The Mystery Of Winter Smallmouth

[RSBreth]

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).

Yeah, that would be me. And I'm not talking about it- so there's a clue.

[Mitch f]

Yeah, that would be me. And I'm not talking about it- so there's a clue.

:)

[exiledguide]

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.

I think he was auditioning for the before picture in an Orvis add.

[exiledguide]

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).

No there are NO Smallmouth in that area none at all. They all run up the kings river and actualy there is a tribe of inbred deviate violent armed hillbillies who get off haveing there way with "fisherboys" wearing Orvis or Sims waders something about making you squeal like a pig. Thats why I only were BPS or Cabelas products when I fish the James River....

[Smalliebigs]

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.

I know.....when I looked at that pic, I felt the same way.......I haven't worn a watch in a decade and I donated the shorts and fanny pack to the St.Louis Rainbow Coalition. Sorry to burn such a sick image to your brain, I was jonesing to post some fish pics.It wasn't 96 it was 92....still not an excuse for the atire though.

[Mitch f]

I know.....when I looked at that pic, I felt the same way.......I haven't worn a watch in a decade and I donated the shorts and fanny pack to the St.Louis Rainbow Coalition. Sorry to burn such a sick image to your brain, I was jonesing to post some fish pics.It wasn't 96 it was 92....still not an excuse for the atire though.

LMAO

[Wayne SW/MO]

My experience is that they move to either warmer water or deep holes with cover. It seems that any migration is determined by the distance to these areas.

[Guest]

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[Al Agnew]

Siusaluki, I'd agree with you except for one possibility...I wonder how many in the smaller streams with less wintering habitat actually just find those big rocks and undercut banks that they can get completely out of sight and spend the entire winter lying low, totally inactive.

I had a biologist mention one time that he'd shocked up a huge pile of smallies late in the fall at a concrete slab ford low water bridge. They were underneath the "ledge" that the concrete made on the downstream side. In higher water levels a lot of water went over the bridge, in low water levels it went through a couple of big round culverts and still dropped a foot or more out of the downstream end of the culverts. So there was a lot of swirling current below, and the river immediately went into a long riffle, so except for far back under the concrete, there was no place the fish could get out of the current. Did they congregate for the winter in that spot? Or was it just an odd occurrence?

[Guest]

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