Smallie fshing in heavy whitewater rapids

[throttleplate]

I fished this dropoff from the main dam, maybe a 2 foot drop and a total washing machine. For the heck of it i casted right into it with a square bill floating crank and it tumbled for a few seconds. I couldnt feel the lure getting washed around so i wasnt expecting much to happen but maybe i lose the lure.

Well slap me silly as i started to reel it in it had heavy tension and i thought snag in the rocks or hooked on a clump of zebra musscles. All of a sudden a fish jumps out of that heavy whitewash and i figured fish on and yes indeed.

This smallie in this current made for a very fun catch especially using a 7 ft medium slow tipped rod which is the berkley cherrywood.

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Some of the biggest Alabama Bass I've caught were at a place where a lake has an overflow drain that flows into the Cahaba River.    When it's really flooded, the water being released in the Cahaba is ridiculously turbulent, like you describe.

 

Like you I would throw a form of a lipless crankbait right into the middle of the "boiling" portion of the water, and within seconds I'd be hooked up.

 

It's amazing these fish can find eddies or some kind of underwater feature to tuck into while they wait to ambush prey being sucked down and spit out by dams, and drains.

 

Great job, being unorthodox and curious.   Beautiful fish as well! 

[Finessegenics]

I've been surprised a few times too. And you're right, it always feels like a snag for the first few seconds

[PaulVE64]

I'm normally dead drifting a senko in heavy current.

 

A few small twitches and long pauses letting it get to bottom in the tailout is a trial to your patience but a big smallie eventually grabs it.

I also grow a half senko, weightless, on an long skhank ewg hook that has rubber legs/maribou/hair/feathers tied on. Smallies rarely attack that kind of presentation, i suppose they're just curious. The bite is almost always super light and 90% of the time I am nose hooking them.which is important because the rod is understandably light and noodly.

[bowhunter63]

Nice one. Bet that was a blast

[roadwarrior]

Never seen a smallmouth that dark, she's a beauty!

[PaulVE64]

I prefer them when they're all barred up and darker.

And the bright green ones are always smaller.

[MassBass]

Absolutely I was at a river some weeks back and I caught about 30 smallmouth in 2 hours. The fish were in rapids, small turbulent pools, and above falls. They must climb this stuff like a salmon. I usually like pools after the rapids, but I learned they would literally be in the most turbulent whitewater. Here is some pictures

[hpbcrillo]

Yep...I've been fishing below a spillway and the fish are not in the calm water...but in the fastest current.  I wish I had thought to throw a rattletrap...but have been doing well with a fluke.

[Deleted account]

I've got a couple of spots where feeder creeks or culverts feed into a body of water and are a slow flow, trickle, or even dry most of the time, when those things rage into the lake, it's lights out. The flow is so intense, you'd think it would be too hard for fish to feed there, it's not.

[Swamp Girl]

That sounds super exciting.

 

I was fishing below a waterfall in northwestern Ontario once. The water was going every which way. I cast a leech under a slip bobber into it and let the current carry it away from me. The bobber would be yanked to the left and right by the current, but then it would slowly disappear. That was a walleye. 

[TnRiver46]

When it’s like this, smallmouth fishing is pretty awesome 

 

when it’s like this, the fishing is probably awesome but I don’t really want to drown 

[nbbassin]

I love the white water,  use the current to position the lure. The smallies wait by the the edge for something drift by in the eddies. Also have my second rod with something heavy to get down through the current to fish the rocks and wood that lighter lures never get to.