I thought river smallmouth hit live bait year round?

[Ohioguy25]

I went to my usual spot yesterday where I’m consistently able to catch 10 fish. I only caught 2.  The water temp was hovering around 50 but this shouldn’t be cold enough to shut them down completely if they hit year round, should it? I was using live minnows. Same thing happened last time I went, and it was even warmer then. No rain or high water, low clear conditions. Do you think even with live bait the bite gets harder the later it gets in the year?

[Finessegenics]

The fish are always moving, especially with the changing water temperatures/conditions. Either they weren’t there which I believe is the case, since you mentioned you struggled before with even warmer weather, or maybe they just weren’t interested for whatever reason. 
 

We get stumped when we try to create future success on past results. I know you’re only using live bait and are shore-bound so there are limitations to what you can do, but fish the conditions. You may have caught them in that hole in 50 degree water before but tiny changes like slightly dipping overnight temps or the migration of their forage or a thousand other possibilities we do not have understanding of, could have moved them. 

 

 

 

 

 

[bowhunter63]

In the fall we used to use big chubs and fish the lifts  in the river. We caught them up till ice. Big baits worked good till the water dropped in temp below about 50. Or maybe even try suckers

 

[Ohioguy25]

1 hour ago, bowhunter63 said:

In the fall we used to use big chubs and fish the lifts  in the river. We caught them up till ice. Big baits worked good till the water dropped in temp below about 50. Or maybe even try suckers

 

Ice and water temps below 50 is a big diff. We’re still a ways away from ice here but the water has been hovering around 48 for a couple weeks.

[bowhunter63]

Down size your bait

[TnRiver46]

River/creek smallmouth fishing sucks when it’s cold for me. Lakes, that’s a whole different animal. They love cold water in lakes and bite like crazy 

[roadwarrior]

I don't know...My biggest smallmouth have been caught in January

on the Tennessee River below Pickwick Dam.

 

 

 

 

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[Michigander]

Or maybe someone threw a mountain bike into the river 50 yards up and now that's the cool place to be. I've found that rivers change a lot and sometimes suddenly. Just depends what the weather is doing and/or what washed downstream. For all we know, their favorite rock at that spot is buried now and they moved on.

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

I don't know...My biggest smallmouth have been caught in January

on the Tennessee River below Pickwick Dam.

 

 

 

 

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Well I mean free stone streams

with no dams. Tail waters below dams are great in winter because of the constant water temp 

[roadwarrior]

Well, the temperature below Bull Shoals is a constant 53*, but the Tennessee

River releases vary with the temperature of lake water. 

[TnRiver46]

The rivers without dams (except mill style spill over dams) like the OP is fishing get extremely tough for any catching during winter period in my experience. I’ve even walked through such rivers after hours of winter skunk and couldn’t spook a fish. Reservoirs and their tail waters remain very good fishing, and even round natural lakes up north have biting fish up until ice and then through the ice. I would suggest trying to find more stable water that doesn’t get shocked by cold overnight temps regularly 

[MGF]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

The rivers without dams (except mill style spill over dams) like the OP is fishing get extremely tough for any catching during winter period in my experience. I’ve even walked through such rivers after hours of winter skunk and couldn’t spook a fish. Reservoirs and their tail waters remain very good fishing, and even round natural lakes up north have biting fish up until ice and then through the ice. I would suggest trying to find more stable water that doesn’t get shocked by cold overnight temps regularly 

I do most of my fishing in a small shallow river (the Tippecanoe). I've had some of my best days in October and we've had years where we caught bass all the way into December.

 

This year it's already done and I can't find any fish. I took a trip down river to the reservoir and I talked to guys who are catching SMB. I stopped a tackle shop and they said the bass moved down early this year.

 

Usually I'm hunting this time of year with only the occasional river trip if we get really nice weather. This year I tried to keep fishing but the fish left town. 

 

I was going to haul the boat down river yesterday to try to get in on some of this but after getting all packed up found I had a flat tire when I went to hitch the boat...so I took the day off work just to get a flat fixed. LOL

 

[Ohioguy25]

15 minutes ago, MGF said:

I do most of my fishing in a small shallow river (the Tippecanoe). I've had some of my best days in October and we've had years where we caught bass all the way into December.

 

This year it's already done and I can't find any fish. I took a trip down river to the reservoir and I talked to guys who are catching SMB. I stopped a tackle shop and they said the bass moved down early this year.

 

Usually I'm hunting this time of year with only the occasional river trip if we get really nice weather. This year I tried to keep fishing but the fish left town. 

 

I was going to haul the boat down river yesterday to try to get in on some of this but after getting all packed up found I had a flat tire when I went to hitch the boat...so I took the day off work just to get a flat fixed. LOL

 

Where do they go?

[MGF]

27 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Where do they go?

