Winter Smallmouth – Streams

Hey guys……………just wanted ask some of you knowledgeable people about wintering for smallies.

Do they migrate at all or does the bite vanish and the fish just find low current undercuts (4-8ft. deep) and/or deep holes (8-12ft. deep).

Curious to know what the typical behavior is? I’ve read about migration to bigger waters and deeper holes…………but just yesterday I had a (approx.) 15″ smallie come out from under a bank of small stream near the family cabin and head for a new spot to hide. Dad and I were testing ice thickness for a possible crossing and tossed a pretty big rock onto it, broke through, and studied the ice and shoreline for a while when the fish came out from under the embankment of this outside bend. It swam right under the open hole in the ice and I could see it’s markings clearly in all the sunshine. It was a nice fish! I didn’t even think they were in there because this part of the tributary that flows to the Chippewa River is a LONG way from the river!

The sighting has me shopping for a cheap canoe and waders!

Still curious though…………..it may be easier to winter in this stream than the Chippewa. Any thoughts or insights? If smallies are in there, I can just about bank on everything else being in there also!

There was a fishing show on last night where these guys were ice fishing for ‘gills and such, but had tip-ups setup in @4 ft. of water not to far off the short….and they were hammering smallies…..not much insight…but my .02

Stillakid

Boy, talk about a question that’s impossible to answer. It’s a subject I’m very interested in so I read everything I see on the subject. What is interesting is how diverse the wintering habitat can be. The tradition thinking (supported by tracking studies) is that fish in small rivers migrate to deep water, usually near a dam. I have fished the late fall bite above Taylor’s Falls on the St Croix, and on the Mississippi above the dam at Little Falls. There clearly is a migration to these areas. The fish are very concentrated and over-harvest is a legitimate concern. MN has initiated catch and release regulations to protect these fish. Any smallmouth caught after September 15th on in-land waters must be released immediately. However, several recent tracking studies have found shallow areas in small rivers where schools of fish have spent the winter. Don’t have the details in front of me but it sounds like a situation like you found. One study in MN found fish in less than 4′ of water on sand in the Mississippi near St Cloud. Another study out east found similar results.
My own personal experience is the SM around the Wabasha area tend to migrate to Lake Pepin. However, I have gone out and seen SM in the river with a video camera. I found one pod below a wing dam, on a sand drop that went from 12 to 20′. That was last year in early March. If condition permit, I’ll do more looking this winter.
Two years ago I caught a fish in Lake Pepin that was tagged in the Chippiwa River somewhere above Durrand WI. As the crow fly’s that over 20 miles.
Another interesting sideline is ice fishing for SM. There have been more articles lately and it seems SM in some lake can be caught through the ice and in another body of water they don’t seem to bite. I see ice fisherman in areas on Lake Pepin that hold wintering fish but I’ve never talked to anyone who has caught one. Come March I can take my flat bottom out and catch a few right next to the ice as it goes out.
The bottom line is we are learning more about the fish and their wintering habits but we are a long ways for understanding them.
Try to keep an eye on that spot for more developments, I’d love to hear what you find.

The DNR released a study about Smallmouth migration to and from the Black River just a couple years ago. They discovered that Smallies (especially the larger ones) would migrate in the spring from their wintering holes on the Mighty Miss all the way to the dam below Lake Arbutus… again, repeat, Lake Arbutus… that’s >20 Nautical Miles each spring. The study confirmed this over a couple years.

To confirm Riverfan’s comments, they don’t know everyting (and the article confirms this), but they sure do understand them far better today than they did just a few years ago.

Imagine if we could THINK like a fish… Someone told me Slop Bass does…