It's smallmouth time in Tennessee!

Had a phenomenal day of fly fishing for smallmouth bass on the Pigeon River here in East Tennessee. The river has miles of riffles, boulders, and aggressive bass. The float is beautiful as the Great Smoky Mountains loom in the distance.

It’s usually pretty hard to get us off of poppers, but the fish were really on streamers today. We did great with Clouser Minnows, but also picked up some fish on Wiggle Minnows and brown Zuddlers. I got around to fishing a popper late in the day and picked up some fish on that as well.

Doug Sanders caught this beautiful smallie on a Clouser Minnow

We had a great day considering the number of fish we caught and the size of the fish we caught. Doug Sanders and Caleb Abramson both probably boated a minimum of 30 smallies each, along with a sampling of assorted panfish. I even caught a sauger, a relatively rare catch on a fly rod!

Caleb Abramson with only one of many nice fish he caught today