HELP ME! First time river fishing.....

[Del from philly]

ok, i just realized, after usually driving 30 mins to my spots, that the Schukill river is literly on my way home from work....

So i went yesterday.....heres the deal:

it was about 11:30am

The first spot i walked down to was shallow as hell.....under 3 ft.....the moving water in the middle looked deep, but the shallow part was still......i am on foot....so i cant cast far enough into the deep part

their was also vegitation so bad i couldnt use many lures....

after fishing for a about a half an hour, i moved to my right (upstreem) and noticed a school of 2-4 lb bass,.....BIG BASS FOR MY PARTS!! about 6 of them

so i now i knew they were their......so i cast into the school with a nice green bouya jig with an uncle tom pork trailor......i get one bass to bite, but not really a submitting bite because my attempt to set the hook just pulled it out of its mouth

so eventually i dont see them anymore and i move down streem

now i wam about 200 ft downstreem from the faster moving water and i am neer a rocky bottom.....and little smallies are EVERYWHERE

they were all too small to be hooked except for like 2 of them.....

then i see a huge fish.....dark in color, easily 6 lbs or more.....at first i thought it was a carp, but when it actually followed my lure, i thoguht maybe it was a giant smallie? couldbnt really tell,,,,,either way i fished and fished but never got anything in

here is what i need help with

WHat kind of lures to use? i fished mostly jigs, but tryed senkos, tubes, and spinners for a minute

anything that is very different about fishing rivers?

would a carp be near moving water?

any tips for shallow water?

I might go out on my lunch break, so i can tell you how i make out....

thanks...

[Zel]

Although I don't get to fish it often, when it comes to the Schuylkill River, my top two lures have been a Green Pumpkin Tube Bait rigged on a Eagle Claw Shaw Grigsby HP Hook (because of all those rocks), and a double willow leaf white spinnerbait with gold blades.

[Davis]

7" Berkley Powerworm in motor oil or black with a chartruse tail. Weightless.

If you want to add weight than go the split shot route about 18" above your bait.

My #1 producer in my creek that has rocky/shale bottoms.

Nabbed plenty of big smallies with this technique. Going to try out tubes next spring though.

Oh yeah I haven't tried these in the fall because everyone is fishing for steelhead in the creek at that point so I can't get down there. But give them powerworms a try.

I also nailed my PB smallie on a 3/16th Giggy head (shakey head jighead) with a GULP watermeleon shakey worm.

IMO they love the Berkley scents.

Oh yeah....one more thing. Always throw up stream into the current. Let that powerworm float down the rapids and try to keep your line semi tight most of the time. The smallies will see that bait coming right at them and they WILL clober it. If its weighted with split shot than it will also still come down the rapids but more towards the bottom, while banging rocks.

[Tokyo Tony]

Carp are sometimes near moving water.  I know once I saw a 20 poundish fish watch my senko fall, and since I at first though it could have been a bass, I had to go home and change into a clean pair of boxers.  Turns out it was a carp, and he didn't want the senko.

[garry77]

Try a rebel teeny wee crawdad in natural colors on light tackle.Throw upstream and reel it just fast enough to keep it from floating up.