 They go to larger/deeper water to winter. In this case I think down river toward the reservoir. I was told they're catching them now.

 

From what I read river/stream smallmouth sometimes migrate a long way.

[Ohioguy25]

3 minutes ago, MGF said:

 They go to larger/deeper water to winter. In this case I think down river toward the reservoir. I was told they're catching them now.

 

From what I read river/stream smallmouth sometimes migrate a long way.

Bummer. There are a couple big fish that I am regularly able to catch at a couple of my spots on the river which when I paddled found them in the deeper water just downstream from the current where I normally caught them. Are these their wintering holes or are these fish likely still active?

[Spankey]

I take it you are pretty new to all this. I’m willing to bet on the flip side in the spring you’ll struggle to find them and then all of a sudden BANG they appear. I’m pretty much a life long river rat. Early spring and later fall has always been a struggle. Never could really catch on to the pre spawn. Had times in the fall where I hammered them on Columbus Day and a week later and after it was a struggle. It’s all fishing. Or they would call it catching. I’m no biologist but I don’t think it takes much in temperature swings to effect their metabolism. Then Michigan River Smallies will vary to Pensy River Smallies will vary from Georgia River Smallies. In my area I believe the fall lalapolusa is mid Sept. to end of October. Regardless of temperatures. 

[Ohioguy25]

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

I take it you are pretty new to all this. I’m willing to bet on the flip side in the spring you’ll struggle to find them and then all of a sudden BANG they appear. I’m pretty much a life long river rat. Early spring and later fall has always been a struggle. Never could really catch on to the pre spawn. Had times in the fall where I hammered them on Columbus Day and a week later and after it was a struggle. It’s all fishing. Or they would call it catching. I’m no biologist but I don’t think it takes much in temperature swings to effect their metabolism. Then Michigan River Smallies will vary to Pensy River Smallies will vary from Georgia River Smallies. In my area I believe the fall lalapolusa is mid Sept. to end of October. Regardless of temperatures. 

So it’s not just that they’re not there, even if I were able to locate the fish they wouldn’t even hit a live minnow?

[Spankey]

22 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

So it’s not just that they’re not there, even if I were able to locate the fish they wouldn’t even hit a live minnow?

Maybe not. Could be metabolism slowing down. You have to figure your tossing them a minnow. There are a bunch of native minnow in that area. They don’t need you to feed them. Please don’t take that wrong way. I’m referring to what the fish will react to. 

A lot of time I think the fish are there and the bite just totally drops off. Especially if it’s a place that is deep enough for the wintering. 

[roadwarrior]

C'mon...

The Tennessee is full of all kinds of fish and they all eat minnows.

Still, I don't get bit on every cast.

[MGF]

I think it's going to depend on the river. I know smallmouth will migrate assuming they have someplace to migrate to. Does that mean that 100% of them migrate? I doubt it but the only catching happening in my river right now is 20 miles down river. It's not any warmer down there. They're not even catching them deep...but maybe deeper than what we have available up here. I don't think bass could survive a bad winter in my section of river, especially, as low as the water is now. 

 

As far as I know you should still be able to catch them in their wintering area. They may feed but can still be caught. I've caught bass through the ice.

[MGF]

56 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

C'mon...

The Tennessee is full of all kinds of fish and they all eat minnows.

Still, I don't get bit on every cast.

I don't know what river the OP is talking about but my river isn't anything at all like the Tennessee. 

 

A hole right now is 3 or 4 ft deep and not very large. I know of one or two places deeper but they're really small. And those "holes" can be far apart.

[TnRiver46]

44 minutes ago, MGF said:

I don't know what river the OP is talking about but my river isn't anything at all like the Tennessee. 

 

A hole right now is 3 or 4 ft deep and not very large. I know of one or two places deeper but they're really small. And those "holes" can be far apart.

The Tennessee River where road warrior fishes is a tail water below a 100 foot tall dam.  Usually over 50,000 cfs of current and always lots of depth changes, main channel below most TN river dams is approaching 20 feet 

[Ohioguy25]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

The Tennessee River where road warrior fishes is a tail water below a 100 foot tall dam.  Usually over 50,000 cfs of current and always lots of depth changes, main channel below most TN river dams is approaching 20 feet 

Yeah completely different water than what I’m in, I’m fishing a creek like MGF, averaging 3-5 ft. There are deeper holes but not much more than 10-15 ft max.

[TnRiver46]

15 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Yeah completely different water than what I’m in, I’m fishing a creek like MGF, averaging 3-5 ft. There are deeper holes but not much more than 10-15 ft max.

In a creek like that, a smallmouth can probably go for a week or more without eating a single thing 

[Ohioguy25]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

In a creek like that, a smallmouth can probably go for a week or more without eating a single thing 

Why is that?