Smallmouths Are Schooling Fish, Right??

[hooah212002]

Everything I have read re:smallmouth bass says YES! they are schooling fish. However, the river spot I have been fishing has yielded only one fish per outing. 2 weekends ago, I got one on a lipless crank. Yesterday was a spook. No matter what else I threw, I got zilch, nada, zippola. Granted, both times the fish were caught shortly after sunrise. I am fishing from shore and have maybe 200 yards of shore to work with, but only from one side and there is no downed timber (well, there is but it is out of reach and I want a boat just for that tree lol).

Every outing this year (save for the one time I was in a boat on Delavan Lake) I have had this problem, so the idea that was brought up about fish communicating to one another is starting to ring true for me.

What I have yet to find info on, though, is how river bass move in relation to time of day.

[roadwarrior]

Target anything that breaks the water flow. Lures and baits are not nearly as important as location.

[retiredbosn]

Have no idea what size river you are fishing. I have found that smaller rivers and creeks don't yield large schools of any fish, except carp. Fast current doesn't bother smallies like it does other fish, if its hot fish the fastest current look for eddies, rocks that break the current, like RW said its location, in a river there may only be one fish on that particular break, especially if its a small rock. There will be others around, but on their own structure. I have never caught a small mouth in the Greenbrier or New river off of wood that was sticking out of the water, plenty off of completely submerged timber, my guess is it had to do with the sound of the water as it flowed.

[J Francho]

Big smallies don't always school.

[Gavin]

If you are fishing a 200 yard stretch and not catching fish...You need to start covering some ground and find yourself some fish...On some rivers it might be miles between honey holes. Good luck.

[MarkH024]

Have no idea what size river you are fishing. I have found that smaller rivers and creeks don't yield large schools of any fish, except carp. Fast current doesn't bother smallies like it does other fish, if its hot fish the fastest current look for eddies, rocks that break the current, like RW said its location, in a river there may only be one fish on that particular break, especially if its a small rock. There will be others around, but on their own structure. I have never caught a small mouth in the Greenbrier or New river off of wood that was sticking out of the water, plenty off of completely submerged timber, my guess is it had to do with the sound of the water as it flowed.

I have noticed this same sort of experience. Where I fish for smallies by the house, I never catch more than 1 or 2 in a pretty tight spot. They seem to be a lot more scattered and I think it's due to the river being relatively shallow. I have witnessed carp and suckers schooled up in masses but that's when it is really really cold coming off the winter months.

[Curved]

I wade fish a small shallow river (50-70 yards across, 2-8 ft deep) and what I find is YES, they do school, but they are also smart, and once I've pulled one fish in, the rest go up or down river. The places I hook them are holes and submerged timber or boulders. I find a long cast distance is important for the river smallies because the ones that run away will hang out just a little ways away until they think you've gone away. Occasionally they'll cruise back to check on their spot. If they see or hear you splunking lures, the ones that know you're a fisherman are going to go away again until you're done. That said, if you can get the right lure in front of them with a long cast, they'll still strike it.

I find being sporadic with my targets and lures helps keeps the fish from being wary. I'll target one spot with 3 casts, then switch back to the other side of the river.

My most productive artificial lure is a 1.5" chunk of a yum dinger unweighted, rigged jig-style with just a hook. I find most any short worm kills in my river. Live crawfish are 1-cast wonders for my river. I don't find time of day has anything to do with their habits. They seem to always be in those same hiding spots.

[mikey5string]

Just because they school, doesnt mean they are always travelling in groups. Juvenille fish seem to school more, maybe the strength in numbers helps them find food. I think it depends on the forage as well.

If they are on shad, alewife or other pelagic baitfish, they will school up to "heard" the baitfish into a ball where they can be picked off. They can also be pushed into shallows or other structure and trapped.

If they seem to be feeding more on craws or sunfish, schooling doesnt seem to help them much as a cooperative effort would not help but rather just add competition.

The fact that you can usually find several fish in an area might be that it is just a good spot for them. There might be a ledge, hump or some other structure that is holding them there, not a schooling behavior.

A hooked fish can spook other fish as its being reeled in but I have also seen several (largemouth) following a fish back to the boat after it was hooked.

The last thing is that the fish are probably chasing bait so they move with that. The baitfish are always moving, dispersing and schooling up again all over the water column. After they move on, so do the bass.

[Nashua Nev]

Big smallies don't always school.... i second this, my biggest smallies have always been alone. i also agree withfinding more spots, river fishing can be tough, lots of water lots of space lots of room...keep looking. people talk aout how there are no fish in the Merrimack river and Nashua river, several guys disagree including me. They are there keep looking

[Bluebasser86]

Little smallies don't always school either, at least not in some of the lakes I fish. It's possible, like others have said, you're in the wrong location and there just isn't many fish in that stretch of river. Current breaks are going to be your best bet to find a school of smallies holding.

