Springs No Longer A Premium

[Mitch f]

Well we've reached that time of the year when the majority of the smallies have moved away from the springs. I always have to start fresh trying to figure out where they go now. Partially because I'm mainly a fall and winter fisherman and it takes a while to get out of that mode. Anyway I wish I had more time to figure it out. This why I find the fall more consistent, especially for the big ones. (Although Al disagrees with me )

[Brian Jones]

Not sure that I would agree that fall is better for big smallies, but would definitely agree that fall is the best time to catch bunches of smallies.

[Mitch f]

Why dont we have a survey where we list our personal best Missouri STREAM smallie and the date it was caught....

Here's mine

21" Jan 1 2009

[parsonsles87]

the biggest one ever landed was a 6 pounder at tecumpseh during a freezing rain event in february. however a had a giant (6 plus) break my line at the bank while creek hopping at LOZ in mid summer

[KCRIVERRAT]

It's easier to put a bait in front of a smallie on a river than a lake (good lake fisherman will disagree with this novice). Year 'round... and in my book a heck of a lot more fun, is floating Ozark streams. My best is just 17 1/2 but I'm still fishing for a 20 or more. Used to fish year 'round and I sure miss the winter stuff. My best is only 17 1/2 on the JF. Guess I have nowhere to go but up... here's a pic

[Mitch f]

Nice fish KC!

[Greasy B]

Yep, that's a good one.

My PB 20" came in Easter Sunday, I think it was 1994, that would have been April 3rd.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Mine was during the first week of deer season, 18". I agree though that my best numbers of quality fish have come in the fall. I don't think there is a true summer pattern in the streams and that's why everyone just keeps throwing at every little change.

[Buzz]

My best have all come in summer. All from Shoal Creek. Two 17" and one 17 1/2" all on watermelon softcraw jigs from fast water that had quite a bit of depth. The biggest came from a hole that runs along a bank that the railroad runs above it had big big chunk rocks.

Pics of the first two fish. Of course I can't find the pic of the third, But what's a half inch. Right?

June

July

[Al Agnew]

My two biggest were so long ago that I don't remember the exact dates, but both were caught during the summer months.

However...things have changed since then. What I think I've figured out is that so much depends upon the size, and maybe to a lesser extent the character, of the streams you fish. I USED to say that fall was the absolute worst time to catch stream smallmouth. But that was because I fished mostly the small (barely floatable) to medium size (not big enough to jetboat much) streams, and in those streams, I still maintain that fall is far from the best time to fish them. In the bigger streams that Mitch fishes, the fish get easier to find and catch by the time the leaves have mostly fallen. We've talked, and sometimes argued, how much these fish move in the fall and again in the spring. But I'm convinced that fish in the smaller streams either move out of them or move to places where they can really hide in preparation for winter, while in the bigger streams, they begin to concentrate in or near the wintering pools in greater numbers than they were in the summer.

So yeah, I catch big fish year round these days. I just fish different streams from about now until about late September than I do the rest of the year. I would imagine I've caught 20 inch plus smallies in every month of the year...but I have NOT caught them in every month of the year in the same stream sections.