River Smallies

[Birdman2136]

Hey guys I’ve found myself fishing the river more and more each year. I generally do well with a top water and craw colored cranks. 

 

Anywho... my best days obviously come in spring and fall... so for the days in summer where I struggle to get bites I’m wondering what you guys typically focus on for finding fish. 

 

I always start around 430-5am to beat the heat come summer, but still some days can be slow. 

[Scott F]

I usually find my best river fishing often comes in the middle of the day. During the summer, I always concentrate on finding the fastest flow I can and I don’t spend much time where the current slows down. 

[BoatSquirrel]

I usually have 3 rods in the kayak with me for river smallie fishing.  You already have numbers 1 and 2.  My #3 is a slower option. Take your pick- a ned, flik-shake, shaky head, for shallower faster streams, or a dropshot if the creek is slower with more pools.  

Good luck with it man!

[Djohn]

I look for current with breaks like large rocks or other debris. Senkos are a great option for river bass or my favorite a Fat Ika.

[Black Hawk Basser]

Swift current with current breaks.  The local river has many low-head dams; right below them in the white water is where I catch the best quality fish with square bills.

[NYWayfarer]

3 hours ago, Djohn said:

I look for current with breaks like large rocks or other debris. Senkos are a great option for river bass or my favorite a Fat Ika.

I agree. Looking for rocks and current breaks and floating a Senko past them is a great strategy.

 

Tube style baits dragged and hopped along the bottom, while snaggy work great for me.

[Birdman2136]

Thanks for the info guys. Since I typically float the river in my kayak I'm definitely not putting enough focus on these areas as I sweep by them pretty quick. 

 

Sounds like I most likely just need to focus on different areas from what I do in spring and fall. Also I'll have to start getting out of my kayak more often... 

[HookInMouth]

A kayak is a great way to find these areas and exploit them. That's really the only way I fish rivers now. 

[gim]

I have been doing really well in rivers in MN. Topwater where there’s shade or a crawl colored shallow crank has been effective. The key is current. Faster moving water has more oxygen, thus it has more fish.

[padon]

yes current and current breaks. don't fool with the deeper slower stuff much. youll be surprised how shallow smallmouth will be in summer as long as theres current , a little cover and food.

[Birdman2136]

3 hours ago, padon said:

yes current and current breaks. don't fool with the deeper slower stuff much. youll be surprised how shallow smallmouth will be in summer as long as theres current , a little cover and food.

Right on. The amount of crawdads I see.. I wonder why those fish would even bother hitting a top water lure.

[Turkey sandwich]

There are at least 2-3 other threads on this same topic posted over the past 2 months.  I'd start by giving those a read. 

[smalljaw67]

As others have said, look for riffles, the ones with swift current that produces white caps are the best. The riffles have oxygen rich water which is why you'll find smallmouth there. I usually fish those spots with 2 different baits, a shallow running crank or a fluke but the crank is the first bait I try.

[Birdman2136]

On 8/9/2019 at 12:10 PM, Turkey sandwich said:

There are at least 2-3 other threads on this same topic posted over the past 2 months.  I'd start by giving those a read. 

Thanks for the input. You're vast knowledge is much appreciated.

[M0xxie]

Shaded, rocky areas.  So I was out today on a small creek in a wooded area, the entire stretch was shaded, and I started out on an area that has a lot of rip-rapped bank.  Caught 3 right off the bat. 

 

Continued fishing upstream along a sandbar around some laydown logs -- the bottom was sand/mud mix with no boulders.  No bites.  Must have been there 20 mins fishing what I considered to be good cover, and continued upstream where there was more rip-rap. 

 

Exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) where where the bank transitioned from sand/mud to rip-rap I caught 4 more in short succession.

 

Smallmouth fishing means finding boulders and starting there.  Yes, smallmouth need more oxygenated water than other species, and ideally there would be some whitewater upstream, but they're not like trout (in there, battling the heavy current for hours on end).  All other things being equal, find the boulders and you find smallmouth.

[smalljaw67]

5 hours ago, M0xxie said:

Shaded, rocky areas.  So I was out today on a small creek in a wooded area, the entire stretch was shaded, and I started out on an area that has a lot of rip-rapped bank.  Caught 3 right off the bat. 

 

Continued fishing upstream along a sandbar around some laydown logs -- the bottom was sand/mud mix with no boulders.  No bites.  Must have been there 20 mins fishing what I considered to be good cover, and continued upstream where there was more rip-rap. 

 

Exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) where where the bank transitioned from sand/mud to rip-rap I caught 4 more in short succession.

 

Smallmouth fishing means finding boulders and starting there.  Yes, smallmouth need more oxygenated water than other species, and ideally there would be some whitewater upstream, but they're not like trout (in there, battling the heavy current for hours on end).  All other things being equal, find the boulders and you find smallmouth.

Riffles don't mean fish have to fight heavy current for hours on end, at least in the rivers I fish. Riffles are made up of 3 spots, the "push water", which is the flat area above the riffle when the water begins to get shallower and the current picks up. The riffle itself, which is a shallow area with rocks mixed which makes the faster current really turbulent, think of it like driving on a road littered with potholes while doing 60MPH. Then you have the pool, the area behind the riffle where the water becomes deeper and the current slows down, this is the staging area where fish move up to the riffle to feed and then back down to the pool to hold. 

