smallmouth movement during big floods

[Markhat]

Last Summer I caught a very nice smallmouth (19 5/8") next to a brush pile in the Gasconade near our house. We've had a LOT of flooding since then. Two of the crests were quite high. The brush pile is gone. Last week I caught a 20 inch fish in the same spot. I've been pondering, could this be the same fish? Has the MDC done any studies on tagged fish to see how much they move/relocate during large floods? I've always assumed that the bass get displaced a bit and like to move during these flood events. Now I'm inclined to believe I caught the same fish that I landed last year. There just aren't that many bass of that size around, and a half inch growth in a yr seems reasonable for a fish of that size. If someone could point me to a study on this I would appreciate it.

[jackdizo]

Seems very plausible. I have fished a small creek numerous times and have definitely witnessed the same fish in locations on that creek even after flooding. I know smallmouth can migrate up to 60 miles according to some studies. Not sure during floods. I would imagine they would possibly hunker down during some floods at specific times of the year rather then migrate during them? Cool Post, great question!

[MOPanfisher]

If the fish all go washed downstream you wouldn't be able to catch them immediately after the water returns to normal. I suspect big fish are often homebodies, they have a good spot with plenty of food and cover or they wouldn't be big.

[Al Agnew]

Movements are seasonal, not flood-related, in my opinion and experience. When studying smallmouth populations in consideration of the original special management areas, MDC biologists shocked the same fish in the same small area over multiple years many times, leading them to say at the time that Missouri smallmouth are homebodies. But they didn't shock back then at times when the fish would be making seasonal movements. So it appears that these fish move a lot in the spring and autumn, but come back to the same places in the summer (and probably the winter).

Two stories from my own experience...I caught the same fish three years in a row on Big River. I knew it was the same fish because it was deformed, having a crooked backbone. First year, it was a bit over 17 inches (and if it's backbone had been straight it would have been at least an inch longer). It came from an obscure spot where a tiny ravine enters the middle of a long pool, forming a bar of gravel and cobbles that narrows the pool just enough to speed the current a bit...no cover there but a nice feeding spot. That was sometime in the summer. Next year, same fish, same exact spot, an inch longer, middle of the summer. Third year, I didn't catch it during the couple of times I fished that stretch during the summer, but I caught it at the riffle at the bottom of that long pool in mid-autumn. By that time it was pushing 19 inches. There had been plenty of high water during that three year period, but that fish didn't move at all. And I suspect it was down at the riffle at the bottom of that pool that third autumn because the next pool downstream was a good wintering pool, with slab rock that the fish could get under. So it was in the process of making its move to wintering water...not a very long move in that case.

Second story, even more interesting...I hooked a big fish early one summer in a piece of narrow, fast water with lots of overhanging willow trees, a spot that was exceedingly difficult to fish, and a spot that was rather isolated from any other good water, with shallow, coverless runs both upstream and downstream for several hundred yards. I lost the fish after getting a good look at it, and I knew it was close to 20 inches. Not long afterward there was a big flood. Not long after the water went down, I floated that section again, and was looking forward to trying to catch that fish. But when I came to that spot, I discovered that the flood had shifted the river channel there. The deep little run with the overhanging willows where that fish "lived" was now cut off from the channel on the upstream end and had become a dead backwater. I floated past it, a little bummed out about losing that big fish spot, and made a desultory cast into the run below, which was no more than two feet deep, gravel bottomed, and had absolutely no cover...and caught a 20 incher! I'm certain it was the same fish, displaced from its "home", but still hanging around as close to it as possible instead of looking for new digs.

[jackdizo]

Very cool stories Al, I agree on Big fish being home bodies. I have floated the Castor River, Whitewater Creek, and numerous other small streams and have witnessed the same fish holding on the same structure / cover time and time again.

Its always a great feeling coming around a bend and knowing there is a large fish holding in an area you are floating up on, and that fish year over year should be bigger as long as C&R is practiced.

[MOPanfisher]

I know of a spot that always has a good smallmouth on it. And I have seen two different folks string an 18" smallie from that spot. If it is a prime spot for a good smallmouth to live, if the resident gets harvested or dies there will be another move into it, because its a good spot. You gotta love a small secret spot that you can catch a good smallie from, and know he is still around everytime you float by, and catching him more than once especially if he is identifiable, just adds to the experience.

