I zeroed in on a very strong location and presentation pattern in about an hour of fishing. In the three remaining hours, I landed 10 smallmouth with one comming unbuttoned. The smallmouth ranged from 15.5 - 17 inches. I was pressed for tiem so I decided that I'd leave once I landed 10 smallmouth. I was still enjoying a consistent bit when I left. Fish were located on what i call a "soft edge"... meaning they were related more to current edges rather than to "hard objects" such as boulders, ledges, or hard drops. They were definitely in the top 1/3 of the pools though. Best pool depths were over 4 feet.
I caught one fish on a pointer 100 by positioning myself along the bank at the top of the pool and throwing it out into the current... and letting it swing down river of me into the softer current edge of the pool. The most constant producer was the Winco's Predator Craw rigged on a 1/8 oz snag resistant Flutter Head. I fished the bait in much the same way by casting up river into current then letting it tumble along the bottom and pendulum into the softer current. I would then "crawl" the bait excruciatingly slow out of the current and into the softer flow of the pool. I crawled the bait with only very brief pauses. Once could feel that the bait was in the really calm water i recast because the fish where NOT holding in the slack water under the still bubbles. The crawl was SLOW... VERY SLOW. I could feel every pebble, crack, and rock.
My YakAttack "Little Stick" weighed in heavily as a factor in my success on this mid March day. I had to get stationary to make the slow deliberate presentation needed to make the smallmouth bite. The Little Stick pushed down through the scupper kept me stationary in the shallow soft current allowing me to make the best possible presentation!
This is me getting "Bass Thumb"!
