What should I look for in good smallmouth water?

[RealtreeByGod]

Wanting to get into river fishing for smallies, not expecting any giants because I don't think my most local river is a very healthy fishery, but catching under 2lb fish on an ultralight is enough to keep me entertained.

 

What kind of depth, bottom composition, current, turbidity, and structure should I be looking for? The few places I have bank access to that I've looked so far at have are slow-moving with sandy bottoms without much in the way of obvious structure aside from a handful of shallow laydowns.   

[Scott F]

If you want to be successful at river fishing for smallies, first, you'll have to get off the bank and get into the river either by floating in a kayak, canoe or personal pontoon, or by wading. Slow moving water is usually ok but only when it is next to fast moving water. They could easily be feeding in inches of water or several feet. They could be on rocks, wood, weeds or sand. Too many variables for any one solid answer. Where they are holding can vary from day to day depending on conditions. Get out and cover some water, you'll find them.

[HookInMouth]

I'm still learning so a lot of my assumptions could be dead wrong. If they are I'm sure someone will tell you to ignore me (no offense will be taken). My local river averages about 2-5' and is considered a "lazy river". It's about 250' wide in most spots. Some rifles where the river narrows or rocks protrude but generally speaking, it's a slow 2mph float in normal levels. I'm a kayak angler so that's my access.  

 

I've generally found smallies close to the bank. Like, very close. Within a foot or two. Sometimes the water is very shallow there. Strikes happen almost immediately after the lure hits the water. I mainly fish the outside of bends and have had good luck doing that so far. I have had luck in faster moving water between old bridge piers (faster is relative).  

 

Current seams hold fish. Anywhere that I can see faster water moving beside slower water (you'll notice the water will actually move upstream in some of these places). I also watch for disturbances in the water, little eddys that for seemingly out of nowhere that indicate rocks below that the fish may orient themselves on.   

 

Other than that I throw lures at cover. Down trees. Rocks.

 

Scott F also brought up a good point... where they are now probably isn't where they will be tomorrow. They seem nomadic to me. I don't have a "spot" really. I do a lot of sight fishing. I float down and look. When I see them I turn around and paddle up stream and fish the area back down. 

 

If you are bank fishing and it's within your means I strongly encourage you to check out kayaks. There's nothing like it in a small river.  

[Choporoz]

1 hour ago, RealtreeByGod said:

What should I look for in good smallmouth water?

@A-Jay's wake

[A-Jay]

18 hours ago, Choporoz said:

@A-Jay's wake

That's Awesome !!!! 

But you may be too late by then . . . 

A-Jay

[Bird]

River Smallmouth are a particularly easy fish to catch but as mentioned, get in the river and float and enjoy some nice action with about anything in your tackle box. 

Find drop offs and eddies.....eddies are turbulence behind big rocks that may or may not be exposed but you'll notice that the current is actually flowing in a circle and sometimes back up river.....they'll be one hiding there.

[J.Vincent]

 (A) Always consider any type of current break, where you can see current sweeping past an object (tire, rock, tree, island, peninsula, concrete...etc) and fish the slack water behind it. (B) Fish the current seams with moving baits. (C) If all else fails float a live craw or Leach a few feet beneath a bobber and let the current sweep it down the river....But your better fish holding areas will almost always be A and B.

[billmac]

Definitely get in the river.  Anything that breaks the current is what you should be looking for. Big rocks, downed trees, anything the fish can get behind to get out of the current and ambush prey when it goes by.

[M0xxie]

In a word, look for "rocks": rocky bluffs, boulders, big rocks, riprap, gravel, cobble, sandy bottom.  Rocky bottom with overhanging trees downstream from broken water is A+ habitat.

 

Some sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

"What kind of depth, bottom composition, current, turbidity, and structure should I be looking for?" Rocks provide important habitat factors all at once: shelter, less turbid water, current breaks, shade, oxygenation (if rock breaks water surface), temperature regulation, forage areas for prey, etc...you could go out and look for each factor individually, or just find the rocks!

 

[SineWave]

Thanks for those great links, M0xxie!

[Drew03cmc]

On 9/6/2019 at 12:04 PM, RealtreeByGod said:

Wanting to get into river fishing for smallies, not expecting any giants because I don't think my most local river is a very healthy fishery, but catching under 2lb fish on an ultralight is enough to keep me entertained.

 

What kind of depth, bottom composition, current, turbidity, and structure should I be looking for? The few places I have bank access to that I've looked so far at have are slow-moving with sandy bottoms without much in the way of obvious structure aside from a handful of shallow laydowns.   

Man, find a creek, go wading. Fish anything that looks good and you'll quickly realize where they're at. Look closer and you'll realize why they're there.

 

For example, the water in the top picture is really skinny and shallow, mostly sub-1'. Halfway up the pic, there is a rock in water that current scoured out an 18" deep hole behind it. The second pic is a 30 yard long hole that ranges from 1 foot deep to 6 or so against the far bank. There are three boulders in the water against the bank as well as a tree. This hole always produces numbers as well as size. The bottom picture is typical creek habitat my son is fishing, shallow weeds, less than 2 feet deep running along a very shallow run of about 6". 

 

The reason I suggest a creek is to learn what the fish relate to and how. They hold on the same stuff in a big river, but to a larger degree. 

 

Also, creekin' is an absolute blast!

[king fisher]

I break a river down to four categories.  Slow moving runs and flats, with little current.  Riffles, with medium to strong current. Holes.  Tail outs of wholes, and runs.  Fish in tail outs and riffles will be very actively feeding.  Holes and slow runs will have both active and resting fish.  I fish the tail out of a hole first, then work my way to the head.

Within these four categories will be many prime locations.  Usually a rock, tree, undercut bank, or any other current break or ambush location.   Current seams can be very productive, especially at the head of deep holes.  Fish may rest in a deep hole most of the day, then move in to feeling lanes in faster water to feed.  Current breaks, such as large rocks can have resting fish even in faster water.  I always fish the faster feeding lanes first, then slow down and fish the deeper holes and slow flats.  Even a lazy resting fish will hit a properly presented lure in most rivers.  Fish in moving water wont pass up many opportunities for an easy meal.