Smaller creeks in the winter

[briant]

Anyone fish the smaller streams in the winter like Huzzah, Courtois, Mineral Fork? I have heard some folks say these streams don't hold much in the colder months. Just curious what some of you might think. Either way it will be nice to get in the water. Thanks in advance!

 

[mic]

I'm curious to hear the answer, but I know the stretch at Huzzah valley holds active fish due to the spring branch that enters across.  I never caught anything of size. 

[MOsmallies]

This has been touched on before... Al Agnew has a lot of first hand experience and therefore a well thought out theory about the smaller streams in the winter. Hopefully he'll jump in and share again.

I'm sure there are some fish that hunker down in the smaller streams... But they are probably less active and much tougher to catch. Fishing bigger, deeper, more heavily spring fed water will greatly increase your odds this time of year.

You'll get some differing opinions as some on here don't buy that Ozark smallmouth will migrate to larger tributaries with better wintering water. I personally believe that a large chunk of the population will move, and great distances in some cases, to find the most suitable, comfortable water during the cold weather months. That being said, every stream is different.

[Al Agnew]

There isn't any hard and fast rule...I know of a couple of creeks that hold catchable fish all winter, and a bunch that don't seem to hold much at all.  The more heavily springfed the creek is the more likely it is to hold fish you can catch, but even that isn't always the case.  One good creek I know is so small you can just barely get a canoe down it, yet I've caught good numbers and some good fish the couple times I've fished it in the winter.  On the other hand, my home waters, upper Big River, seldom produces much in the winter.  You can fish the pools that look like they should hold winter fish, and find maybe one very small school of fish, mostly largemouth and spotted bass, in a pool that should hold a bunch.

I really believe that some fish move out of the smaller streams to bigger rivers where they winter, while others stay in the smaller streams but retreat to places where they can stay completely out of sight, and go almost completely dormant.  Perhaps the biggest reason you can catch fish in the larger streams much easier than in the creeks is not that creeks are completely devoid of fish, but that the fish that stay in the creeks instinctively "know" that in smaller, more confined spaces they are more susceptible to predators when they are as sluggish as they get in the winter, so they stay as far back under big rocks and log jams as they possibly can, and therefore aren't reachable even if they felt like feeding.  While the fish in the bigger streams, with more room to get away from predators, are out where they can be reached.

That's my theory, anyway.  One tip...if you want to fish smaller creeks in the winter, your best chance to catch fish may be when the creek is a little high and murky after good winter rains.  The murkier water and higher flows may bring some of those fish out of their hidey holes and interest them in feeding a bit.  I tried fishing my favorite small wading size creek several times over the years, and the only time I caught fish was under high, murky water conditions.  I didn't catch many even then, and the only place I caught much was in a pool that had one huge boulder in the middle with space beneath it so that fish could get far back under the boulder.  Not all the fish I caught were around that boulder (though most were) but I'm sure that all the fish that stayed in that pool stayed under that one boulder most of the winter.

[fishinwrench]

The creek by my place holds a fair number of Smallies, and although it is less than a 4 mile trek to the lake they don't do it.  They find little nooks and crannies to hunker down in and stay put all Winter.  There isn't a single spot anywhere that is over chest deep.

Alot of the cracks in the bedrock bottom areas have spring seepage, so I assume they lay in those cracks.

[joeD]

The fish are there, you bet. It's cold. They just aren't willing to take what you're offering. Most times, most streams. There is generous evidence of winter success, always, but winter fishing is generally a bust. 

Unless. Unless. 

It's 60 degress in December. If you want to go fishing, can go, have permission to, have the time to, have the boat to, have the liquor and cigars to, have the p I mean women to,you  want to, then, by all means, go fishing and tell us about it. 

Why would we say "No" to any chance to fish and be on the water? 

EVER

[Gavin]

Usually a waste of time on all the creeks you mentioned. Not enough good water within walking distance. We catch them in blue ribbon trout water in the winter but you,need to jig or jerkbait fish for them in very specific locations. They seem to ball up. Might catch 10-12 or more out of a spot the size of a bathtub in a 100 yard long hole.