Hey Al - Is Creek Fishing Done

[drew03cmc]

Well the tagging study conducted by the MDC proves they travel up to 70 miles. Where's your hard data?

Fish move. That is an undisputable fact. To claim they migrate implies that it is a repeatable event, yearly, and that they return where they came from, which there is ZERO data to support. Like Chief, a long-term radio tagging study is the ONLY way to confirm that they migrate.

One thing I find funny is that in other parts of the country, the smallmouth don't migrate, rather they school in the deepest holes with suitable winter cover and are caught all winter long by anglers who know how to catch them. I guess if you don't catch any, you can blame it on the mass migration, rather than admit that you struck out or haven't learned how.

[exiledguide]

The idea that smallmouth don't bite in cold water runs counter to fact. Smallmouth are caught through the ice as far north as Vermillion Bay, Ontario by guys fishing for walleye. The best fishing on Dale Hollow is usualy in Jan and Feb.

[Gavin]

Think Mitch was having some fun with telling folks that smallies dont bite in winter....If I wanted to catch smallmouth in the winter...Mitch's name would be on a short list. ...

Migration....it happens...MDC is compiling some data on it right now..Will be a report in the next year or so.

[Mitch f]

Think Mitch was having some fun with telling folks that smallies dont bite in winter....If I wanted to catch smallmouth in the winter...Mitch's name would be on a short list. ...

Migration....it happens...MDC is compiling some data on it right now..Will be a report in the next year or so.

Yes, I was joking....I should have put a behind my comment sorry

[Chief Grey Bear]

Think Mitch was having some fun with telling folks that smallies dont bite in winter....If I wanted to catch smallmouth in the winter...Mitch's name would be on a short list

Who is giving him grief?? I think we all agree here.

. ... Migration....it happens...MDC is compiling some data on it right now..Will be a report in the next year or so.

I don't think it happens anywhere near the extent as is being portrayed in the last year or so here.

[Al Agnew]

Actually, studies of fish in more northern rivers show mass migrations of 30 miles or more...talking about studies in Minnesota streams, if I'm not mistaken. In the Ozarks, it WAS believed that they are homebodies and seldom move much at all, until the recent tagging has shown the MDC people that at least SOME do move.

To repeat what I've experienced...upper Big River, the stream I know the best. Wintertime flows from 30-70 cfs typically. Water very clear in the winter typically, visibility usually about 7-10 feet. Habitat...well, of the stretches I've really spent some time on in the winter, you have a seven mile stretch with only six pools with significant areas over 5 feet deep, basically no water over 7 feet deep. Of those pools, which SHOULD be the wintering water, most don't really have a lot of cover where the fish can really hide.

The next stretch downstream, seven more miles, with about six pools in the first two miles that are over five feet deep, again basically no water over seven feet deep. In the next five miles, maybe five pools with any water over five feet deep, only one pool with any water at all over seven feet deep (it's maybe 8 feet at the deepest).

This is just so you know what kind of water I'm talking about.

In the summer, in both these stretches I average 50 or more bass a day, with a good chance of having 75 fish days. I catch them EVERYWHERE, including places that are a long way from any of the deeper pools. There are a lot of fish in this stream in the summer, given the lack of really good habitat. Lots of long stretches of shallow water.

In the winter, the fish disappear. In EVERY ONE of the probable wintering pools, you can almost always see every bit of the bottom. A few big rocks that maybe a few fish could hide under. Two pools out of the whole 14 miles have enough woody cover to maybe hide a few fish. You simply NEVER see more than 5-10 bass in any of these pools. You see zero bass anywhere else. I can usually catch about 1-2 fish out of the majority of those pools, that's it.

Another kicker is that the next stretch downstream is the one MOST heavily affected by the mine waste, and has even less good wintering habitat. You simply don't see fish in it, either. If the fish are migrating, they have to be going on farther downstream.

Now...I don't know for sure that all these fish are migrating. The upper stretch has the place I've mentioned before where fish CAN get under a big concrete slab and out of sight, and where the biologist in charge of that part of the river has shocked up a bunch of fish in October. But that's the ONLY place in that 14 mile stretch that's like that. Where are all the rest of the fish?

