Sat Pool 7 Report – With a couple questions…

Was out again Saturday on Pool 7… fishing is TOUGH, but they are out there. We fished from 6 to noon and boated a dozen legal largemouths, probably close to 30 fish total… with a couple HUGE doggies, one had to be close to 10 lbs… but I wasn’t about ready to get the scale for him!

The largemouth seemed to be most active in or around the main channel. Find the current, find a slight break and find the baitfish, and viola… find the largies. Here is where my questions come from…
1. Do largemouth migrate OUT of the backwaters toward the channel with low water and higher temps? It seems that they must, but not sure…

2. Smallmouth have DISAPPEARED! Where did they go??? I searched high and low… wingdams, sand flats, sanded in wingdams… you name it… NONE! Can you help me?

Look forward to the discussions…

Okay… I figure 88 people have viewed the post and said to themselves one of three things:

1. “Reel Guy” can’t find smallies… what a chumpy fisherman.

Or…

2. Neither can I, so I have nothing to add… Smallies are gone.

Or…

3. I know where they are but don’t want to share anything… I will keep ALL Smallies to myself!

So, which one is it???

I agree to a certain degree the smallmouth have been hard to locate. We did find one nice SM Bass Sat. afternoon. It crushed a top-water lure and put up an absolutely fantastic fight. This fish was caught in a spot that usually puts up nice sized LM Bass. Take it for what it’s worth.

I think #3 is closer to the truth for a lot of the viewers. You know how those Bass fisherman are……

Due to upcoming tourneys I will only say that the LM and SM are in the same areas from what I have found lately. Low water tends to concentrate things if you know what I mean.

you should be able to add eel grass into the equation onto the above mentioned “places that you fished”. one secret key to deciphering good eel grass from non productive grass is to find beds with that spiral stem with the white flower budding from the top of it

Jim,
Does the flowering aspect of eel grass have some ecological significance? Such as in areas of low or high flow, better water quality, etc?

not a bio major but when i find that weed it tells me that i have enough oxygen and flow to sustain bass. for some dumb reason they “really” goto that weed when it comes up, what triggers it i don’t know, but it’s something that a person should pay attention to.

The biggest reason there are different types of vegetation across different areas is primarily because of the soils fertility thus governing the aquatic plant life. For instance you will often see vast expanses of specific types of vegetation all by them selves or in patches. This is not by accident. They are genetically programmed to proliferate in a specific environment. Now take this a step further and notice the few pads in the areas with American Eel grass. You will never see these pads take over until you see a change in soil fertility… What jimmy is so eloquently saying is that over the years he has noticed a profound difference in health of eel grass indicating that he is looking for specific soil fertility which in turn is attracting something else, The something else is not as important as the fact that jimmy just helped you out immensely.
Jc

Beautiful! Will try and locate the “something else” on Wednesday and let you know if I find it…

Still not certain why or what the smallmouths are doing… anyone guess thay might migrate significant distances to find moving water? I was thinking they might migrate north to the damn areas and set up home in the deeper holes with fresh current and oxygen… Any thoughts here?

Tom,

What in the sam heck was that holding the big smallie???

jc

Thanks for the insight on the eel grass.

I have keyed in on it in the past but am still having some problems putting all the pieces together.

Last couple days fishing for walleye in deeper back water holes with current flow we are catching smallmouth.

How do most of you fish the eel grass? In the past I’ve flipped the edges with some success and also threw spinnerbaits parallel to the edge of it. I’ve never had much success with other techniques except for the occasional blow with topwater baits when duckwort covers it.

I spent 3 hours (in the fog) sat morning on 7…I was lucky to stumble upon a school of 16-17 inch smallies chasing shad. Spooks, flukes, pop-rs all worked, but it seemed better to switch after catching one fish. Sand/weeds/heavy current. It is a pattern I use often around labor day, and was pleasantly surprised to find that on saturday. Its a sign of things to come for fall smallmouth fisherman. Big fish schooled up on shad, willing to eat any topwater bait I throw

Champman – How’d you fair last night at Dresbach? I think I saw you out there while we were skiing up and down Pool 7. Maybe not… there are likely other Champion Boats out there with Bass Stud’s in them…

well, all I can tell you is that i for sure wasn’t on the river 3rd place 3#er.