The Mystery Of Winter Smallmouth

[Al Agnew]

On the smaller floatable streams I most often fish, I average around 50 bass per day during the warm weather months. Have averaged about that for many years, some years a little more, some a little less. On good days I might catch close to 100, on bad days maybe 30. Half or a little fewer will be over 12 inches.

Put it another way...I average about 5 per mile. Now, I highly doubt that I'm catching an appreciable percentage of the bass that are living in that stretch. In really clear streams, I've come across schools of smallies in the summer that will have 30 or more in a small area. So just a wild guess...I'm betting there are well over hundred bass longer than, say, 10 inches, per mile on a good small but floatable Ozark stream. Maybe several hundred.

Now, I think I know something about catching smallies in the winter. There are others who know more, some of whom I fish with and learn all I can from. But, the fact is that in these smaller streams I should be able to figure out exactly where the fish are in the winter--the possibilities would seem to be pretty limited. Big, deep, slow pools are far from common on these streams. Maybe one per mile. So there should be a hundred or more smallies in that one pool, right?

Well, if they are, they are well hidden.

What got me to thinking about this (well, I think about it a lot, but this got me to posting it) was a friend who told me he'd caught a tagged smallie on one of the bigger, better winter streams. This fish was tagged in a smaller, floatable tributary last summer. The place where he caught it is at least 40 miles downstream from the tributary (and it was probably tagged several miles up the tributary).

Past studies of Ozark smallies in slightly larger streams than the ones I'm talking about showed they seldom traveled more than a few hundred yards, but those were not winter studies. This tagged fish might be telling us that at least some smallies move a long way to get to a good wintering hole. But how many of them do so? Let's say, for the sake of argument, that half of them move out of the smaller tributaries in the winter. In the case of this particular larger stream, there are at least 90 miles of smaller tributaries entering it above where that fish was caught. Maybe several thousand fish would be moving out of those tributaries in that case. Several thousand fish in addition to the fish that were already living in the larger river means a LOT of fish should be stacked up in wintering pools.

Another part of the mystery...we know that smallies stack up around big springs and spring branches in the winter for the thermal refuge. But from how far away do they come? There are at least 20 miles of good smallmouth water on the Eleven Point above Greer Spring. Using that 50% figure, do a thousand or more smallies move into the Greer Spring influence in the winter? There are more miles than that of the Meramec, plus a good sized tributary, above Meramec Spring. Do several thousand fish move to the spring area?

It would surprise me if that many fish are stacked up below these springs--or in the good wintering pools.

Last part of the mystery...you catch a much higher percentage of bigger fish compared to smaller ones in the winter than you do in the summer, but your total numbers will usually be much fewer. There are pools on the bigger rivers where good winter fishermen will catch a bunch of big fish throughout a winter, enough that you might think that maybe they were catching most of the big fish that were in that pool, and which were in the whole river for a mile or so around that pool in the summer. But not the numbers of big fish that may have come out of a tributary several miles upriver. And where are all the small fish?

My dad and grandpa noticed that smallies seemed to be absent in the smaller streams in the winter, but after the first high water of March or April those streams would be full of fish. They certainly believed that most of the fish left those streams when it got cold. In fact, they believed the fish went all the way to the Mississippi to winter. They didn't do much winter fishing for smallies.

So what are the real possibilities?

1. Most fish leave the smaller streams.

2. Most fish in smaller streams find places where they can really hide, under rocks or undercut banks, go there, and almost hibernate during the winter, so you don't see them and don't catch them.

If they do leave the smaller streams...

1. They scatter throughout the bigger streams, with some congregating in wintering pools but many finding good hiding places in less obvious spots, where they hunker down for the winter.

2. They go to classic, deep wintering pools, but many stay inactive and don't feed much.

As to why you catch a greater percentage of big fish, while catching numbers of smaller fish is a rare occurrence even in the good wintering pools in the good streams...

1. The smaller fish aren't there...they are hunkered down in places where they have less competition from bigger fish.

2. The smaller fish ARE there, but perhaps a smaller body means an even slower metabolism, so the smaller fish just don't feed much, if at all.

Of course, there are probably lots of other possibilities. It's just something I find endlessly interesting to contemplate on cold winter nights (or even on warm winter days when I'm on the water!)

[chambug]

I think i just found another favorite book!

[Chief Grey Bear]

I think I have to agree that the majority of them stick closer to the home range. I have done quite a bit of winter fishing specifically for smallmouth the last few years. I fished in Dec. Jan. and Feb. I didn't just fish the pretty, sunny days but cold, blustery days too. I fished days that it did not hit 20*. I'll have to go back and look but, I don't think I fished any days that it got into the 40's or warmer. And all I can add to this discussion is what I have experienced doing this.

