Early Spring River Float

[Scott F]

I seldom have the chance to float in the early spring. Seems like every time I have the time to go, the river is blown out. When the river is in good shape and fish are on the bite, I'm tied up. Rain was predicted for everyday this past week so I was sure the river would be messed up by the weekend so I never made any plans. Everybody's been catching, the river is at a normal level and I have some free time so I got to go. At the last minute, my friend Ron called me Saturday morning. We got on the water a little after one. 

Air temp was 60, skies were overcast, water temp was 54 degrees, pretty clear, but the bottom is already 75% covered with the green, stringy, algae. The good news was that is holding to the bottom and not floating through the water column

About 15 minutes into the float, I was drifting an unweighted, 4 inch, Senko with the current, when I got my first hit, a fat 18 inch smallmouth.

 

 

Too bad I only got one more fish, a 13 incher, also on an unweighted plastic, from along a bridge piling. Ron went fishless during our 4 hour excursion. The stretch we floated I normally fish during the summer and was unsure how productive it might be in the early spring.  Could have been the cold front that just went through, my lack of skill, low percentage of fish or just the way things go sometimes that accounts for the low fish count. But, I did manage a nice bass for my first fish of the year so it wasn't too bad a day.