Does anybody head out to the rivers and fish the spawn run? I never have tried it but I'm going to try this year. The river by the house has produced some big smallmouth coming from Cumberland lake. End of march and first of april they start showing up here.

Yes!

Once upon a time, I fished smallie "runs" up tribs on NYs Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario. They won't go far upstream, so they are relatively easy to find. Smallies responded really well to lures then and this is the shallowest you'll find the big girls all year.

Tributaries, be it a river that feeds a lake or a smaller stream that feeds a river, are great places to look for the big girls during early spring.