One other note...remember this past March, when the weather was so warm the water temps were already up in the 60s long before they usually reach that point? Remember we were catching smallies on topwater in March? Well, I floated Courtois Creek back then, and while I caught fish, I didn't catch nearly the number of fish I would catch in the summer. And, I saw a bunch of bigger smallmouth that were simply traveling, moving upstream steadily through the middle of the channel. I'm convinced these fish were "repopulating" the upper portions of Courtois Creek, moving upstream as they were.

Just one more note...the Meramec, Gasconade, and Current are definite wintering streams, where you can catch fish out of every good wintering pool. Whether or not the fish you catch are residents of that small area around the wintering pool or whether they're winter visitors only, who knows? Tributaries of the bigger streams, like I said, just aren't nearly as good in the winter. I'm not saying every fish leaves the smaller tributaries. But I'm pretty well convinced that some do, and the others find hiding places and go dormant, with a few exceptions. The percentage that leaves and the percentage that stays and goes dormant is an open question.

[Blazerman]

Got out for a little fishing on the Meramec yesterday and today to see if the warm windy weather might have turned on the smallmouth some. Hit the river about 3:30 and was off by 5:00. Man it was windy!

Tried a spinnerbait and swimming a jig with no luck. Finally ran to some of the winter holes I know of and caught a few on my favorite traditional winter baits- Pig and hair jig and jerk bait. Caught about 5 yesterday and 5 again today including a couple Kentucky bass each day.

Got this one real nice smallmouth on a LC Slender Pointer 112. It was 18.5“and as fat as a football.

It is so cool watching the fish come up to see the suspending jerk baits, and then twitch it and see them attack it like this big one did.

[Mitch f]

Nice fish Blazer!

Here's one I caught with a tag last year that traveled far.

http://youtu.be/0yBP4tjI6b8

[Blazerman]

That is a dandy Mitch

[LarrySTL]

I am not nearly as knowledgable as several guys here, but this is my $0.02 on streams in colder water, based on my entire career experience which was this past Saturday. I went wading in the upper end of one of the smaller rivers, not Al's Big River, but about the amount of water you'd normally find around Bootleg on the Big.

I had caught a good number of fish there once in May and a stupid number of fish ( by my standards anyhow) in 2 or 3 hours on a second May trip. Some of those on the smallest Spook and a 1/4 oz Torpedo, and some on various plastics on a 1/8 jighead. All of them were in the water at the very upper, or very lower, ends of the fast narrow water with gobs of water willow in it. Same places this past Saturday got me zip, zero. Water depth was 8 inches or so shallower than in May, flow was about the same. Water temp was 56 or 57 on my $ 10 thermometer. So I started fishing other stuff, including the deeper slower water, the largemouth looking stuff. Below one big wide gravel bar that choked the water down to maybe 15 feet wide, there was a big long slow water pool with a very few big trees down in the water. So I thought about Al discussing wintering holes and about Smalliebigs saying plastics on wood, in their recent posts and started throwing small plastics ( 5 inch finesse worm, light brown with some flecks in it on that 1/8 jighead and immediately got bit.

Tiny bluegill pecks, not quite as fast and not quite as many as the typical bluegill-machine-gun pecks. To catch the fish I eventually started delaying the hookset slightly as striking fast was just jerking water. 13 inch smallmouth. There were about 5 big trees in that pool. One fish on the upper end of each of the first three trees. A fish on the upper end and one more in the middle, of the second tree. Nothing on the downstream tree. One fish was on the smallest size Brush Hog. No strikes on a medium size Brush Hog. One midgit ( six inches ?) angry smallmouth and a lot of nothing else on my beloved 1/4 oz Spook. Total of six fish including the midgit. 2 SM, 4 LM. Five of em cookie cutter 12 or 13 size ". All fish hooked in the mouth despite the somewhat delayed set.

My new-guy conclusion is that I dont know if they migrate; I didnt cover enough water to have an informed opinion. I know the MDC talk at SMA this spring convinced me that in bigger rivers, they sure migrate. I do know the bass had bailed from tthe type of water they were using in late May and were in big wood in the deepest slowest section in perhaps a mile and a half of river. I'll call it a mini-migration.

Your mileage may vary.