I Hear There's Smallies In This River... 

I would love to see some of your shots or clips if you have any brother! I got into a rut myself recently and I haven't fished or kayaked in a lot longer than I'd like to admit. I used to throw my kayak and a line in the water EVERY single day for at least 10 or 15 minutes no matter what. These videos are motivating me to get back into it. Good luck!!

That’s awesome

Man I would love to see you posting some of your clips if you got any, I can already feel the Vibe.

Well said, Todd. I posted a similar message like a year ago. Started river kayak fishing in 2019 and once I found Matt’s videos my fishing improved immediately. Learned so much from him and super grateful not just for the lessons but just awesome content in general. Matt, I hope you realize how much of an impact you have on us yak fishermen!

LFG!!

Same I live I western North dakota we still have about 3 feet of ice

@Anthony DelFico We can have Temps down to - 40 and with windchill -75

@Anthony DelFico not 75 mph but the real feel with the wind can get to -75

this is an older video, he posts these every once in awhile. he lives by the ND/MN border i think, so yeah hes got 2ft of ice places too. plus its not bass season anyway. that ended on feb. 28th. not sure about ND, but i doubt thers to many places to fish smallies right now with snow.

psssst this is from last year.

Me and him live in North Dakota lol. Still have 8ft drifts of snow in my yard.

He probably travelled a good ways to film this. I heard him mention something about google maps so he probably scouted a river to try somewhere warmer

@@drewsims262 the vid was taken in ND we have a ton of snow and 3+ ft if ice still.

Must be further south than TN .. no green here

I'm pretty sure it's a left over from last spring. It's a nice break from winter and cabin fever. 💕

Yeah it’s cheap jigs and cheap plastics, or at least stuff I have a bunch of extra of, whenever I fish this river! Lots of sticks and rocks to snag up on. I can get a lot of them back in the kayak but this spot had some fast current areas I didn’t want to mess around in too much.

I'm in Orlando and it's about 85 degrees here right now. I'll catch one for you later today when I'm on the water.

Same situation up here. Been buying smallie gear like crazy though! Can't wait

@@kirkblackadar7299 A lot of the big box stores are starting to get new gear and equipment for the upcoming season. My special lure is only in stock this time of year before myself and others buy them out.

This footage is from last spring, we still have a couple months before we see any leaves or green grass here. It’s been cold here this winter, the first year in many I haven’t been able to get the kayak out for some mid winter fishing on the river. It shouldn’t be much longer now though!

@@ndyakangler I did wonder. I checked the video info and there was no date so I shrugged my shoulders and assumed it was 2022. So if you have any other snippets from last year please put them up. Anything will do to break up the dreary grey days of late Winter

You must be in very north Florida. We've been almost 90 for over a week down here.

@@henryschmidt636 whaaat. Nope I'm south of Tampa

Yeah any day on the water is a good day! I'm working on Whopper Plopper footage with some nice summer smallies to upload this week.

I meant to try that area last fall but it seemed like we only got one decent weather day a week all September and it’s hard to not go to the spots where I know there’s 20”s swimming around.

Was going to say same thing!

Has to be!! I’ll take it though!

Yeah, clearing out the hard drives to get ready for this spring! We still have a couple months to go but I’m hoping to hit a river in the next week or two and try for pike!

I've fished little Miami for many years the smallie fishing is as good as ever just getting way overcrowded with canoe liverys dumping 50 people at a time. Where do you get those Owners?, I use swimbaits alot, BPS or Cabelas?

@@matthewwilliams7735 I fish the Great Miami River if I'm fishing the river. I have plans to fish the LMR this year though. It's about 45 minutes away from me. You can get the Owner Flashy Swimmer many places online. I don't know if Cabela's or BPS has them though. I use the 1/0 on the 3.3in Keitech Fat Impact, 3.5in Keitech Easy Shiner, 4in Keitech Easy Shiner, 3/0 on the 3.8 Fat Impact, and the 5/0 on the 4.8 Fat Impact. I mostly buy them from Tackle Warehouse or Discount Tackle, but there's lots of other places that have them. Just Google Owner Flashy Swimmer and get the size that matches up close to the size swimbaits I mentioned above if you're not using Keitech's. A little tip to make your swimbaits last longer is to buy the larger size Owner CPS Springs/ screwlocks and replace them on the Flashy Swimmer with a larger size. I use the medium on the 1/0, and the large on the 3/0, and 5/0. It makes all huge difference with the soft plastic Keitech's that rip easy, but that softness is what makes them have the best action out of all the swimbaits

Yes, I have had excellent results working directly above front ends of small islands just a few feet above where the water parts to the sides. I use a flyrod and toss large floating poppers, skimming minnows and crawfish patterns in this area. The skimming minnows are usually best above but the craws are by far the best downstream below the islands.

This is old footage but I’m getting my gear ready for that first 40 degree day we get. I’ll be back on the river again!

I'll often do that depending on the plastic and jig type. I always have a little tube of superglue in my tackle box for that reason, and for when pike slice me up some superglue will get me back to fishing quick!

The two rivers I fish smallies on the most flow into this river so there’s potential to find some big ones there. I think the numbers are fewer on the main river though, the water is muddy almost chocolate milk looking just about all the time. The tributaries are much clearer a little ways upstream and that clear water is what the smallies seem to prefer.