Where'd they go?

[Gavin]

All that tells you is the Gravois arm isn't a place were a smallmouth wants to be for some reason. They could swim out of your creek, and go someplace in the lake that they like allot better. If you know where that is, and you likely do.....

[Seth]

  On 9/21/2022 at 5:03 AM, fishinwrench said:

The Smallies in my little creeks here, for whatever reason, don't migrate to the lake.  I can count the number of small mouth I've caught from the Gravois arm of the lake in over 30 years, on one hand. They settle into cracks and crevices in the bedrock bottom areas.....which I assume have some spring seepage.  

During warmish sunny spells in the middle of winter you can sometimes spot a few cruising over the bedrock in 1-3' of water.    They are spooky as hell, and will disappear in a flash if they notice any movement at all. Believe me, I've tried.  

Expand  

They definitely don't mind the Glaize and Niangua arms in the winter. You see several weighed in during winter tournaments out of those areas.

[fishinwrench]

  On 9/21/2022 at 4:08 PM, Seth said:

They definitely don't mind the Glaize and Niangua arms in the winter. You see several weighed in during winter tournaments out of those areas.

Expand  

A few of them move to the lake here too, I'm sure.    But I don't think river/stream fish thrive there by any means.  If they did then surely I'd catch more of them.  Or at least SOMEBODY would.   

I could draw some lines on a map, across feeder creeks, and feel confident enough to bet you 10k that you couldn't catch a smallmouth below them....and I would give you a full year to try.  

[MObassin95]

  On 9/21/2022 at 3:54 AM, Al Agnew said:

Gavin has it right.  But it all depends upon several things:  first, in the winter, they instinctively "know" they need one thing above all else; a place to hide.  This can mean deep water.  It can mean an undercut bank or rock or mess of logs they can get UNDER.  They are more sluggish in the winter and escaping predators isn't as easy, so they want refuges where they aren't visible from above, and also room to evade underwater predators.  So that's the first requirement of a wintering spot.  Second, they will seek out "thermal refuge" if it's available.  That means spots where significant springs enter the stream...not because they feel more comfortable in warmer water, but because it keeps their metabolism moving better so they are faster and better escape predators.  Third, they also know they need refuge from the occasional big wintertime flood.  When a fish is sluggish, they can't fight heavy current, so they need spots to get out of the current.

So think about your favorite small stream...how many places on that stream fulfill these requirements?  Not many.

So they move to places that do fill the requirements.  Some may remain in the creek, finding smaller spots where they feel secure.  But many move downstream to larger bodies of water, whether that be a larger river or a lake.  But here's the kicker that I think might be true, though I can't prove it...I believe that smallmouth in these streams winter in the same spots every year, and very possibly in the same spots where their ancestors did.  Because tagging results have shown that migrating smallmouth often pass up a bunch of very good wintering pools that other smallmouth are happily using, and end up traveling a lot farther downstream than they need to, while others end up wintering in less than optimal spots that USED to be better wintering pools.  And they crowd into good wintering pools, a few I know of in such numbers that some of them spill over into pools immediately nearby that aren't good wintering spots.  Meanwhile, some pools that to us anglers look like perfect wintering pools are almost devoid of fish.

Expand  

That's fascinating. Good info. Alot of animals migrate to the same spots year after year, so it wouldn't surprise me if smallmouth do the same. 

 

It makes me wonder as our winters get milder and milder, do the smallmouth migrate later? I mean, it's getting pretty common to have consistent sixty- degree weather into December. I wonder if that affects the smallmouth movement. 

[Gavin]

I think it’s a photo period migration that’s hard wired to day length and the harvest moon. Pure speculation on my part, but it seems to be a regular pattern over time. They seem to move back in late April.

[Al Agnew]

  On 9/21/2022 at 11:32 PM, Gavin said:

I think it’s a photo period migration that’s hard wired to day length and the harvest moon. Pure speculation on my part, but it seems to be a regular pattern over time. They seem to move back in late April.

Expand  

I agree.  Water temperature might have a little to do with it, but it's mainly photo period.  I suspect that when it comes to fall migration, photo period tells them when they should start "thinking" about moving, and then if a bit of high water comes along, they opportunistically move.  Otherwise, they move when the pressure to move becomes great enough.

But I have found that movement in the spring starts in March.  By mid-April, most of the fish are in the spawning areas, whether it be in smaller tributaries or in the main rivers.

I have seen good-sized smallmouth migrating up Courtois Creek and Huzzah Creek in late March.  They will be swimming up the middle of the pools and not interested in anything you throw at them.

[Gavin]

Thanks Al, I’m rarely out in March. Doing tax returns 6 days a week in that time frame.