Piney River
 

Hey guys,

Last week I did the outfitted Pinewood Camp/Canoe stretch on the Piney and unfortunately I found that the fishing was very, very poor. For a little background, I've floated that stretch at least a dozen times over the past few years and have always had great numbers and some decent size on Smallmouth. Normally over the course of a 3/4 hour float and wade trip I would catch at least 20-30 smallmouth/spots/redeye with the occasional larger fish. This was my first trip out there, arriving at dark, fishing for a couple hours wading and then fishing after dark, managing one fish. The entire course of the next day I was able to manage about 4 fish during the float.

The owner at Pinewood was saying he's experienced record breaking boat traffic and float trips down that stretch this year, and I feel it's simply overfished. The piney is a relatively small watershed, with more a creek feel than that of a river in many places. Has anyone else noticed a decline in fishing out there?