03-31-2009, 09:00 AM
I&#39;ve been fishing the same pattern on the river for about 2 weeks and it keeps getting better. I put in alone Sunday morning at 8AM and headed for a blow down on the back side of Williams&#39; Island. It was cold, windy and spitting rain. Twenty minutes later,and still on the same tree, I had 7 fish in the boat - a 19&quot;, 2 18&quot;ers and numerous in the 14 - 16 inchers. The fish were clearly not affected by the cold. <br /><br />The pattern got progressively better throughout the day as the current picked up. I took a 15 minute break to pic up my buddy at the ramp and then we hit the same trees again. They were reloaded. We had two techniques that were producing. Most of the fish came on a Bomber fat free shad which we would cast upriver of the tree, let the current carry it straight into the nastiest branches and then slow roll it out. Most of the time the fish would nail it after about 3 cranks of the real. If that wouldn&#39;t work, we just drifted a green pumpkin plastic up under the lay down. That would usually drag a few out - at times 4 or five from the same lay-down.<br /><br />The size was very good with the average being about 16 inches and very fat. Together we caught easily 30&#43; and I personally quit counting at 20. I didn&#39;t take many pictures with the rain, cold and wind making boat control really tough. But here are a few of the average fish. If the water warms up another 5 degrees and we have some more rain, I&#39;m sure one could put 50 fish in the boat solo.