Ohioguy25 Posted November 17, 2020 Posted November 17, 2020 When I say creek I don’t mean a small river, I mean a shallow tributary of a river that averages 3-6” deep. A creek that you can walk through and step on rocks without actually getting your feet wet throughout much of it. A creek you can go “creeking” in with little kids. I was scouting out spots to drop a minnow trap in a stretch that was a little deeper, maybe 1-2 ft, when I noticed a very large fish swim by. Had to have been at least 13”. It was yellow so I assumed it was a sucker as I figured smallmouth were much more elusive and spent most of their time hiding and would not be seen out swimming around in the open. Then it turned and I saw the stripes and a black tipped tail, I was in shock. Mostly because I can’t overstate how unlikely this body of water is for a smallmouth this large. I sat and watched it swim for about 20 minutes and before long noticed 3-4 others, juveniles, in tow. After a little while of enjoying this rare sighting I quietly retreated to go get some worms. I stopped to grab some food too as I figured they lived or at least hung in that general area for the time being. I got back and I didn’t see them, I cast a few dozen times in every direction covering everywhere I could reach, mostly just halfway across the stream and to my left and right. It is shallow and clear enough that if they were right there still one of them would’ve bit. How far do you suppose they traveled, do you think they might be back tomorrow or are still in the general vicinity? The creek is a tributary of a relatively large river, the Great Miami that feeds into the Ohio. I was about a mile from the mouth of the creek. The Great Miami holds some very large smallmouth and an abundance of different species including pike, Muskie and gar. Do you think the smallmouth went up the creek when the water was high after a rain and got trapped? Or do you think they have lived there for a while, and if so why? Sorry for the long ass post I just thought that was pretty cool, gonna go back tomorrow armed with some tackle and try to catch them. Here is a pic, this is the clearest one I was able to get. You can’t see the momma as she was hiding under a rock: https://ibb.co/PYN6Lwt 2 Quote
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