Finding Smallies

[beginningfisherman]

Hello all,

 

I fish a medium sized river in northern Iowa (Cedar) and I struggle finding smallies consistently. Sometimes I stumble upon one but rarely am I able to replicate that success in other spots, even if they seem similar. I feel like I spend a lot of time casting at things that may or may not hold fish. I me sure depending on conditions it changes but could someone help give me a place to start? 

 

Thanks!

[idabass]

Small mouth relate to current more than anything. They will use large rocks and wood to hide behind, then wait for food to come by them. Also current seams and pools next to current can be good.

[beginningfisherman]

Is this seasonal or are they in the same spots year round?

[idabass]

Depends on the size of the river your fishing. During the winter months they like to be out deep and lay there, you almost have to put a finesse lure on their nose. Spring is tricky with the rain and snow melting, can really mess up the water color fast. But they will start moving shallower as the spawn draws close. Smallmouth can spawn in ten plus feet of water depending on how clear. Around here post spawn is hit and miss  but I pick them up covering water with a swim bait worked just above the bottom or a finesse bait. Fall is generally the best, they are eating everything in sight to ready for the cold winter. My best smallie catchers are the ned rig, senko, and tubes/craw baits. Don't be afraid to throw a jerk bait anytime but especially early spring, and with a long pause between twitches as the bass are lethargic still. The last two years I have been smashing them with crank baits and top water on certain days, can cover a lot of water with a crank. Once you find them you can slow down with a more finesse bait. I hope that helps. It was a big generalization but it covers what I have seen and noticed in our Idaho rivers.

[Scott F]

There are many books written about finding smallies in rivers. There are tons of variables too. Are you fishing from the bank, wading or floating? What time of year is it? What are the river conditions? Is the water high or low compared to average? How much current is there? Location depends on the river conditions. Today they might be in one place, but a good rain overnight will change things for days. 

[Spankey]

I struggle early on every year. I've been doing this Smallie fishing for a long time and have a hard time with the spawn. I just can't figure that out. Varies from year to year. They are a fish in my opinion that gets lockjaw early on until the water warms. They are like ghosts and just show up. Once I'm on them I can somewhat predict how things will go. Their patterns will change but once they get on a piece of structure they like post spawn they will stay there. Crazy fish but I've been hooked for years. 

[soflabasser]

17 hours ago, idabass said:

Small mouth relate to current more than anything. They will use large rocks and wood to hide behind, then wait for food to come by them. Also current seams and pools next to current can be good.

 

13 hours ago, idabass said:

Depends on the size of the river your fishing. During the winter months they like to be out deep and lay there, you almost have to put a finesse lure on their nose. Spring is tricky with the rain and snow melting, can really mess up the water color fast. But they will start moving shallower as the spawn draws close. Smallmouth can spawn in ten plus feet of water depending on how clear. Around here post spawn is hit and miss  but I pick them up covering water with a swim bait worked just above the bottom or a finesse bait. Fall is generally the best, they are eating everything in sight to ready for the cold winter. My best smallie catchers are the ned rig, senko, and tubes/craw baits. Don't be afraid to throw a jerk bait anytime but especially early spring, and with a long pause between twitches as the bass are lethargic still. The last two years I have been smashing them with crank baits and top water on certain days, can cover a lot of water with a crank. Once you find them you can slow down with a more finesse bait. I hope that helps. It was a big generalization but it covers what I have seen and noticed in our Idaho rivers.

 

^ Good advice ^

 

I recently caught a bunch of nice smallies( including citation sized ones) and I caught these smallies by working rocky areas with crank baits. 

[NorthwestBasser]

Smallies love rocks! Chunk rock and rip rap banks seem to produce the best for me. Though I rarely fish rivers, when I do I look for the rocky banks. On the lakes I fish, I go to main lake points with close proximity to deeper water and fish the sunny sides in spring and fall, the shaded sides in summer. If both sides are lit up by warm sun in the summer, I fish a little deeper. Crankbaits and tubes

[Spankey]

Chunk rock at bridge pileings and wood debris caught at bridge pileings are generally a place to find them. In my area the fish are not real shallow yet. 

 

I'm also doing the Crankbait and jerkbait thing. 

