Spring has sprung

fishing nearly every day but this trip was something special... I hit the river right at dawn and ended up walking out after dark, thats what kind of day it was. Right after daylight you could hear fish busting the top. I was very excited. First few casts nothing. Then strikes on ten straight casts. Then a couple with no action and then strikes on seven straight casts. I fished for whites hard for six hours and never went more than a couple minutes without a fish. I lost track around forty and that was early. At least a hundred whites probably a fair amount more. With a few KY spots and hybrids mixed in. They wanted anything small white or silver. I caught the most on small 2 inch lipless cranks and inline spinners. Finally I was white bassed out and headed upriver to smallie fish. That turned out to be harder. The first place I stopped has only one good riffle and I caught three on a smoke metalflake grub in the eddy below it. Right on the current seam. The biggest was maybe 13 inches. Then I headed to a different spot with more water to fish to end the day. A beautiful complicated stretch with all kinds of deep holes and great riffles. An hour later no fish...Finally I found a few smallmouth they were tight to big rocks and rubble out in the current. Tucked right up against the rock. You almost had to hit the rocks with your jig to get a strike. I ended up catching three or four okay fish. I kept thinking I'm going to catch a good one to take a photo of and ended up not taking any smallie pics. I caught a fourish pound buffalo on a jig that I did snap a photo of. And an old medicine bottle uncovered over the winter and lying in the river bottom. The woods has changed overnight. Wildflowers blooming everywhere. Bloodroot and dutchman's breeches on the slopes and the river bottoms a yellow blanket of marsh marigolds. I saw two deer and a sharp-shinned hawk and heard a pair of barred owls calling back and forth to each other as I walked out in the dark.