[Shoalamfishin]

I wade fish a small shallow river (50-70 yards across, 2-8 ft deep) and what I find is YES, they do school, but they are also smart, and once I've pulled one fish in, the rest go up or down river. The places I hook them are holes and submerged timber or boulders. I find a long cast distance is important for the river smallies because the ones that run away will hang out just a little ways away until they think you've gone away. Occasionally they'll cruise back to check on their spot. If they see or hear you splunking lures, the ones that know you're a fisherman are going to go away again until you're done. That said, if you can get the right lure in front of them with a long cast, they'll still strike it.

I find being sporadic with my targets and lures helps keeps the fish from being wary. I'll target one spot with 3 casts, then switch back to the other side of the river.

My most productive artificial lure is a 1.5" chunk of a yum dinger unweighted, rigged jig-style with just a hook. I find most any short worm kills in my river. Live crawfish are 1-cast wonders for my river. I don't find time of day has anything to do with their habits. They seem to always be in those same hiding spots.

This is similar to the experience I've had. Ive caught a good bit and taken alot of people fishing and it seems like 1 to 2 fish at a time in a spot is typical, more than that is good, once a fish gets hauled out the others get spooky and hide or take off.

[Swamp Girl]

I understand you're fishing a river, but they do school in the fall in lakes. I was fishing a lake in western Ontario in late September and I thought I perceived a pattern in the schooling, which was bass bunching 30 to 200 yards off the western ends of islands in rock fields. Then I found a bunch in a shallow bay over mud. Then I found another bunch off those bambooish reeds, so, in the end, I know nothing other than they are wherever they are.

[jhoffman]

Smallies in the rivers or creeks will stack up below the riffles in wamer weather. They do so because its an easy ambush point... they expend less energy in fast water and theres more oxygen there.

 

You might ask how a fish in fast water is using less energy... Well, they are like an airplane, they use the pectoral fins to pitch and yaw and hold position. A fish expends much more energy holding position in slack water. If you watch a fish in slack water, all of the fins move to hold position. Not so in the fast current.

 

A great video is feeding lies. Yes its filmed based on trout but the knowledge of moving water is still the same. Its filmed underwater.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VeJPXgIpAg

[Shoalamfishin]

Just because they school, doesnt mean they are always travelling in groups. Juvenille fish seem to school more, maybe the strength in numbers helps them find food. I think it depends on the forage as well.

If they are on shad, alewife or other pelagic baitfish, they will school up to "heard" the baitfish into a ball where they can be picked off. They can also be pushed into shallows or other structure and trapped.

If they seem to be feeding more on craws or sunfish, schooling doesnt seem to help them much as a cooperative effort would not help but rather just add competition.

The fact that you can usually find several fish in an area might be that it is just a good spot for them. There might be a ledge, hump or some other structure that is holding them there, not a schooling behavior.

A hooked fish can spook other fish as its being reeled in but I have also seen several (largemouth) following a fish back to the boat after it was hooked.

The last thing is that the fish are probably chasing bait so they move with that. The baitfish are always moving, dispersing and schooling up again all over the water column. After they move on, so do the bass.

 

I have seen fish school up in front of shoals waiting for baitfish to wash down but in my experience the bigger fish tend not to school as often and when they do they are much more wary. I have seen bigger fish caught out of the same hole but more often then not once one nice fish is caught from a hole, if there are others there they become shy or don't bite and its time to move. Smaller fish are different and easier to catch in this respect. 

[Crookedneck]

A couple things. River smallies & lake smallies are two different animals. I tend to see more schooling in lake smallies. In the river I find that shallow structure will hold fewer fish than that same structure in 20' of water. I believe it has to do with availability & competition. A prime piece of structure in shallow current is going to be owned by the strongest fish (not always a smallmouth per say). Why? It has to do with cover & the availability of food. Single rocks in shallow current (2-5 feet) are good places for a smallmouth to ambush. That same rock in 20' may hold several fish.

[Bassun]

In my experience yes they do school...but only during specific scenarios and not as the norm.  I feel that targeting them as a schooling fish will yeild lower numbers of fish then targeting the right locations, looking for the right cover, and using the right presentations.  I have more faith in one large rock in the middle of the river along side a faster channel of water then I would ever put into chasing a bait ball of shad or alewives, etc. for smallies.  I have gotten on a few schools of smallies, but for me they were juvinile fish, I would guess in the 1 to 2 year class and that was only in the back of a feeder creek in a lake during fall.

 

I think the smallmouth has all of the tools of a great ambush fish, and that generally doesn't relate as well in a school.  They will stack, however, on and near good cover.  So don't be afraid to targe that same structure again after catching one small mouth.  In an area with lots of competition fish will quickly replace each other and you can easily find structure that will consistently hold fish day in and day out.  While it's not "schooling", stacking fish can really make for some exciting fishing.  As I think back, I tend to find these guys stacked up the most in pre-spawn mode just before they go on the beds.