Advice on ice out river fishing

[dylan628]

im going to be mostly targeting smallmouth and walleye as soon as the ice melts completely off. water temps will most likely be in the high 30's low 40's. Planning on throwing glide baits and fishing them like jerkbaits and slow rolling soft plastics. any advice on what exactly to fish?

[Onthefly_25]

When I'm up at school, I fish the Raquette river way upstate for Smallies and Pike. With river flows up after ice out, I find myself throwing soft plastics and swinging them with the current. I like 5-8 inch paddle tails designed to have a big wobble and shake (like the Optimum Boom Boom). Its opposite of what most people think but the cold water  stiffens the plastic, dampening the action. Once the baits get cold, they put off a pretty moderate action. Swinging baits with the current has been proving pretty effective this year. Went out last weekend and smacked a couple of them. I toss glides in eddies and at current seams at the edge of eddies. Glides don't like swimming right in current for me. I fish them as you normally would in the summer but MUCH slower. Hudds and Savage Gear line throughs I fish everywhere. I've found the name of the game is to downsize and go slow until the water temp is in the upper-40's to lower 50's. Once those Smallies start moving up for pre-spawn, then toss the real big baits

[NCCNC]

I do the same thing with the booty shaker 7 and 9 inchers.