Smallmouth Location

[MObassin95]

There was a pretty nice discussion on this forum, over a month ago, about the smallmouth fall migration. Smallmouth obviously migrate to wintering holes in the fall, and the fishing can be good if you find them. But this has been a weird fall. We've had some of the coldest temperatures of the year, and the water level has been hella low. Normally our falls are warmer and wetter. I haven't seen a whole lot of Ozark smallmouth reports either on this forum or anywhere else really. Has the extremely low water and at times really cold weather messed with the smallmouth at all? Has the low water not allowed them to reach their wintering holes?  I haven't had a chance to go out in a while now, so I'm relegated to asking someone with more experience. 

[Flysmallie]

Water has been pretty low so I haven't been fishing, but in the creeks close by they seem to be hanging out where they always do. I walked down a local creek last weekend and even though the water was real low, the two fish I was looking for are still where they always are. They would have a better life about a half mile down the creek where it enters a nice river, but they either don't know it's there or don't care. I located one of these fish about this time last year and the other just a few months ago. 

But I have never witnessed these migrations on this watershed. And it's really the only one that I have fished during the winter, outside of the trout streams. And these fish don't seem to migrate anywhere. There are spots where springs come in and there is no greater concentration there at anytime of the year. I have always heard that they will seek out the deep holes, or springs, or all go on down to the lake, but when I fish for them in the winter they always seem to be where I would always think they should be. I don't get it. 

[tjm]

I don't recall ever seeing the SMB in the creeks I've fished move in winter. I've only read about it here on the forum, but then on the few occasions that I got out in the winter there were still some fish where I expected to find them. Maybe some creeks have greater swings in water temperatures than other creeks? but, even so, if the main current is say 40F and that runs through a hole 14' deep and 40 yards long, how much different would we expect the hole temperature to be? would it be any different?

[Al Agnew]

On 10/28/2022 at 3:12 PM, tjm said:

I don't recall ever seeing the SMB in the creeks I've fished move in winter. I've only read about it here on the forum, but then on the few occasions that I got out in the winter there were still some fish where I expected to find them. Maybe some creeks have greater swings in water temperatures than other creeks? but, even so, if the main current is say 40F and that runs through a hole 14' deep and 40 yards long, how much different would we expect the hole temperature to be? would it be any different?

The only way it would be any different temperature would be if the hole was quite deep and the flow going into it was VERY small.  As long as there is visible movement of water in the hole, it would stay mixed well and almost uniform in temperature.  

Bass don't necessarily "go deep" in streams to reach warmer water.  They gravitate toward deep, slow water in the winter for security reasons.  They do not want to be visible to overhead predators, and also the deeper they go, the less visibility there is in water that is anything but extremely clear.  Plus, the bigger the pool, the more room they have to flee and evade predators like bigger fish, or otters.  They evolved to seek such shelter in winter when their metabolism makes them slower.

One of my winter fishing rules of thumb is that the fish will be just deep enough that you can't see them, IF the water has some color.  If there is four feet of water visibility, they will be at least 4 feet deep, but if they are in the least active, they won't be much deeper than that, because the deeper the water the less food there is.  The problem comes when the water is very clear, as it often is in the winter.  If you can see the bottom everywhere, the fish are doing one of two things; they will either be hiding under overhead cover, like under ledges and big rocks and logs, or they will be continually (if slowly) moving in open water, like moving along the edges of dropoffs or moving up and down a bluff pool where the rock debris on the bluff side meets the gravel or sand bottom coming off the other side.

Here's the other thing I'm convinced of...smallmouth aren't monolithic.  They don't all do the same things or move to the same places.  SOME of them move out of smaller tributaries into larger streams.  SOME move many miles to certain wintering pools.  But SOME stay put, as long as the water where they live contains places to hide out of sight and out of the stronger current.  Under typical winter conditions, the ones that stay in smaller streams become tougher to catch, because I think that they spend much of their time being pretty dormant in their hiding places, especially in the clearest, coldest water.  But give them a 40 degree rain that raises the creek a bit and puts some color in the water, and they may come alive and do some serious feeding for a while.  So winter creek fishing (assuming the creek isn't too heavily springfed) is kind of a feast or famine type thing, almost impossible under typical conditions but can be so good you swear that all the fish that were there in the summer are still there.  On larger rivers, winter fishing is more consistent, with fewer times when the fish are totally inactive.

[tjm]

@Al Agnewthat kinda makes sense, and if the creeks stay low through the winter it'd make a lot of sense; but I think the streams I've fished are usually  deeper throughout in the winter months and of course they have sunken trees and slabs of limestone that fish live under. Some  riffles  that don't hold any fish in summer may be  enough deeper in the late winter that they hold   bass. The creek near the house is a couple feet deeper this week than it has been for a couple months, and the wet season has just started. A fish in the same lie as it was last week is now two feet or so deeper.  I would say that summer heat and low flows put these fish into "deep" holes more than  an average winter does. I expect that every stream has somewhat different conditions though. And I don't know enough to say one way or another.

I think I'll take water temperatures in a few places this winter just to see if the creeks cool significantly or if the feeder springs keep them somewhat stable.  

[feather n fin]

Interesting conversation….all I can say for sure is in drought and low water, the bass need deeper pools and the wee fish seem to flourish.