Do river smallmouth fight significantly harder than their lakebound brethren?

[Ohioguy25]

I have to imagine they would, spending their entire lives swimming in current. Lake smallmouth get quite a bit larger of course, but do they fight the same way as their athletic cousins, breaching like dolphins?

[ghost123123]

Most definitely!!! They are stronger and to me seem to have a more intense survival instinct.

[FryDog62]

I have caught some 21 inch smallmouth in rivers that because they work out in the current all day only weigh 4 pounds - but can out-fight many of the 5 pound smallies I’ve caught in Mille Lacs... and the Mille Lacs smallmouth are very strong. Smallmouth in rivers are street fighters and know how to turn into the current and gain leverage. 

[kayaking_kev]

Here we have a pretty new above ground reservoir that is 40 feet deep and the Smallmouth come from the nearby river. So, you take river fighting Smallies and put them in 40 feet of water and the fight is even more amazing. And, they stocked the place with 1.5 million Yellow Perch, so some of the Smallies are getting pretty big.

[Sphynx]

I think they do, had some 3lb smallmouth bow up a 7'1" MHF rod like you wouldn't believe, I just knew I done caught a salmon or a steelhead and then it jumped.

[MGF]

I don't know if they really fight harder but they use the current. 

[roadwarrior]

5 hours ago, MGF said:

I don't know if they really fight harder but they use the current. 

Not on the Tennessee River. Both smallmouith and largemouth head towards deeper water

in the middle of the river.

 

[Sphynx]

I have seen several instances just in the last month where a 3+lb smallie about ripped a rod outta my hands swimming against the current, now I'm not a physicist, but I don't think that helps them any though I admit I could be wrong...I think that fighting the current every day of their lives has the same effect on them as it would us, you gonna get real strong.

[TnRiver46]

Not in my experience. 

[J Francho]

Define fight harder.  Not sure why current makes them fight any harder.  They're just burning calories doing nothing.  Maybe if they turn sideways and use the current it feels harder?  My experience has been that most five pound plus fish dig harder for deep water.  Three pound fish or less do a lot of thrashing and jumping.  The only difference between river and lake smallmouth is they seem to have a slender body and wider tail when they live in a river.

[Tatsu Dave]

14 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I have caught some 21 inch smallmouth in rivers that because they work out in the current all day only weigh 4 pounds - but can out-fight many of the 5 pound smallies I’ve caught in Mille Lacs... and the Mille Lacs smallmouth are very strong. Smallmouth in rivers are street fighters and know how to turn into the current and gain leverage. 

Well this is something we may suspect and certain things may point us to this conclusion but we will never know. No tests I know of have been done..........I grew up fishing in the mighty Susky from the flats to the tailrace, Dam was about 100' high and it backed up the river into a 6000 acre lake. inlet valves would suck in entire fish and spit them out into a raging tailrace. Had to always be ready to cut an anchor rope if it started to pull your bow under. River below would jump up about 25' and if you drifted you would hum along at good speed. I say all this cause the smallmouth used to spawn a couple large spots along the river edge and the only cover they had was behind large rocks. A 5 pounder in the current was almost unstoppable and took heavy gear to land from shore. You could barely stand in the current 100yds below the dam. The fish were long and somewhat slender and the tails were much wider than lake fish we caught. Yes I believe they are stronger and the fight is memorable, remember my Dad was with me trolling for stripers and got hit so hard it almost took his rod! he was a big guy and held on looking at me and saying I can't hold him at all. We started the motor and chased him downstream for quite a ways till he tired and I got a net under him, he was only 3 1/2lbs! Slender body cuts thru the current better, wider tail has greater power in current, and they never get a break unless they are sheltered below large rocks. They're lean mean fighting machines  Where we fish up here in Maine we catch lake and river smallies and I feel I can tell the difference in fight....but maybe I'm just biased, I LIKE river smallmouth.   Dave

[MGF]

5 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Not on the Tennessee River. Both smallmouith and largemouth head towards deeper water

in the middle of the river.

 

I catch them in slack water sometimes but other times I get them in the fast water. We don't really have "deep water" in the middle of the river. LOL

[roadwarrior]

Well, deep is relative. It usually corresponds to the channel.

[Ohioguy25]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

Define fight harder.  Not sure why current makes them fight any harder.  They're just burning calories doing nothing.  Maybe if they turn sideways and use the current it feels harder?  My experience has been that most five pound plus fish dig harder for deep water.  Three pound fish or less do a lot of thrashing and jumping.  The only difference between river and lake smallmouth is they seem to have a slender body and wider tail when they live in a river.

I like when they dig for the bottom. That hole I found by the old mill, my personal best gave me the fight of a lifetime.

