Al - I have a few theories as to why there are fewer smallmouth in Alley than the other Ozark springs.
1. I think many of the larger smallmouth are in the spring branch and even the mill pond pool where fishing is not allowed
2. There tends to be heavy exploitation of smallmouth in the winter and early spring where Alley Spring enters the Jacks Fork. It is easy to access the confluence and fish the first several hundred yards of river below the spring because of the road on the North Side. The length limit is 12 inches in that part of the river and some people keep all of those small, legal sized fish they catch.
3. If people are keeping those 12 and 13 inch fish, they never have a chance to get larger.
4. Not all smallmouth go to springs in the winter, so if fisherman are harvesting that segment of the population that do use springs when the fish are 12 inches long, then there will not be large fish.
5. The depth of the river right below alley does not allow for a large number of fish compared to say the confluence at Big Spring on the Current River.
6. The temperature advantages of Alley Spring fade quickly as you move downstream and while the water may be a couple of degrees warmer a mile below the spring, it is probably not a strong enough benefit to draw large smallmouth from other parts of the river.
Just my thoughts.
