Morning smallmouth fishing??

[ozark trout fisher]

The thing I love about smallies (especially compared to trout or largemouth bass) is that you can basically just fish for them on your own schedule. I think the very best time is twilight (maybe that's just what I like) but mid-afternoon is just fine. If anything, it's the early shift that can be disappointing, although again, I've caught plenty then. It just doesn't seem to matter much most of the time.

The largest Ozark stream smallie I've caught came at 3PM on a triple digit day out of a deep hole on the Big Piney. I was somewhat miserable (I stopped to wade so much to get out of the heat that I barely covered any water, and had to make up for it with a brutally long day the day after) but it was the best smallie fishing I've experienced this side of the north woods.

[Mitch f]

Even though conventional wisdom has it that bass don't like bright sunlight and go deeper during the middle of the day, river smallies haven't read the memo. I fish topwater all day long, and catch just as many on the surface at 2 PM as I do at 6 AM. They are active when they are active, and many days, as Seth said, they are most active in early to mid-afternoon. Fishing pressure has a bit to do with it, though.

Couldn't agree more with you and Seth

[Hog Wally]

I fish mornings and any rainy day. Usually I go out with wife and kids during middle of day and if there is a lot of boat traffic I will fish the riffles with a fluke as the boats stir up the baitfish and make top water really good.

[Al Agnew]

There's a lot of conventional wisdom which doesn't necessarily hold true when it comes to river smallmouth. For instance, even though Hog Wally fishes those rainy days, I've never found dark days to be any better than bright ones, and in fact have had some of my more disappointing days when it's dark and cloudy all day. And heat...with a few exceptions, the hotter the weather is the more consistent the fishing is. If I had to choose a warm season type of day to fish for big fish, it would be a hot, humid, partly cloudy day with a slight chance of afternoon thundershowers in July or August, with the magic time being early afternoon when those thunderclouds are just beginning to build up a bit but there isn't any real threat of rain yet. Then put me along a stretch that has some high clay banks with 3-5 feet of good moving water along those banks, with a few big logs or a rock or two or even just big chunks of mud that have fallen off the bank. The water should have that green summer look, not too clear, visibility three or four feet. Make it a river like the Meramec, Gasconade, Big Piney, or Big River like it was before the spotted bass took over the best stretches. I could almost guarantee an 18-20 inch smallmouth in those situations, sometime during the afternoon on one of those banks...or even a less likely spot but close to those types of spots.

I remember one time, floating the Meramec below St. Clair back in the days when it had a lot of big smallmouth and no spotted bass, when I hit one of those perfect banks at the perfect time and conditions, and simply KNEW I was going to catch a big one there. But along the sweet spot itself, vertical mud bank with several old sunken logs along it, the strike I got was a 24 inch walleye instead of the smallmouth I was expecting. But 20 yards downstream, where the bank shallowed out and became gravelly, along a water willow bed in 2 feet of water with very little current, I got the fish I was expecting, 21 inches of bronze.

[blauvelt3]

Yeah maybe, but knowing where to be and when to be there will save you a shitton of unproductive casts.

Only Rookies wear their arms out for no reason.

[blauvelt3]

Exactly. I understand the more cast the better the odds. Kind of self explanatory. I'm just wondering what people think is the best time for smallies.

[Coosa]

The longer you are on the water, the better chance you'll catch fish. Which is a statistical fact, not a morning noon or night "fish will hit at this time" fact. That's the great thing about smallies. Time of day isn't relevant. You just have to be on the water.

PS: Statistics and odds are why Las Vegas exists. Over the long term, they win. Apply to fishing: the more you fish, the longer you fish, the more successful you will be.

You are definitely right Joe D and thats why we do spend as much time on the water as possible. But we don't have much for smallmouth in our area so we have to drive a couple hours to fish for them. So when we are doing an 8 mile float 8 miles is all we got where as on a lake we can Fish for as long as we want. So the question was more directed at if you only have 6-8 hours to fish, is it better to fish early morning to late afternoon or early afternoon to late evening.

[hoglaw]

I wonder if body temperature compared to metabolism is a completely linear function? For instance, we all know fish metabolism gets higher as the water warms, but does it keep getting higher as the water gets HOT?

River smallmouth, for the most part, can't regulate body temperature the way their lake breathern do. Lake fish can hang out in deep water over summer to stay cooler, though it probably has more to do with where the shad are. When it gets hot, the river bass can't do much other than seek out a shady spot or swift water, which explains why they congregate at the riffles during the hottest part of the year (that and probably oxygen). But like Al, my very best days have been during the dog days of summer. If there's some occasional cloud cover or an approaching storm, so much the better. But even on the most bluebird 100 degree day in August, you just know you're going to hammer them.

I've also done really well fishing on moonlit nights. Not that the moon has much to do with the bite, but it lets me see and navigate. Maybe the all night gorge combined with the temperature drop is what seems to slow them down in the morning?

Obviously the best time to go is when you can go, and the more you fish the more you'll catch. But I would be willing to bet that MOST of the time, if I fished the exact same stretch of water in August from 6 a.m. to 10, and then from 2 p.m. to 6, I'd catch more in the afternoon. That's an impossible hypothesis to prove other than through lots and lots of trips to get a good sample, but that has always been my personal experience.

[Hog Wally]

I usually am walleye fishing in the darker conditions but when I take someone out fishing I don't pay much attention to time of day other than what's convenient

[Norm M]

I work 3-11 , 5 days a week. Most of those days, I'm off the water by 12:30 . On my days off , I fish as long as my body holds out . I can't say that I could point to any time slot being better on a regular basis. Local climatic and/or current conditions can play a role. The "luck" of fishing can take a hand . Stuff I most likely do not comprehend may take a hand. I just fish and try my best to adapt to conditions while enjoying the experience .