River Smallies Primer

[riverman]

One very popular plastic being used on the middle current is a product from Arkie called a crawl-n-fry. The most popular color seems to be watermelon fished on either a 1/16 oz or 1/8 oz jig head. Depending upon the time of year you can throw above an eddy and let it roll into the feeding zone or fish it near natural structure like a carolina rig. I have seen and caught fish in places where you would not expect to find them with this set-up.

[Danoinark]

Al Agnew is another experienced river bass fisherman and has written some fine posts on the subject. I hope he adds some to this ongoing list too.

Dano

All of the posts are being very helpful thanks.

[Don]

God Folks,

I've just ordered a FishCat quad pontoon to hit warmwater floats for the first time. I met and visited with Ward Bean at the Convlave last fall and I think he would like that I share his website with you guys. I hope to try some of his smallie patterns.

Don May

www.warmwaterflytyer.com

[Al Agnew]

Dano, river smallmouth fishing ain't rocket science. It's actually very simple in some ways, but there are variables. It's simple in that, except on larger streams in the winter months, you've already got one variable solved. Unlike in reservoirs in which you have to find out how deep the fish are and where they are, in our smallish Ozark streams, current and cover are everything, and the fish will be anywhere the current and cover allows them to be. As for depth, the active fish are almost always within reach of whatever lure you wish to throw at them, from topwaters to bottom draggers, and the only depths to AVOID are too shallow for them to swim, and too deep for there to be much food. Don't spend much time in deep water (over 6 feet) because there ain't much smallie food in those places, so whatever smallies that ARE there are going to be inactive, anyway.

So, once the water temps get up around 60 degrees or so, usually sometime in April, you'll find smallmouths NEAR fairly shallow water with current (if not IN fairly shallow water with current). The stronger the current, the warmer the water has to be for smallies to be spending a lot of time IN it, but they'll be close. And they'll be in places NEAR, if not in, cover, especially cover they can get UNDER, whether it be logs, rocks, or old Sears refrigerators. And they'll stay in such places, only changing their exact locations in relation to current, until the water starts getting cold again in the fall.

So then, the biggest variable still remaining is water conditions, especially how clear the water is. Here's my rule of thumb. Visibility more than 6 feet is "very clear". Visibility 4-6 feet is "clear". Visibility 2-4 feet is "murky". Visibility under 2 feet is "tough". Each division will suggest (not require) different lures and lure colors.

This is one place where fly fishermen who have a trout fishing background are often handicapped. Smallies aren't trout. Unlike trout--which tend to zone in on one thing and feed on it to the exclusion of everything else, even if it's a trico hatch and there are nice, fat minnows swimming by them--smallmouths are highly opportunistic feeders whose only criteria for whether they'll eat it or not is that it's alive and small enough to swallow (and even there they sometimes misjudge). So while in clear water they might be willing to eat something small, even there they'll usually prefer something bigger. In murky water, they'll either ignore or simply not notice little stuff. So, for the most part, avoid small flies and lures, the kind of stuff the longear sunfish eat with abandon.

Instead of going really small and unobtrusive in very clear water, go bigger. But pick colors that aren't highly contrasting. If you're fishing it on the bottom, make it a color that's close to the color of the bottom (very simple, and very effective rule for several reasons...the natural food will be that color, and the smallies won't be alarmed by some jarring contrast). If you're fishing it close to or on the surface, make it as light and bright as possible (seems counterintuitive, but the fish will be looking UP at it, against the background of the water surface, which is the brightest view in their world, so something that is light and bright will blend right in). And...keep it MOVING. Don't pause it and give the fish a good look at it. This won't always work, and sometimes pausing is the ticket, but it's a good place to start. Very clear water requires stealth and long casts. But the casts don't have to be as accurate, and in fact, if you're using larger lures, aim to land them a few feet away from where you think the fish actually is, and let the fish come to the lure. Landing a big lure on top of a fish in very clear water usually spooks the fish.

