Smallmouth in rivers

[12poundbass]

I caught my first handful of smallies last year and now I have the bug! I live in central Michigan and have the winter blahs! This weekend is going to be almost 60 and I have the itch to get out. I caught the smallmouths out of a river (more like a stream) my question is are they in the rivers and streams this time of year or are they in the lakes? Thanks in advance!

[BigSkyBasser]

There are going to be resident populations of smallmouth that stay in the rivers year round and some that move between depending on the distance between the bodies of water. Most of them in the winter will move to deep pockets and breaks on the outside bends of the river (examples are from my experience on the Clark Fork.) I have yet to have a really successful winter bite as it requires enormous amounts of patience and persistence and sometimes the bite is so subtle that you'd never know if you had any interest.

[Scott F]

Even if the air warms into the 60s, it will take the water much longer to warm up. Activity really gets going when the water temps are in the upper 40s. 

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, BigSkyBasser said:

There are going to be resident populations of smallmouth that stay in the rivers year round and some that move between depending on the distance between the bodies of water. Most of them in the winter will move to deep pockets and breaks on the outside bends of the river (examples are from my experience on the Clark Fork.) I have yet to have a really successful winter bite as it requires enormous amounts of patience and persistence and sometimes the bite is so subtle that you'd never know if you had any interest.

The closest body of water is about 5 miles as the crow flys. The river from what I've seen is about 3' at it's deepest and doesn't get wider than about 30-40'. The area I fish off this bridge is only about 75 yards long, so it's real hit and miss. The first time I tried it it was one right after another! Those fish are a ton of fun!

 

49 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Even if the air warms into the 60s, it will take the water much longer to warm up. Activity really gets going when the water temps are in the upper 40s. 

I know it'll take quite a while for the water to warm, but if we hit 60 degrees in Michigan in February everyone jumps for joy and thinks it's spring and since there's 8" of ice on the lakes I wanted to hit a river. Good to know though the smallies get active around 40 degrees.

[Scott F]

10 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Good to know though the smallies get active around 40 degrees.

 

That's UPPER 40s.  Get off that bridge and get into the water, once it warms up. Get a pair of waders or if you don't mind a little E-coli in the water, wet wade. To find smallies consistently in rivers, you may have to do some walking. If they are sometimes by your bridge, during the times they aren't, they may not be far away. Learn more access points, then get in and wade upstream and down. Eventually, you'll learn where they hang out.

[BigSkyBasser]

12 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

The closest body of water is about 5 miles as the crow flys. The river from what I've seen is about 3' at it's deepest and doesn't get wider than about 30-40'. The area I fish off this bridge is only about 75 yards long, so it's real hit and miss. The first time I tried it it was one right after another! Those fish are a ton of fun!

You're best bet is to find the most dramatic contour changes to identify which deep pockets are more likely to hold fish during these less active periods. River smallies during early season seem especially temperamental because of how dramatically conditions such as temperature and water level can fluctuate. Spring run off seems to shut these fish off completely here and sometimes this can last for up to 6 weeks during which I tend to ignore the rivers completely instead of painfully trying to pattern them.

[Spankey]

I have the blahs to. Big time blahs. I'm a river rat also. In my case they don't have a lake to go to they are in the river system. If I were to go out Saturday (I'm not, just not time yet) when the air hits 55-60 deg. I'd be fishing the deepest part of my home stretch. Real slow in 13-15 feet of water just dragging a grub, craw, jig and pig, or a 4.5 worm of some type. Just my opinion. I struggle early spring but look forward to it. I'm really Jonesing big time to use a few new baits/patterns that I got for Christmas and have picked up over the winter. A lot of variables associated with river fishing but anticipate a good upcoming season. Had a killer year last season. Gonna do a bit of tweaking to how I normally fish and see if it pays off for a few nice ones.

Oh.......And good luck this season. Smallies.........what an addiction.

[12poundbass]

7 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I have the blahs to. Big time blahs. I'm a river rat also. In my case they don't have a lake to go to they are in the river system. If I were to go out Saturday (I'm not, just not time yet) when the air hits 55-60 deg. I'd be fishing the deepest part of my home stretch. Real slow in 13-15 feet of water just dragging a grub, craw, jig and pig, or a 4.5 worm of some type. Just my opinion. I struggle early spring but look forward to it. I'm really Jonesing big time to use a few new baits/patterns that I got for Christmas and have picked up over the winter. A lot of variables associated with river fishing but anticipate a good upcoming season. Had a killer year last season. Gonna do a bit of tweaking to how I normally fish and see if it pays off for a few nice ones.

Oh.......And good luck this season. Smallies.........what an addiction.

I've always fished for largemouth and the lakes around me don't have smallmouth so when I saw a neighbors fish he got off from this bridge I gave it a shot. Man have I been missing out! The funny thing is I used to walleye fish when I was a kid up at big bay de noc and never tied into a small mouth. Here I am 33 yrs old and finally caught some smallies and hooked!

[Scott F]

25 minutes ago, BigSkyBasser said:

You're best bet is to find the most dramatic contour changes to identify which deep pockets are more likely to hold fish during these less active periods. River smallies during early season seem especially temperamental because of how dramatically conditions such as temperature and water level can fluctuate. Spring run off seems to shut these fish off completely here and sometimes this can last for up to 6 weeks during which I tend to ignore the rivers completely instead of painfully trying to pattern them.

The pattern when the water is high is very simple. Fish the calm eddies very, very tight to the bank. 

[Pete-K]

WOW if there good in the upper 40's. We should be golden here in West Tn. Water temps are around 55 or so now. I know that's mean of me. But winter we have not had.

[Spankey]

17 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I've always fished for largemouth and the lakes around me don't have smallmouth so when I saw a neighbors fish he got off from this bridge I gave it a shot. Man have I been missing out! The funny thing is I used to walleye fish when I was a kid up at big bay de noc and never tied into a small mouth. Here I am 33 yrs old and finally caught some smallies and hooked!

33 years old? 33 years young. Sure wish I was 33 years young again. I got hooked on smallies when I was 16 years old. My school buddies and I were out trout fishing in a stream section we never fished before. The four of use were spread out pretty far, not fishing on top of one another. Had the whole stream to ourselves. I found this one spot in the stream that had a slight natural fall to it. I caught my trout limit in no time with worms, corn and Velveeta Cheese. Wasn't ready to call the quits, was only there an hour. Than I switched over to throwing Mepps, Rooster Tails and Panther Martin spinners with the intention to catch and release any trout that I caught there after. I don't remember how many I caught (? 2+ dozen) but smallies hit those inline spinners like freight trains, I was hooked for life after that day. Those stream smallies were only 10"-12" fish but that's all it took. I still pick off a few of those smallies when I go through that section 42 years later when trout fishing. One of my favorite fishing memories. I see those guys once in a while. None of them have fished since we were kids or at least stuck with it.  

[clayton86]

Throw a lipless crank or suspending jerk bait SLOW. We had ice last week this week everything is open I hit the creek yesterday and got into them. I fish a small tributary off Lake Ontario this was all within a mile of the mount to the lake and in 46* water temps and raining on and off. Fished 3.5 hours got 6 smallies 4 trout and 1 northern.