[lbriggs]

I fish the Cedar consistently year round for smallies. They're shallow right now, and very active. Cedar river smallies are picky, some days the only thing they'll hit is a small bass buster jig, and other days they will crush any bait in front of their face. Here's my tip; find a pattern and follow it religiously. One fish is a fluke, two is a pattern. Fish slack water, rocks, current seams, and even directly in the current with a heavy jig or mepps. Throw everything in your box until you can catch a few on the same bait and in the same general area (i.e. a current seam, rocky point), and slow down and fish methodically. There are big smallies in the cedar, and don't be afraid to downsize or throw a live fathead/shiner on a jig if the bite is tough, the Cedar is often an unforgiving mistress. My PB out of the Cedar is a 19.5 inch 4 pound smallie, message me for tips or more information if you please. 

[gim]

I fish a medium-sized river floating along in a canoe or jon boat pretty regularly.  Its way too small and shallow to launch a large water craft so wading or floating in a canoe/kayak is really the only way to fish it.  I have found that the bass relate to at least 1 of 3 items: current, depth, or shade.  Areas that have 2 or all 3 of these are very productive and produce good numbers of large fish.  If I'm fishing it earlier in the summer (June), I have to fish slower with more finesse tactics in backwater areas of warmer water.  In July & August when the water is at its lowest (usually) is when I do best on lures like topwaters and crank baits.  If I try it in September/October, then I have to slow down again because the water is getting cooler.  Rain can change the river quickly and murky, high water is not only terrible fishing, but sometimes dangerous too.  Pinpoint accuracy is often very important as there may be overhanging branches, logs, boulders and if you don't hit a spot the size of a plate, you either get snagged or don't catch any fish.

[Turkey sandwich]

The above posts are good and there are some solid books that cover river smallmouth basics.  But to add my .02...

 

Spring is really feast or famine depending upon conditions.  Stable, clear water, almost regardless of river level, can be great.  You can get on numbers or catch big pre-spawn/spawn females. The big thing is understanding that they're looking to feed like crazy before spawn without spending a ton of energy.  In consistent water conditions, look for quality feeding areas near spawning locations (good current breaks with access to gravel and weed beds).  Pre-spawn fish are super aggressive and will move towards smaller water like mouths of feeder creeks or protected areas like gravel beds/weed beds to spawn.  There are a ton of posts on here about bed fishing.  Bed fish are typically males.  Females (much larger, usually) will be sitting off, either in protected areas recuperating, or staged right on the weed lines/current break/change in depth most closely located to where you're finding the spawning beds.  You may not catch a ton of females the closer you get to the spawn, but you have a great opportunity for some really big fish.  

 

Post-spawn is a weird in-between stage where you might begin to catch earlier spawners moving towards summer patterns, while other fish may be lethargic for a few weeks after they spawn.  Lethargic fish, in a river, will always seek to escape current in comfortable, typically lower, water temperatures.  For those fish, it may mean deep, or it may mean protection behind points, near weed beds, or large pieces of cover.  These are not typically easy fish to make bite.  The ones moving toward their summer patterns, however, can definitely be caught, and will likely be moving towards the seems of faster current looking for baitfish or crayfish. I don't spend a lot of time fishing heavily protected areas.  The aggressive fish are likely to be right on the seams. I like crayfish patterns year round, but I absolutely love crayfish patterns during this period. 

 

Summer means higher water temps, lower oxygen content (in some rivers, though it's not nearly the same as in lakes.  Current, wind, riffles, etc all help to oxygenate the water).  Active Fish can be found basically anywhere with good current, but larger fish are going to be found in better feeding areas where they can eat a ton without struggling in the fast stuff - usually.  (Predator dominance typically dominates feeding locations on any body of water, and river smallmouth are rarely the exception.). Fish, once they start to really recover following post-spawn, will typically feed really heavily because this is their primary growing season and they need the food to fuel growth and their metabolism in the warmer water.  Almost anything goes, depending upon conditions and where you're finding fish, but I like walking baits, poppers, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, flukes, grubs, football jigs(craw trailer), and tubes to cover most conditions.  Also, on hot days, in hot water conditions, don't be afraid to dead stick prime locations.  I'm working hard to improve at this, but guys like Jeff Little absolutely crush summer smallmouth this way.  If you aren't familiar with him, and want to learn rivers, follow his youtube videos, buy his DVDs, and even his subscription videos can be really good.  He's probably the most analytical river fisherman you'll find, and he's very articulate.

