Potential Spotted Bass Habitat?

[bigbassin']

Tried a creek today which the downstream portion was roughly 3-4' deep, slow moving, and 1' visibility.  Clay bottom with several laydowns.  This section looked like traditional small creek largemouth fishing.  Biggest red flag besides not getting a hit was that I din't see a single baitfish or other sign of life in this area.

 

The upstream portion consisted of shoals that were 1-2' deep.  The water seemed much cleaner in this portion and the location just looked more appealing than the downstream section.  Freestone bottom with a couple of larger boulders mixed in.  If I were 75 miles north I'd assume that section would be trout water, not bass. 

 

I've never caught a largemouth in current moving that fast so I would think spots would be the only potential bass to catch.  Will spots live around fast-moving shoals?  If so how would you recommend fishing it?  I was switching between dragging and swimming a jig, trying to get it to pass on the downstream side of anything blocking the current or through the runs.

 

Water temp is 65 and rising if that helps.

[TnRiver46]

Spots can certainly live in fast water but so can largemouth. I catch spots on all the same tackle as LM and SM, in the rivers I fish there are portions you can go year after year and catch almost all spotted bass. It seems when they get a population going in a small area, they become firmly entrenched. In creeks like you described, I love fishing a 1/16 oz Texas rig 4 inch zoom lizard

[Beeno]

Spider jigs 

yup that’s it.

[ohboyitsrobby]

In my personal experience spotted bass can live anywhere. And generally where there's 1 there's a solid population. Anytime I'm fishing a small river or creek I'm gonna start with a rebel wee craw. That'll pretty much catch anything that swims.