Is cooler weather (low 70's/high 60's) too cold for shallow river fishing?

[Ohioguy25]

I am off tomorrow and was wondering if it would be worth going out on a narrow, shallow river near me. It is the Little Miami River in Dayton Ohio, and I am fishing for smallmouth from a kayak.

 

I have heard various conflicting things regarding temperature and fishing, and I seem to have had my best luck on this river when it was warm (75+) and sunny and the water was clear.  What do you think?

 

Edit: I just discovered it will only be 65 tomorrow. 70 next Thursday.

[Spankey]

I know nothing about the river you are talking about. But, if bass are there I would think you'd should be able to have some luck up until water temps start to get under 55 deg.

 

Are you talking water temps or air temps?

 

One or two nights of cool weather will not effect the water temps in that river. Most likely will make the fishing pick up.

[BuzzHudson19c]

No. That being said what do you consider shallow? Like Spankey said, water temp is what matters not air and if anything the fishing right now is getting better as the water temps fall.

[Scott F]

River fishing usually picks up as the water cools in late summer. Feeding river smallies can always be found shallow. 

[moguy1973]

That's about when they really start biting again getting ready to hunker down for the winter.

[Ohioguy25]

Thanks for all the info and advice everyone! The section of the Little Miami I am fishing is between 2-4 ft deep in most spots. I can usually see the bottom and fish swimming by in the areas I have had luck. Not sure what the water temp is but I was referring to the air temp.

[gim]

I fish a shallow, moderate flowing river in about an hour from my house about 4-5 times per season and I always seem to do better when its warmer out.  The months of July & August are easily the best times to be out there for numbers and size.  The water is clear and the hot weather puts their metabolism into hyper drive.  Most of the time I catch them on fast moving power tactics too.  The funny thing is, when I try going after Labor Day after we've had a couple of cooler nights (which we are having this week), I do poor.  And not just a little worse, A LOT worse.  I've gone after Labor Day a couple times the past few years and its hard to catch any smallmouth.  Not sure what the deal is there, but it drops off so much from August to September that its not even worth trying anymore.  Your river may not be like that but the only way to find out is to try.  My results are based on the past 15-20 years.

[Scott F]

In some rivers, smallmouth migrate out of their summer river tributaries into larger rivers and toward their wintering areas as summer ends and fall begins. Rivers that are dammed prohibit these migrations.

[PatrickKnight]

I fish the Great Miami year round. I don't visit the Little often but I am certain it is a year round fishery. That river is going to be on fire in the next week or so all the way into mid Nov. The fall is when I always catch my largest fish of the year in the Great Miami.

[Further North]

Way up here in Da Nort' Woods, cold snaps will usually put smallies on a feed...but then...so will warming trends...and cloudy days...and windy days...

 

Seems that if you get the right bait in the right place in the fall it's time to hang on...

 

On 9/6/2017 at 7:09 PM, Scott F said:

River fishing usually picks up as the water cools in late summer. Feeding river smallies can always be found shallow. 

Scott, up here I tend to find that's true...to a point.  When the water gets cold enough the fish tend to migrate into the deeper water in the impoundment formed by the dam.

[soflabasser]

Couple months ago on vacation I caught a couple of smallmouth bass in a river that had low 40 degree water so high 60's/low 70's degree water should be more than good enough to catch fish in a river. 

 

[Spankey]

On September 6, 2017 at 9:35 PM, Ohioguy25 said:

Thanks for all the info and advice everyone! The section of the Little Miami I am fishing is between 2-4 ft deep in most spots. I can usually see the bottom and fish swimming by in the areas I have had luck. Not sure what the water temp is but I was referring to the air temp.

I'm not trying to spend your money but a stream thermometer or even one from the pool store is an easy thing to stow in your vest or boat. My Lowrance is giving me surface temp I like to drop over my pool thermometer sometimes to get the temp 8,10,12 feet deep sometimes. 

 

Missing a a beautiful morning today because of work. Hope tomorrow am is this nice. 

[Arobb2012]

I'm a little late to this but I fish the Great and Little Miami rivers a few times a year. You should have luck using poppers and grubs this time of year. 

Anyway how did you do?

[Turkey sandwich]

I can't speak on any Ohio rivers, but from my experience, those days tend to be killer so long as you have decent water clarity and the river level isn't totally screwed up.  If I didn't have a wedding this weekend, I'd be out and targeting a lot of areas in and around fast current looking for active fish.  The heads of fast moving boulder fields, tail outs, and the heads of runs should be on fire now.  Other areas that are worth time are creek mouths, and any channels with fast current dissecting islands (especially the heads, tail outs, and any hard cover in these channels).  Also, this is a season where weed patterns on rivers can really come into play (finding good grass means finding grass that's still alive.  Get away from the clumped dead stuff, it decays, generally sucks oxygen from the water, and is rarely good).  I like it because bait fish are bigger, and I can throw larger reaction baits as opposed to fishing "power finesse" with grubs, Senkos, Ned rigs, and tubes.  Crankbaits, eratic jerk baits, spinner baits, and heavy tubes are amongst my favorites this time of year.  

 

Over my next few trips, and as I'm getting more into throwing flies, I'm probably going to be throwing big minnow and sculpin patterns in all of the areas I just mentioned to see how they perform compared to jerk baits and swim baits this time of year.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some good notes.

[evilcatfish]

Unless it's iced over, there is no such thing as too cold! The weather as described by OP sounds perfect to me 

[FryDog62]

On 9/7/2017 at 0:25 PM, gimruis said:

I fish a shallow, moderate flowing river in about an hour from my house about 4-5 times per season and I always seem to do better when its warmer out.  The months of July & August are easily the best times to be out there for numbers and size.  The water is clear and the hot weather puts their metabolism into hyper drive.  Most of the time I catch them on fast moving power tactics too.  The funny thing is, when I try going after Labor Day after we've had a couple of cooler nights (which we are having this week), I do poor.  And not just a little worse, A LOT worse.  I've gone after Labor Day a couple times the past few years and its hard to catch any smallmouth.  Not sure what the deal is there, but it drops off so much from August to September that its not even worth trying anymore.  Your river may not be like that but the only way to find out is to try.  My results are based on the past 15-20 years.

I agree, although when the water temp gets down to about 52-54 here in Minn they seem to really go on the feed before it gets below 50 when they go deep and dormant mostly.  

[IndianaOutdoors]

Here in northern Indiana the shallow creek smallies have been great the last week or so.  I guess the cold nights we have been having are starting to trigger the fall feed.  I will be very sad when they move out to the big river where i don't have as much access to them.