 

Fall can almost be two separate periods, I think.  Late summer into almost mid-fall can be incredible.  Water is typically low and fast, and fish put on their feed bags once the water starts to cool so they can bulk for the winter.  This is pretty similar to the summer, but the fish tend to have put on weight, and as their forage grows, matching it becomes a whole lot easier because (in most rivers I've fished) they're eating essentially everything.  Every river, again, is a bit different, but generally, any place with ambush opportunities, good current, and current breaks is in play.  Weed beds, boulder fields, points are all good, and even better if they provide some deep water access nearby.  That said, long runs and flats with good boulders in a river with a big crayfish population can be absolutely money.  Basically bring everything in your entire tackle box.  Almost anything that can be fished where the fish are holding can produce fish.  What kinds of patterns?  Hellgramite, madtom, perch, crayfish, minnow, shad, shiner, sculpin, goby, mayfly, stonefly, refrigerator magnet, lug nut with a treble hook, miniature garden gnome - it almost doesn't matter so long as you can make it wiggle and get them to chase it.

 

Late fall is when things change, for me, and tend to really slow down.  Fish start moving towards protected wintering areas, so areas that transition away from fast current and more towards moderate current can be really good, but it's important to slow down more towards a winter pace.  The water is getting colder, and fish metabolism is generally slowing down.  Protected points, oxbows, protected areas behind islands, etc can all be good so long as they provide relative deep water access.  This time of year for me, is tricky, and I might be doing everything from dead sticking big suspending jerk baits, to digging for the most finesse stuff I can dig out of my crate.  As the water cools, this is a time of year I really miss real pork chunks being available.

 

Winter.  Metabolism is slow, fish are generally inactive (barring a warm spell.  They will turn on for this and you should be on the water if possible.  Fish can move shallow and actually be pretty aggressive).  During this stretch, hair jigs, silver buddies, dead sticking, etc are your best options.  I don't get out often in the winter (ice and nasty river conditions beat me up pretty bad), but what I've learned is that fish will relate in the most protected areas possible - meaning away from current and deep enough to avoid predators like birds.  They can be tough to find, but when you find them, you'll usually find a ton of fish stacked up in the same place.  

 

Year round notes:

High water (and this will happen all year) will typically push the fish to the bank or behind large current breaks like points.  Low water can have them feeding on breaks or the heads and tail outs from pools or boulder fields within the pools.  Low water will concentrate fish in prime feeding areas near/in fast current/. High water will disperse them to areas with protection from current like flooded areas, behind points, into docks, stack them against the bank (especially if there are trees or boulders/rip rap to hide behind) , push them behind islands, or even settle them into deeper water where the current is much slower than the surface if they don't have access to any of the above.  Smallmouth are very heavy sight feeders and like clear water, high visibility, and even sun (way more than largemouth).  This means clear to tea stained water can be great.  Chocolate milk - go home and read a book. 

 

 

I'm sure I'm not the best river smallmouth fisherman on the forum, but I've been doing it for a long time and if I were to paraphrase my experiences and a bunch of books, this should cover 80% of the conditions you'll run into.  

 

 

 

[RoLo]

Very nice post Turkey sandwich  

 

[Turkey sandwich]

Thanks @RoLo!  

 

Rivers can confuse the hell out of people because smallies can move so much or not at all for what seems like months at a time.  And when you can't find them, they aren't typically like largemouth where you can just toss a jig at a bank and catch something.  When they move, they move.  I recently watched/read a study about tagged smallmouth covering miles, and miles over the course of a year.  I've also found stretches of river where you'll find fish within about a quarter of a mile year round.  I also think that it's frustrating because there isn't a lot of good science regarding how most individual fish in a species (bass, walleye, trout, etc) move throughout the year outside of the spawn.  Also, a lot of the books I've read either cover a lot of ground, but without a whole lot of detail, or focus on one particular habitat but contain a ton of fluff. 

[bowhunter63]

When all else fails,I look for bait.Shad or crawdads there not far away.

[RoLo]

4 hours ago, Turkey sandwich said:

Thanks @RoLo!  

 

Rivers can confuse the hell out of people because smallies can move so much or not at all for what seems like months at a time.  And when you can't find them, they aren't typically like largemouth where you can just toss a jig at a bank and catch something.  When they move, they move.  I recently watched/read a study about tagged smallmouth covering miles, and miles over the course of a year.  I've also found stretches of river where you'll find fish within about a quarter of a mile year round.  I also think that it's frustrating because there isn't a lot of good science regarding how most individual fish in a species (bass, walleye, trout, etc) move throughout the year outside of the spawn.  Also, a lot of the books I've read either cover a lot of ground, but without a whole lot of detail, or focus on one particular habitat but contain a ton of fluff. 

 

 

With regard to telemetry studies pertaining to smallmouth bass, those I've read have documented

year-round home ranges as small as a quarter of a mile, just as you stated.

With respect to the home range of smallies, it seems that erring on the short side is the most profitable.

 

Roger