Fishing Report March 15-18

[MississippiAngler]

Each year, I look forward to time on this fabulous river, mostly for the scenery and the solitude of it, but also for some excellent smallmouth fishing. The following report comes from the four-day period beginning Sunday, March 15 through Wednesday, March 18. like the higher part of the river, Thomasville to Cane Bluff, but low water is a real problem there right now. It looked like a real dragger, so we missed it on this trip. CHECK WATER LEVELS. All stretches are running below normal for the season (as of March 18 and assuming that light rain March 19 didn't make much difference).

March 15 - Cane Bluff to Greer

I read Superfly's analysis and don't have much to add to that. I didn't meet him, but assume he's one of four chaps traveling together in a pair of canoes who we passed on the river doing an overnight on that stretch. Smallies were slow on the take with our only reward coming closer to the beginning of the stretch than to the end, both coming on a silver minnow crank running deep. Small size, 12 inches, tops (my fishing partner's fare, not mine). The remainder of the day we were shut out, mostly on crawfish cranks (more on those later) and on minnow cranks. Some plastics were tossed with no success (should have tried those grubs superfly mentions). I'd note that we got shut out at Spring Creek. By the end of the stretch, we were half-hearted in our casts due to an exhaustion of patience. It was a cold, cloudy day.

March 16 - Whitten to Riverton

First time to do this beautiful stretch. I like the higher part of the river, but above noted problems considered, we opted for stretches down river. It was great for scenery, but awful for fishing. Again, we were tossing for smallies and got shut out on this day on this stretch. Eventually, tubes started generating some strikes from the goggle eye (rock bass) in very deep holes and we pulled a few out there. My recommendation, if the bite is slow, is to hit the deep holes with a small tube, preferably with some red in it, but anything with a dark color (2.5 inch was working for us). Work it slow across the bottom (1/4 ounce head). Sometimes you can save the day with a successful run on goggle eye. Some jon-boaters (with motor, a discussion already in full swing that will go without comment here) pulled a few out of a deep hole as well, claiming success came on Rebel craw cranks. I'm not so sure that wasn't a standard answer to the question, "You figured out what they're hitting ?" In his defense, his answer came as he unhooked a small fish from the end of his line. I couldn't distinguish the species of fish or the lure in question. Our Rebel crawfish cranks never generated a strike on all the days we fished. That's downright abnormal on this river. Crawfish were evident on the bottom, as I noticed several throughout the river. Better weather, with some sunshine, high in the mid 60s.

March 17 - Greer to Turner

Agggh! It was like the smallies had lockjaw! Again, another awful day for smallies, but we saw that coming and tossed for goggles in the deep holes (yes, the well-known left side of the first island was a producer). Hauled about 10 goggles out of that spot before we abandoned it while it was still hot to get downriver. Since plastics are out due to the blue ribbon trout habitat, use something that will get you deep. Crawfish or minnow cranks that will dive 10+ feet and jigs should be good choices (jigs were what we had luck with). Good goggle eye, bad smallmouth! Sunny day, high in the low 70s.

March 18 - Cane to Greer (again)

With a couple of days of good, warm weather behind us, we hit this spot again and found our luck was (while not great) a little better. Tubes were producers, helping us haul three smallies from deep areas and one smallmouth came from the back of a shoal where the water deepened on a minnow crankbait. It was a deep diver, but the hole was only four feet deep, tops. This was (including the two smallmouth my buddy caught the first day out) one of three smallmouth that we caught in a mode I would describe as "actively" feeding. The others hit tubes when the tubes hit them. This stretch was noticeably lower than it was two days prior and quite a bit of bottom dragging and one portage occurred. Bright, sunny and warm. The high hit about 77 degrees.

Summary: Low water has you dragging on some stretches. Downriver, you're apt to get better flow. Smallies are still deep and are not actively feeding. As Brian Sloss noted, the water is still quite cold and the area is coming off a pretty rough winter. A few days of warmer weather perked things up and my guess (and it's only a guess) is that in about one to two weeks, the bite will improve a lot, if it isn't already doing so. I don't go for trout, so no advice about that. If we catch them, it's an accident (and a good accident at that), but, unfortunately, no accidents on this trip. This is smallmouth based (with caveats about how goggle eye are more fun than nothing).

Happy fishing and practice catch and release!

[Mark]

Wow - don't see many poor fishing reports from Elelven Point - hope it picks up for our annual Good Friday trip - of course we will be chasing the bows

[MississippiAngler]

It was a shocker for me. Never had it so slow on the Eleven Point. Six smallies in four days and probably 12 goggle eye. It was a real bust. Last year, about the same time, we had a good run on the smallies using deep diving minnow cranks (The Magic Lure was the nickname for the silver, black and purple sinking deep diver). In the middle of the day, crawfish cranks (dubbed Old Reliable) produced moderately well. This time, our old tricks failed us. Still, I'd recommend a tube if the bite is slow. Probably getting about time to start tossing spinners, too. It was a little early when we were there.

My guess is your Easter weekend trip should be perfect on the timing... still early before it's overfished and late enough for the fish to be coming out of the cold, deep water to feed. Good luck!