First Smallmouth And Float

[mic]

Made a weekend trip to Meramec State park with the family. We made our first float on this river, and my wife and I caught our first smallmouths. Nothing of size but fun none the less. Caught ten or so, but lost the biggest one of the day. I grew up in a canoe in still water, but trying to get used to controlling it in a river. We had zero luck in the deep slow pulls. Is this dead water in the smallmouth world?

[Chief Grey Bear]

No kiddin? That was your first one ever? Even so, great job there! You got the family out and you all got to float, see some wildlife, and just plain ol' have a fantastic time on the river.

I don't find a lot of smallmouth in slow water. Though I do occasionally find one here and there. So there must be more, just very finicky. Probably due to the fact that they have more time to decide if they want to eat it or not.

So how come we don't see a pic or her first?? Smallmouth that is! You make her work the camera all day????

Congrats on a great outing!!!

[mic]

So how come we don't see a pic or her first?? Smallmouth that is! You make her work the camera all day????

Congrats on a great outing!!!

I was working on keeping the canoe straight and fishing at the same time...and...she had the camera in the front.

[ozark trout fisher]

Great job on your first smallie! On the big rivers like the Meramec the really slow holes are pretty dead for smallmouth. Not to say there aren't any, but they still usually aren't worth spending much time on. On the smaller tributary creeks it can be entirely different. I just fished a little stream today where the smallmouth bass were pretty much all concentrated in the slow pools, because those were about the only places deep enough to hold them. But on a river like the Meramec, focus on the riffles, and short, rocky pools, at least until about late October.

[Gavin]

Looks like a great time!

[Al Agnew]

The deep, slow pools are sanctuaries, but that isn't where most of the food is. So if smallies are in the middle portions of the big pools on a river like the Meramec, they are inactive and probably won't hit a lure. If they are hungry and active they'll be in shallower, more moving water because that's where most of their food is. Keep in mind though, that those big deep pools are where a lot of them will be in the late fall and winter.