Like Ollie said, its apples and oranges comparing stream Smallies to lake fish. Lakes tend to be stable during the spawn, at least when compared to streams, and will always have a lot of areas unseen. Streams had the protection of off color and higher levels during the spawn as a rule, but that hasn't been true for many years now. You can often fish an area in which you can see every inch of the bottom, or so you think, but there will be Smallies hidden there, but when they build a nest its seen by all.
People believe that stream Smallies are protected by law during the spawning season, and they are, by law and little else.