Hey Al - Is Creek Fishing Done

[fishinwrench]

I am reasonably certain that the Smallmouth in the Lake O tribs do not leave the creeks for the Winter. And these are small shallow creeks wadable in all but a few isolated spots. They find somewhere (some little niche or crevice) to sit it out just like the frogs, salamanders, longears, punkinseeds and crawdads do.

I do think that the availability of these "waiting it out" spots probably determines the overall fish population in these creeks.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Uh oh, you are now going to be labeled as a nonconformer! But at least you are in good company. Depending of course how you look at it.

[Mitch f]

Uh oh, you are now going to be labeled as a nonconformer! But at least you are in good company. Depending of course how you look at it.

Conformer vs non conformer on river bass migration? This is not a contest! Seems like making a mountain out of a mole hill

[Chief Grey Bear]

Seems to me somebody forgot to take a funny pill today. It was a joke dad.

[eric1978]

I'm happy to see some things never change. Or am I?

[Goggle-Eyed]

At least you guys are providing me entertainment while I am stuck in China working. For some reason this forum is blocked about 85% of the time so I can't comment to posts or respond to PM's. Anyway, as far as this Niangua goes there NO fish below Mountain Creek Campground, so you guys are wasting your time. NO Trout, NO Smallies, There aren't even any Goggle-Eyes below mountain creek... Kinda Crazy but just not worth spending any time there..... Hopefully, I won't see you on my limited trips home next year... I am just floating the Niangua for the "scenic value", there aren't any fish in that river!!!!!

Joe

[Al Agnew]

For us anglers, maybe the bottom line is that, whether or not large numbers of them migrate in the winter, finding fish active enough to take a lure in cold water is the challenge. Whether or not they migrate out of smaller streams, my experience has been that you're almost wasting your time in fishing wadeable size creeks in the winter unless you have a strong spell of very warm weather or some warm rains heavy enough to give the creek a bit of a rise. And even then, you won't catch very many fish. But you may catch a few, which obviously means they don't ALL leave for the winter. In smaller but floatable streams, you might catch a few more fish than in the wading creeks. The bigger rivers is where you'll catch by far the most (and biggest) fish. You might say that the same is true in the summer...but it isn't. I catch by far the most fish, with just as many or more big ones, in wadeable and marginally floatable streams in the summer. The population density of the smaller waters is much greater than in the bigger rivers. Of course, I can only say this for the streams in my side of the state, but I think that for the most part it holds true, with a few notable exceptions. Seems like there are always exceptions. There is one small, wadeable size (although I floated it) stream not too far from where I live that holds a fair number of rather large and catchable bass (largemouth as well as smallmouth) in the winter, and there's not much that differentiates it from other streams of similar size as far as I can see. It certainly has less wintering habitat than upper Big River, which I've spent a LOT of time fishing in the winter with much less success.

By the way, Chief, smaller springs DO attract fish in the winter, as long as they are large enough to have a thermal effect bigger than a bathtub and as long as that thermal effect is in water deep enough to allow the fish to feel comfortable hanging around. Not all of them do, but some do. I know several on the Meramec that always have a group of fish (both largemouth and smallmouth) clustered around them in the winter. And on upper Big River, some of the old drill pipes that lead down into the flooded mines and now gush groundwater into the river will hold fish in the winter...but some don't. But as little spring-fed as Big River is, the one good sized spring on it, which comes out into what should be a good wintering pool, apparently does NOT attract fish. It could be that it's too polluted, or the water chemistry is somehow wrong. Even this spring water effect is still somewhat of a mystery. I know springs that come out into shallow runs on small, clear rivers that attract a lot of fish, and springs that come out into deeper water on good winter fishing streams that don't appear to attract many. And there are springs that appear to attract fish from somewhere in the coldest weather, but in less cold periods of the winter are devoid of fish with apparently no fish anywhere close to them. Even some of the biggest springs are not big fish attractors in the winter, while they really stack up around other big springs.

[Mitch f]

Seems to me somebody forgot to take a funny pill today. It was a joke dad.

Snicker snicker

@ Eric glad to see you back from MFU land

[eric1978]

Snicker snicker

@ Eric glad to see you back from MFU land

Work land and baby land makes Johnny a dull boy land.

[mic]

Man, I thought this was a simple question. Didn't mean to start a mess.