching and flippin every crevice we could find in the muddy rising water. The water was rising from the run off rain we got 2 nights before. The air temps never got above the 40's and coupled with some wind it felt much cooler than. Despite the cooling trend  we still caught 4 and lost another in the high muddy water. We found some fish on both the New and Greenbrier rivers that were up really shallow and relating to wood and or rock. We tried some tubes but they only seemed to want spider jigs with a trailer. I used an orange Strike King Bitsy flippin jig with a black Yamamoto baby craw trailer to catch all 3 of my fish. Jason used his signature black and blue spider jig with a Berkley chigger craw trailer.   We found some new water to explore more and found some success along the way. Two of the four fish we weighed went 2.1lbs and 2.9lbs. The other 2 were about a pound each.

A Wee Bit O' Hiking - March 22nd

 Todd Mounts and I went on a couple hour +  hikes and did a little bit of trout fishing in between. The water was in the 45% the night before on the USGS gauges. We apparently got an inch plus of rain between 12am and 8am. The water by the time we got there was up in the 80+ percentile. It was heavy mud and rising fast. We couldn't even cross the river to get to the majority of fishing holes. After an hour and a half of trying with no hits we called it quits and hiked out. It was my screw up I should have checked the USGS before hand or looked closer at the lower river before we left out. If I had knew the weather was going to be nice we would have given Moomaw a try, but they called for rain, wind, and dropping temps. Live and learn.

Warm March Sunshine Still Yet Cold Water - March 8th

On a day with no wind, warm sunshine, and the snow melting away I headed to the lake to see if my boat still works and try to catch a fish. The boat ran good. The new down scan software upgrade on the Humminbird works really well and makes figuring out whats under the boat much easier. The water temps were from 38  to 42 degrees. I tried a jerk bait knowing full well that it was to cold but I wanted to throw it anyway. Then I tried a shakeyhead worm  and then I gave up and tried crappie fishing with a drop shot double rigged with Gulp minnows. I didn't get a bite anywhere in 3 hours but it was nice to be out fishing in the sunshine after 3 full months of snow.
  After I got home I tried slowly working a tube bait below the house for an hour or so. I lost 3 tubes, 2 on hang ups and one in a tree but had zero bites. I am not the best tube fisher however I am determined to get better at during the late winter/early spring months.