hey guys. Im fishing a very small river near my home (just trying to settle cabin fever lol) But the river, or probably creek, is only about 20 yards wide. The water is pretty clear and water temps are in the mid 40s. Yjere are only small mouth in the water. I went today and caught 2. One on a tube and one on a mepps in-line. The fish in the river are pretty small... Do you guys have any other ideas?

Find the biggest, deepest, and slowest current pool in your stretch of rivers. Usually that will be the Winter hole for Bass.

(Google Earth is a great tool to find these pools.)

Small suspending jerkbaits are a good bet.

Find the biggest, deepest, and slowest current pool in your stretch of rivers. Usually that will be the Winter hole for Bass.

(Google Earth is a great tool to find these pools.)

Small suspending jerkbaits are a good bet.

x2

I fish a small river similar to what you are describing. When i first started fishing it i would just wade and throw Senkos and spinnerbaits. After figuring out the river and the fish i became better and better. The one thing i have found out about small river fishing is i rarely catch fish on the same bait on back to back days. I might have a 30 fish day on a Senko, and the next day wont be able to get a bite. I have found the best bait and technique is to bring some sort of jar or can with a lid on it and an Ultra Light setup with 6-8 lb test. When you get to the river start gently moving rocks and you will see crawfish scatter. The best thing to use is a little hend held minnow net. Catch a dozen or so crawfish and rig them weightless. Toss it out, they usually hit it on the fall. The only downside to this is you will lose a lot of hooks. You are using light line, and once the craws hit the bottom they will crawl under any structure they see,whether it be rocks or stumps. Good luck

Try a 2" curly tail on a 1/16 oz. jig head. 

way down south here in the small rivers (and there are a lot of them), lipless cranks, charteuse spinner baits and 3-6 ft suspending cranks do well

a small brown or black hair jig