We gave the trout a break today and fished some warmer water on a local river. It’s one of my favorite places to go in the summer when it starts getting hot out and not a whole lot else is going on. It’s great for wet wading or floating down in your canoe or kayak. And it’s most fun to fish with a fly rod.
As suspected, the majority of fish caught were smallmouth bass. There are a lot of them in this river and will keep you busy. They are not always that big but they are river fish and fight hard. These river smallies are especially fun on fly rods – a great way to spend a hot summer day. We did manage a couple of nice pike as well. We found all of the fish in slack water, side pools, and wherever the water was the warmest. The fishing will continue to get better in August as the water warms up more.
This hungry pike took a deceiver twitched slowly through some slack water.
Drew’s first pike on a fly! Congratulations!
Though smallmouth make up the majority of the fish population, this river is known for having pretty much everything. It drains a number of reservoirs and has numerous smaller streams that flow in. You never know what you might find. It sounds like I’ll be back at it tomorrow, this time from the kayak…