Bass-Addict

So I have fished w minnows a few times now, with great success. They seem to produce better results than crawdads or nightcrawlers by quite a margin, catching smallmouth in spots where I would normally get nothing or small panfish. They must really love minnows. I have found it difficult to cast most of the smaller minnows far enough with the free rigging method, so I tried using a split shot but was frequently getting hung up. Do you think the slip bobber is my best option? What brand/size and how exactly do I do it again? Going tomorrow.

That’s the whole point, one day is warm and one day is sunny. I think the above poster solved it for me though.

Yup looks like tonight only drops down to 60, and tomorrow’s high is 74 so I’ll bet the fishing will be great. Low is 43 tomorrow night, high of 65 next day but as you said sun won’t compensate much.

This shallow (3-5 ft) river I fish seems to invariably produce better, as most bodies of water, in warmer conditions. However, it seems that the sun can impact how hot it feels significantly to where 65 and sunny feels a whole lot warmer than 73 and overcast. It’s really strange, I’m not sure I fully understand it, I guess the temperature refers to the air temperature but having a hot sun on you makes all the difference, even in the 40s and 50s. I’m asking because I told my dad about the feeding frenzy my live shiner use has created. We are trying to plan a day between tomorrow and Tues, tomorrow is 74 and cloudy and Tuesday is 70 and sunny. Which do you think will be better for fishing, will the sun heat the water up more than the air temperature? Prob gonna be our last chance to go this year so wanted to make it good. Thanks!

The only logical explanation for them being so desirable to smallmouth over minnows (if true) is that the meat is tastier. Sort of like preferring a lobster to a generic piece of tilapia.

I thought crawfish were relatively low protein?

Based on my experience using minnows, I would agree. But why do most sources say otherwise?

You mean like a dolphin? Yeah I guess they are pretty acrobatic. I just meant more in terms of the fight in the water.

Interesting, I wonder why they say crawfish are 80% of their food source. Do you think that applies to most states?

Another part of why I find bass forage fascinating is that crawfish are very timid and spend most of their lives hiding under rocks and in holes from predators, as literally everything in their ecosystem eats them. Outside of spawning, when they come out on rocks to find a mate and bass gourge, when is any sizable number of them exposed to be preyed upon?

Are you taking size into account? Almost all of the fish you mentioned are quite a bit bigger than the average smallmouth, esp Muskie and carp. I have hooked into a sucker that zipped back and forth like a maniac, I thought I had a monster smallmouth, only to be disappointed when I saw the slimy mutant on the end of my line lol. I don’t even like touching those things. However, they are generally pretty heavy, which I think makes all of the difference in “fight.” I also think this explains why so many more chase catfish and LMB than SMB, easier to catch and they get much bigger. I will always prefer stalking the elusive smallie down a wild scenic river and getting them to hit my line, and the fighting style is way more athletic and aggressive than largemouth which tire in minutes. Muskie are ferocious and watching them follow it up to the boat and hammer it after the figure 8 is something to behold, but again the fight is sloppy and not as graceful and exciting as SMB.

It means they pull harder, in every direction, and for longer. Why is that so confusing? Largemouth fight, but not for nearly as long or aggressively. How do you not consider them fighters? I think you’re getting into semantics, when people talk about how hard a fish fights they are simply referring to them fighting to get free from the hook, obviously not that they are simply “fighting” for the enjoyment or competition of the angler in some sort of head to head battle lol. Can you name a tougher freshwater fish?

That’s a big river

Yeah I use a St. Croix 6’ Med-Light Fast Action tip, tried switching to Light and it was just way too much give. Some of the littler smallmouth I hook into were more fun on it but it was inadequate for the bigger ones. Geez I’ve never even caught one near that size, is that where they get most of their reputation as strong fighters? I think the biggest I’ve caught was a 1-2 lb River smallie, which blew me away w how hard it fought. Where are you catching these monsters, the Great Lakes?

Good point. Honestly size probably plays more of a role than anything in the fight.

No, it’s like saying someone has more muscle/stamina from running uphill. Same applies to any animal who regular exercises with any kind of resistence. No one’s debating how fast the river dwelling smallmouth is, but how strong they are. So I guess it’s a question of which one plays a bigger role? I can’t see how a fish who swims against current their entire lives isn’t inherently stronger than one who swims in a lake.

They would have to be stronger from regularly swimming in current

I feel like it’s almost impossible to tell as the lake/bigger river smallmouth are so much heavier.

Dang they’re mostly huge, the ones I throw back in the creek when I catch them because smallies usually won’t hit em. I still bought them just because I drove all that way and there are still a handful of moderate sized ones, plus I can rip the tails off the big ones if they won’t hit them declawed, they almost always hit just the tails.

Gonna grab some wings and a beer while I’m here, make the 2 hour drive worth while.

I’m just wondering how persistent I should be, if it’s worth trying them in every spot or if I should give up after throwing 5 or 6.

I know I’m saying do they stop feeding when it gets cold? Obviously the trap has not changed ?

I’ve never been able to catch anything with artificial lures in this river. I ask every fisherman I see out there throwing lures all summer how their luck has been they say bad. I always catch at least 5-6 using live crawdads, minnows and nightcrawlers.

I am having a hard time catching them, seems they’ve mostly burrowed down. I found a bait shop in Indianapolis that has 30, driving there as I type this to buy them. Tomorrow’s weather looks perfect, got about 30 minnows at home (shiners and creek chubs) and 2 packs of nightcrawlers. Hopefully between those 3 baits I should be able to hook into a few. Do smallmouth in small creeks hit live crawdads this late in the year? Water temp is hovering in the 50s but tomorrow is gonna be 76 and sunny so it will jump up to 60 in the water.

I’m not gettin a dang thing