[Turkey sandwich]

On 8/20/2019 at 1:18 PM, Birdman2136 said:

Thanks for the input. You're vast knowledge is much appreciated.

My wisdom is nothing compared to the vast knowledge of the search feature.

[M0xxie]

5 hours ago, smalljaw67 said:

Riffles don't mean fish have to fight heavy current for hours on end, at least in the rivers I fish. Riffles are made up of 3 spots, the "push water", which is the flat area above the riffle when the water begins to get shallower and the current picks up. The riffle itself, which is a shallow area with rocks mixed which makes the faster current really turbulent, think of it like driving on a road littered with potholes while doing 60MPH. Then you have the pool, the area behind the riffle where the water becomes deeper and the current slows down, this is the staging area where fish move up to the riffle to feed and then back down to the pool to hold. 

Is this the same smalljaw from youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/smalljaw/videos)?  Some really great ties/lure designs on that channel, regardless.

 

So you might actually land some smallmouth from the "pothole" zone, you mention, with the faster current; as you say in your reply, though, there tend to be more fish located in the third area you mentioned where the water is less broken where they can set up looking in on the seam/break while conserving energy, so I think we're in agreement there.  The eddy, the pool, the backbreak is the area where I'm going to start before targeting the pothole zone.  If I was targeting trout, it would be just the reverse.

 

In the example I was giving, the area with the laydowns and no bites actually had faster flow with more broken water than the areas with the riprap bank.  My point was smallmouth generally don't behave like trout, wherein trout will primarily be located in broken water/heavier current/riffles.

 

Seasonally, we know water levels/flow can vary significantly in rivers and streams -- and higher flows with increased turbidity can actually be detrimental to smallmouth development -- however smallmouth affinity for boulder/cobble/gravel substrate doesn't seem to change very much, seasonally or over their lifespan.

 

TL;DR:  Don't limit yourself to fishing broken water/riffles for smallmouth.

 

Sources:

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a323294.pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02705060.2015.1025867

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8659(1970)99<44%3AMADOSB>2.0.CO%3B2

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/37010/1/20071201-AEL-SteinR-Habitat.pdf

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2002/nc_2002_bozek_001.pdf

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1bd6/58fe7db15f97da882a5779ef4b25d533669d.pdf

https://www.bemidjistate.edu/directory/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/10/Hafs-A_-W_-2007_-Smallmouth-bass-survival-movement-and-habitat-use-in-response-to-seasonally-discontinuous-surface-flow_-Ma.pdf

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a323294.pdf

 

 

 

 

[smalljaw67]

15 hours ago, M0xxie said:

Is this the same smalljaw from youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/smalljaw/videos)?  Some really great ties/lure designs on that channel, regardless.

 

So you might actually land some smallmouth from the "pothole" zone, you mention, with the faster current; as you say in your reply, though, there tend to be more fish located in the third area you mentioned where the water is less broken where they can set up looking in on the seam/break while conserving energy, so I think we're in agreement there.  The eddy, the pool, the backbreak is the area where I'm going to start before targeting the pothole zone.  If I was targeting trout, it would be just the reverse.

 

In the example I was giving, the area with the laydowns and no bites actually had faster flow with more broken water than the areas with the riprap bank.  My point was smallmouth generally don't behave like trout, wherein trout will primarily be located in broken water/heavier current/riffles.

 

Seasonally, we know water levels/flow can vary significantly in rivers and streams -- and higher flows with increased turbidity can actually be detrimental to smallmouth development -- however smallmouth affinity for boulder/cobble/gravel substrate doesn't seem to change very much, seasonally or over their lifespan.

 

TL;DR:  Don't limit yourself to fishing broken water/riffles for smallmouth.

 

Sources:

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a323294.pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02705060.2015.1025867

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8659(1970)99<44%3AMADOSB>2.0.CO%3B2

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/37010/1/20071201-AEL-SteinR-Habitat.pdf

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2002/nc_2002_bozek_001.pdf

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1bd6/58fe7db15f97da882a5779ef4b25d533669d.pdf

https://www.bemidjistate.edu/directory/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/10/Hafs-A_-W_-2007_-Smallmouth-bass-survival-movement-and-habitat-use-in-response-to-seasonally-discontinuous-surface-flow_-Ma.pdf

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a323294.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I'm the same person as on YouTube.  I think you misunderstood, you are correct and I'm in 100% agreement with your assessment. I'm assuming the OP is wading based on his post and finding a transition area might not be an easy feat but a riffle is visible. I was just making the point that riffles are a high percentage area during the "dog days" and the fish don't have to be fighting current for long periods as they hold in the slow moving pools behind the riffle. So I wasn't trying to contradict your advice, I simply though the riffle would be a better place to find fish based on my assumption that the OP is wading.

[bowhunter63]

Don’t forget hair jigs , I have killed them this summer on them.