05-10-2010, 09:00 AM
My buddy Ryan had a rare weekend with no work or kids, so we decided to hit the Riverpark. We put in around 11:00 and fished till about 3:00. The water temp was just above 68 everywhere we went and there was no place to escape the gale force winds. We hit several spots from the dam down to the bend. The current was just about perfect, but the water was really muddy and there was trash everywhere. I thought we were going to smack them, but we never really found a steady bite anywhere. We boated a mixed bag of LM, SM and spots with the grand total somewhere around 20, all on shiners. The last fish of the day was my personal best smallmouth to date. She was 20" and my trusty Rapala digital scales said 8 lbs (so they clearly aren't that trusty anymore). I weighed a couple of other things on them and everything said 8 lbs, so I think its time for a new set of scales. She was pretty fat so I would estimate her around 5 lbs. RSimms got to see me land her from the boat ramp. I wish our numbers would have been a little better, but I was thrilled to finally catch a good smallmouth at the Riverpark.