[Seth]

I'm not sure if they move all that much, but the big fish definitely seem to put the feed bags on when the water is really high. When the water was still 4-5' high on the Gasonade this last time around, there were several 3+ smallmouth caught by guys I know. One pair of guys caught a 15# five fish limit of smallies in one day and another buddy landed a 4.71# smallmouth all in the same weekend. The big largemouth were hungry too. The same guy that caught the 4.71 said they caught nearly 13# of largemouth the day before. Most summer tournaments are won with 8-9# during regular conditions. I've never been able to hammer the big fish like that during high water though. It's feast or famine for most when it comes to high water fishing.

[joeD]

A hydrologist will tell you that the current flow you see on the surface isn't the same at the bottom. If it was, all our fish would be in the Gulf of Mexico. They get to their safe spot and wait. Just like us.

Look at Joplin. Look at all our smallie streams. Fish are still there.

[Al Agnew]

Yep, I suspect that if it was safe enough to be on the rivers with a 4 foot rise and you did some experimenting, you'd be surprised at the fish you could catch. Some more flood stories...

When I was a kid, one time in early summer there was a 6 foot rise on upper Big River, my home stream, and my buddy and I decided to go to where Flat River Creek entered the river, and fish with worms just to see what we could catch. Where the creek enters on river right, the upstream edge of the confluence is a mud bank point, and the downstream edge is a big gravel bar. At that time you could drive out to that gravel bar, so that's where we went. The creek had already gone down, so the river, being 6 feet higher than normal and muddy, was backing up the creek. The gravel bar was underwater, the highest point of it maybe a foot deep. We sat on the bank and cast our worms out onto what was usually dry gravel. The current across the gravel bar was slow compared to the main channel, with a bit of a back eddy.

Well, we expected to catch some suckers, maybe a catfish or two...but what we caught were smallmouth, including several 16-17 inchers. The pool above was a great smallmouth pool at the time, and it seemed that every smallmouth in the pool had moved down to that gravel bar to get out of the main current, and incidentally to gorge themselves.

Second story...a long way from the Ozarks. Mary and I were visiting Maine, and I had set up a couple of days of guided smallmouth trips while we were there. But it had been exceedingly wet up there for the last few weeks, and the rivers were all 4-6 feet higher than normal, though not muddy, just murkier than normal.

We were on the Kennebec River the first day, and it was up 6 feet and really honking. Our guide admitted before we started that he'd never tried to fish the river when it was that high, but was willing to give it a shot. We put in, and he immediately heads out into the middle of the river. We were in a raft, and he was working himself to death trying to row back hard enough to keep the raft more or less in one place. He said, "In normal water, this is about three feet deep and full of big rocks, and it's just loaded with bass." Well, of course, now it was 8 or 9 feet deep, and I was absolutely certain the bass weren't there. But we fished it for a half hour with nothing to show for it.

"Well," the guide said, "I guess we'll move down to the next good spot."

"Is it similar to this one?" I asked.

He said it was. I said, "I just don't think the bass are here. They aren't going to fight this heavy current. I've heard that smallmouth move to the banks into little eddies around trees and other stuff when it's high like this. Why don't we try spots like that?"

He said, "We can try it. It's just that the smallmouth are never up against the banks in this stretch because the banks are all too shallow in normal water."

So we go over to nearest bank and start drifting down it. I'm using a crankbait and casting it into every little eddy I can find behind the trunks of big trees and rocks...and I start catching smallmouth on every good cast to a likely eddy. Hit the eddy, which might not be more than two or three feet wide and deep, crank the lure about a foot, and blam. It turned out to be a great day of fishing.

[joeD]

You are assuming that the fish moved from one spot to another. That the fish you caught were seeking shelter from the middle of the river. Maybe the fish on the bank were always near the bank, and the fish in the middle of the river just didn't want to hit what you were throwing. Far fetched I realize. We have a narrative in our heads, it fits conveniently often to our experiences.

Catching fish is always good, regardless.