River Question

I have been fishing the Wolf River the past two weeks. Last week produced about 50 keepers with a lot in the 2.5-3 lb range, and the biggest was about 4.5 lbs. I took a buddy one day and my girl friend the next day, and found a few spots that I though reload with fish.

This weekend the water was up about 6 inches and clarity was good, but I could not get a good bite going. I could see 1-2.5 inch shad in several spots, but there were no smallies? I tried fishing the same areas as last weekend with topwater, cranks, jerkbaits, swimjigs, wacky worms, and tubes, and could only muster up a northern which spit out 3 shad in my boat, and a smallie which spit out one shad. The weekend prior, I could catch 3-10 fish per spot.

My question is with the water dropping 18 degrees in a week, where do these smallies go in these small rivers with heavy current and not a lot of backwater areas go?

Thanks in advance, and good luck on the water and in the woods.

Ben Otto

They may drop down river a long way to find a wintering hole. Smallies will completely leave some of the smaller rivers and head for a bigger river down stream if they can’t find what they need. They’re going to be looking for depth and slack water. It’s that time of year and water temps dropping that fast will move them.

Rootski

Otto,

There was a tracking study on smallies a long time ago that indicated your fish migrated as much as 50 miles/year. The study is/was referenced a lot so you might be able to find it in a search. It may give you some idea what is happening.

John

Otto,

The more I think about the study may have been on the Fox River.

John

Quote:

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Otto,

The more I think about the study may have been on the Fox River.

John

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Some sections of the fox and wolf are very similar. Do you think these fish would travel all the way from New London/Shiocton to the Winnebago system? I will have to do some searching to see what I can come up with. Thanks for the help.

Ben Otto

Quote:

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Otto,

There was a tracking study on smallies a long time ago that indicated your fish migrated as much as 50 miles/year. The study is/was referenced a lot so you might be able to find it in a search. It may give you some idea what is happening.

John

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John if it is the one I am thinking about I believe that it was done on the mississippi by the Iowa DNR. It showed seasonal locations and confirmed the wintering ground concept. I think In fishermaen published parts of it.

You might want to do some searches with that info.

The info I was referring to was from Tim Holschlag’s book on Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass. I’ll see if he included any references to studies done by scientists. Basically he said that in some smaller river systems the Smallies leave the whole river in the fall and don’t return until spring! I ran into this unkowingly several years ago. It was our anniversary, we ended up in Northern MN and did some hiking and sight seeing. We walked in to see the Vermillion falls and also hiked along lower sections of the river. It looked great and I spent an afternoon fishing my brains out and didn’t have anything to show for my efforts except a few small Northerns. Later I found out I was a month behind the Smallies, they were already gone
Rootski

This might give you the answers you are looking for.

web page

Dan,

I’ve read both studies but they are not the one I’m thinking of. My last recollection of the study was an article in In-Fisherman back when the Lindner’s still owned the publication. They looked at lake and river smallmouth’s home ranges. What they found was some lake fish lived their entire life in a 100-200 yard area but some river fish moved great distances. They referred to them as “Homers and Roamers”. Does anyone remember the article?
I can add that the WI DNR tagged some fish in the Chippewa above Durand and we caught one of the fish about a 1/3 of the way up Lake Pepin. That’s at least 20 miles as the crow fly’s.

John

John,

I don’t know if its the same article but I do remember reading one where they had documented smallmouth traveling 60-70 miles due to the fact that they like to return to the same spot to spawn each year much like a salmon does when it dies. The same article also showed how a largemouth may spend all summer on one stump (unless of course I catch him and take him for a boat ride).

you might want to try the first drop from shore. I found them in 4-7 fow. Also try any wood that is in that depth.