In a nutshell winter fishing was the same as summer, except much, much slower with numbers drastically lower. With that said, I found fish in the exact same area, even same logs and brush, as I did in summer. In one hole where a spring creek runs in, I actually found them just on the edge of the upstream side. Now they could have been in the area of where the spring creek was comming into this creek and darted out to my bait. And what surprises me, is where this spring creek comes in, there is a really nice hole with a good root wad. All I have ever caught is one largemouth. Each time I fished it, I could find him. But never a smallmouth. They always were in the area I described above.

One question I would have about this whole thing is if the smallmouth are migrating, why not the bait fish? I don't know how they do it but, those dang ol minnnows on some of these cold winter days are out there doing what they do seemingly without any regard to the temp of the water. Crazy!

And then we could get into the whole "how much do fish need to eat in the winter" discussion. I have some in a tank in a non heated room. I know that sounds crazy. It is a sun room that I have as my fishing storage room and they is where I have to keep the fish because of the wife. And that is a whole other discussion in itself but we won't go there today. Anyway, the temp in that room is basically what it is outdoors. Last winter I had about an inch of ice at one end of the tank. Thank goodness the filtration system I have make a little current in the water to keep all of if from freezing. I'll get the heat lamp out this year!!! My point is though, that in the winter I have seen my fish go about a month without eating. Not saying those in the wild go that long, but I am sure they could if they had too.

I don't know how much stock I would put into the fish your friend caught as "proof", not saying that is what you are doing excactly, that smallmouth migrate. As a whole. Some years ago there was a spoonbill tagged in either MO or OK, I think it was OK, and it was found a year or two later in South Dakota. Now that is a lot of freaking swimming!!!!!

The only real way to find out if they migrate in the winter or not or how far, would be to chip them. And do it on different sized waterways. I think it would be really interesting.

[Justin Spencer]

do a thousand or more smallies move into the Greer Spring influence in the winter?

I honestly believe they do. Seemed like the bigger fish are closest to the warmest water and as you go down still plenty of big fish, but a few smaller ones as well. I think the big active ones keep the smaller ones at bay, and those smaller ones may be resident fish, while many of the big ones migrate. My theory is the bigger migrators grow faster since they stay active all winter, thereby reproducing more and passing on the "migration" gene. Might be a fun study for a graduate student. Anyone with a dry suit should take it down there and see how many fish are there in the winter!

[Gavin]

Its a puzzle that's for sure...I do think that some of them migrate out of the small streams if they are able too. Most small creeks seem like bassless wastelands in the winter time....but then the bass seem to come back (or get active again) in the early spring. The average size seems to be better in the spring on those creeks too.

Perhaps they move out in the winter, run up the tributaries in the spring to spawn, then meander back down? Its impossible to draw a conclusion from one data point, but or group had an odd thing happen on the upper Current in late September of 2010. We did the usual Baptist to Parker milk run. We usually catch an occassional smallmouth down there (single digits), but we caught ALLOT of smallmouth that weekend, maybe 40-50 for the group and thats never happened before. Figure we stumbled into a wad of smallmouth migrating out of Ashley Creek.

It will be interesting to see if MDC's tag study reveals anything about winter migrations.

[Smalliebigs]

" Figure we stumbled into a wad of smallmouth migrating out of Ashley Creek"

that's exactly what you stumbled into...............sssshhhhhhhhhh

Ashley Creek 1996.........what a frigin dork!!!!!!!! nice shorts and fanny pack!!!!! jesus christ. I must say I agree with Al on this one, I saw the fish he's talking about and heard what the MDC said about the placement of the tag, confirming it was tagged in the tributary miles away from where it was caught and subsequently released.Smallies migrate in the winter when there is a big spring with in acceptable swiming distance to their normal summer hole or area.At least that what it seems like to me.

[RSBreth]

Here's some more information, including some data from Jack's Fork:http://archives.in-fisherman.com/node/4103

I think the correct answer to the question of whether or not they migrate is "yes, sometimes." I always say Smallmouth are where you find them, which is nice and vague enough I suppose.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Whoa, dude. The fanny pack and those shorts. You look like you migrated out of Richard Simmons sweatin to the oldies video. Please erase this photo from my mind.

[exiledguide]

One of you guys with better computer skills than I could look at really old In Fisherman archives I seem to remember articles related back a long time ago when it was owned by the Linders. It also seems that most of studies published by them were out of the U of Wisconsin. I think this is a very interesting subject. I often wandered why fish dissapered from the upper Ouchita river in the winter but below Lake Catherine on down to Malvern the fishing never seemed to fall off. I assumed it was because the waters coming through the turbines kept that stretch of water fairly warm in the winter.

[Al Agnew]

I wonder if anybody fishes the upper end of the James River arm of Table Rock for smallies in the winter. I know of lakes where there are rivers above them with smallmouth and the upper lake area has some nice smallie concentrations in the winter (and you seldom see a smallmouth in them in the summer).