[gall]

6 hours ago, Tatsu Dave said:

Well this is something we may suspect and certain things may point us to this conclusion but we will never know. No tests I know of have been done..........I grew up fishing in the mighty Susky from the flats to the tailrace, Dam was about 100' high and it backed up the river into a 6000 acre lake. inlet valves would suck in entire fish and spit them out into a raging tailrace. Had to always be ready to cut an anchor rope if it started to pull your bow under. River below would jump up about 25' and if you drifted you would hum along at good speed. I say all this cause the smallmouth used to spawn a couple large spots along the river edge and the only cover they had was behind large rocks. A 5 pounder in the current was almost unstoppable and took heavy gear to land from shore. You could barely stand in the current 100yds below the dam. The fish were long and somewhat slender and the tails were much wider than lake fish we caught. Yes I believe they are stronger and the fight is memorable, remember my Dad was with me trolling for stripers and got hit so hard it almost took his rod! he was a big guy and held on looking at me and saying I can't hold him at all. We started the motor and chased him downstream for quite a ways till he tired and I got a net under him, he was only 3 1/2lbs! Slender body cuts thru the current better, wider tail has greater power in current, and they never get a break unless they are sheltered below large rocks. They're lean mean fighting machines  Where we fish up here in Maine we catch lake and river smallies and I feel I can tell the difference in fight....but maybe I'm just biased, I LIKE river smallmouth.   Dave

Dude I agree 100% I'm near harrisburg and man susky and the trib smallmouth are just mean junk yard dog fighters. Even the little guys will put up a strong battle.

[pdxfisher]

I catch smallmouth in rivers out here in Oregon and in a local lake. They fight really hard in both. I think that smallmouth fight the hardest when the water is clear (or fairly clear). One of my local streams (called a river) is pretty much always turbid. I don't think that the smallmouth in that river fight as hard as those in the local lake or the bigger rivers.

 

I would be hard pressed to say that the big river smallmouth I catch fight harder than the lake smallmouth - they both fight so dang hard that is beyond my ability to compare. Both the big rivers and the local lake are fairly clear when I am fishing in them for bass.

[Ohioguy25]

1 hour ago, pdxfisher said:

I catch smallmouth in rivers out here in Oregon and in a local lake. They fight really hard in both. I think that smallmouth fight the hardest when the water is clear (or fairly clear). One of my local streams (called a river) is pretty much always turbid. I don't think that the smallmouth in that river fight as hard as those in the local lake or the bigger rivers.

 

I would be hard pressed to say that the big river smallmouth I catch fight harder than the lake smallmouth - they both fight so dang hard that is beyond my ability to compare. Both the big rivers and the local lake are fairly clear when I am fishing in them for bass.

I feel like it’s almost impossible to tell as the lake/bigger river smallmouth are so much heavier.

[Dwight Hottle]

You can guess but nobody has any proof either for or against. Obviously any fish fought in current gives the fish more of an advantage when they are swimming with the current so they seem stronger from that aspect. The same thing happens in the great lakes when the wind/waves are blowing your boat away from a hooked fish digging to reach the bottom. 

[Hollada]

No.  It’s just your perception that they fight harder due to pulling against the current.

[soflabasser]

Smallmouth bass in a river use the current to their advantage which makes them fight harder compared to a equal sized smallmouth in calm water.

[newriverfisherman1953]

Smallmouth fight hard period, calm water or current.  They don’t quit. 

[Ohioguy25]

3 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Smallmouth bass in a river use the current to their advantage which makes them fight harder compared to a equal sized smallmouth in calm water.

 

10 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

You can guess but nobody has any proof either for or against. Obviously any fish fought in current gives the fish more of an advantage when they are swimming with the current so they seem stronger from that aspect. The same thing happens in the great lakes when the wind/waves are blowing your boat away from a hooked fish digging to reach the bottom. 

 

8 hours ago, Hollada said:

No.  It’s just your perception that they fight harder due to pulling against the current.

They would have to be stronger from regularly swimming in current 

[soflabasser]

22 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

They would have to be stronger from regularly swimming in current 

Fish that live in current tend to be stronger for their size but they still use the current to their advantage. For example a snook fights harder in a inlet with a strong current than a equal sized snook in a canal with little to no current. Same can be said for other species of fish in similar situations.

[J Francho]

11 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

They would have to be stronger from regularly swimming in current 

Swimming against the current is just swimming, only slower.  It's like saying someone runs faster because they only run uphill.

[Ohioguy25]

55 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Swimming against the current is just swimming, only slower.  It's like saying someone runs faster because they only run uphill.

No, it’s like saying someone has more muscle/stamina from running uphill. Same applies to any animal who regular exercises with any kind of resistence. No one’s debating how fast the river dwelling smallmouth is, but how strong they are. 

11 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Fish that live in current tend to be stronger for their size but they still use the current to their advantage. For example a snook fights harder in a inlet with a strong current than a equal sized snook in a canal with little to no current. Same can be said for other species of fish in similar situations.

So I guess it’s a question of which one plays a bigger role? I can’t see how a fish who swims against current their entire lives isn’t inherently stronger than one who swims in a lake.