Clear water, as opposed to very clear, gives a bit more margin of error on the stealth factor, and also gives you a few more choices in lures and colors. While crankbait type lures don't usually work well in very clear water (with a few exceptions), they start to be better in water with a little less visibility. But accuracy becomes a bit more important. Get your lures a little closer to cover.

Murky water gives you lots of margin for error in getting close to the fish. But you also have to be accurate with your casts, and you have to know where they are. Murky water, if from a rise in the river, sometimes makes the fish feed with very little caution and move to shallows where they wouldn't ordinarily be, but it can also, especially if the river is dropping fast, position them off the banks in deeper water and make them difficult to find and catch. In murky water, you want bigger lures that make noise and displace water. Crankbaits really shine. Spinnerbaits are great. Topwaters are good as long as they are fairly big. And you want the colors to contrast with the background, especially in lures you will be fishing high in the water column, which in that case means dark colors (contrasting against the light background of the water surface with the fish looking up).

Muddy water is tough.

Lure choices--keep it simple but cover the entire water column, from topwaters to mid-depth swimmers to bottom bumpers. If spinning or baitcasting, have a couple of walk-the-dog topwaters, a couple of poppers, a prop bait or two, and a couple of smallish to medium size buzzbaits to cover surface fishing. A few spinnerbaits and shallow running crankbaits cover the mid-depths, along with a few soft jerkbaits. For bottom bumpers, a few deep diving crankbaits, some jigs with plastic chunk or crawfish trailers, and an assortment of tubes will work.

For the fly rod, hard-bodied poppers, Sneaky Petes, and deer-hair sliders cover the surface. A variety of streamers can be fished at mid-depths. Weighted Woolybuggers are fine for bottom bumping. You can also use a variety of soft plastics weighted with split shot on the fly rod. Lots of fly rod baits will work well, but size is important. If, in general, you're wanting to imitate a minnow, your streamer should be somewhere between 3 and 5 inches long. If imitating a crawdad, your lure should be at least 2 inches but no more than 3.5 inches long. If using a "generic" lure like a Woolybugger, it can be anywhere from 2 to 6 inches long, depending upon how thick it is...long and thin works, short and fat works, short and thin no, long and fat no.

The other thing I see fly rodders with the trout background do wrong is, they don't impart enough action in their lures. Dead drifting and dead sticking sometimes works, but usually the smallmouth wants movement. It may just be an occasional lift or twitch as you're letting the lure drift with the current, or it may be hard, fast strips and sweeps. Let the fish tell you what they are interested in that day.

Okay, that's my River Smallmouth 101 course.

[cotterboy2007]

I can't comment on any type of flyfishing for them ,but on the Buffalo river I can generally get away with three or four lures 95% of the time. Zoom baby brush hog in green pumpkin or watermelon red either texas rigged with pegged sinker(which i feel gets snagged less than jighead) or a 1/8 ounce jig head, zoom fluke weighless(sometimes I will tie a swivel or carolina keeper and leader and add a dropper type rig with 2 flukes), small buzzbait or floating minnow, and a jitterbug for any night time fishing after mid April on.

I think the main thing to concentrate on is being very observant of where you are catching (or missing) fish. If it is at the end of a fast water chute that flows into a deep hole with transition bottom from rock to gravel and your bite comes at that point, remember that and find areas vey similar. Fish them over and over. I have caught 30+ fish from a single hole once I find how they are realting to the the cover available.

Early season river smallies can be a mystery from time to time. Seems like they flat get lockjaw. I that time, I think live bait is the ticket, but I may get flogged for mentioning it to you artificial only types. I use a glass minnow trap and can flat get some bait in a hurry this time of year. I like to use a standard river drift rig and a #4 hook to lip hook lively river caught meduim sized slicks or shiners and just drag them along. I have seen days where that is the only thing they will bite. Be careful not to get the hook to far back or you will kill the minnow. Believe it or not, I have slayed some big brown trout on this exact same set-up ifrom January through April When after the big browns, I upsize to the biggest minnows I have in the trap. Sorry to get off topic, but most people simply overlook live bait as an option. If it is between no fish, and catching fish with live bait, I choose live bait every time.