Help me understand smallmouth movement

[RHuff]

 

Is it similar to Buck Perry’s theory on Largemouth Bass? 

 

I know smallmouth are pack feeders, prefer clear, high visibility conditions.. Attack things they can see… Feed by sight and smell as opposed to vibrations.. Prefer rock and hard cover.. 

 

In a lake setting, how do smallmouth move?

[A-Jay]

3 hours ago, RHuff said:

 

Is it similar to Buck Perry’s theory on Largemouth Bass? 

 

I know smallmouth are pack feeders, prefer clear, high visibility conditions.. Attack things they can see… Feed by sight and smell as opposed to vibrations.. Prefer rock and hard cover.. 

 

In a lake setting, how do smallmouth move?

Right off, I am a big fan of Mr. Perry's writings

and make no claims to being even remotely at that level. 

However, I've been known to chase brown bass now & then.

And while smallies are real roamers and go all over the lake,

I'm not as interested in how they do it as I am where then end up & when.

How all that happens in the water you fish in West Virginia

 might be different from what I'm seeing in Northern Michigan.

But I bet there are as many similarities are there are differences. 

btw - I would NOT count out vibration when fishing for brown bass. 

Either way, I jotted down some stuff a while back, might help. 

 

A-Jay

[TnRiver46]

Don’t know about perry but I can bust one myth in your post. Smallmouth can and do most certainly feed on vibration. Sure they sight feed in clear Great Lakes but they also exist in the always flooding rivers of Appalachia, which I’m sure you are familiar with. They don’t just sit there and starve when the water turns milky. And it doesn’t have to be a loud vibration either

 

purple worm on a Texas rig 

 

the smallmouth is still a bass and will eat a jig in the dead of night 35 feet underwater. I would also imagine that’s not a sight feeding 

 

 

 

in a reservoir, I catch a whole lot of them in brush piles, it doesn’t have to be rocks. I remember Steve Kennedy catching a 5 lb smallie flipping a jig into a laydown in the 2021 elite event on fort loudon.
 

As far as movement in reservoirs (I’m assuming that’s what’s in WV) I can offer only a very general overview. Late winter early spring when you’re getting a lot of warmish rain (days pushing 50 degree air) they will move surprisingly shallow and gobble up crankbaits and other moving baits. They of course will stay somewhat shallow (under 15’) during the spawn then move out to the main river channel and follow shad during summer. They can still be caught shallow in creeks and cuts early and late in day, but seem to go deep or find swift current during midday in summer. During fall they blitz shad like crazy all over, can be tough fishing but can hit motherlode with rattle trap. I’m winter I usually get them offshore on drop offs with timber stacked on it. Or in clearer highland reservoirs they just roam around with stripers and eat shad balls all winter. One ace in the hole year round is a vertical cliff wall, smallies like those no matter what. 

[Team9nine]

Start with the link in A-Jay’s post above 

 

…but yes, Buck treated smallmouth, and all other game fish, just like largemouth. He did note them having more of a penchant to feed “off bottom” than a largemouth. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

18 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Start with the link in A-Jay’s post above 

 

…but yes, Buck treated smallmouth, and all other game fish, just like largemouth. He did note them having more of a penchant to feed “off bottom” than a largemouth. 

They do like rock and hard cover but on the Tennessee River they are just as abundant on laydowns. I fish rock because of less hangups but when I'm tossing a buzzbait or cranks, the wood produces same as rock. I think they use all the river the same. Don't have as much experience in lakes though.

  

[roadwarrior]

28 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

I think they use all the river the same. 

 

 

 

                                                     

[Susky River Rat]

I don’t lake fish often. I do however catch smallies mixed right in the same areas as large mouth. Like others have stated smallies do tend to eat off the bottom a little more. Don’t over think it too much as far as brown vs green. I don’t have much experience fishing West Virginia other than stonewall Jackson. Although I would like to hit up the upper Potomac sometime. 

[Columbia Craw]

Smallmouth and largemouth are both capable of adapting to conditions presented to them.  But if either has the ability to locate preferred environments, smallmouth seem to gravitate to cooler, clearer waters than largemouth.  Smallmouth don’t shy away from grass, especially deep grass.  They also adapt well to waters with current.

 

My experience is Smallie’s are much more transient and do roam but seem to follow contours as much as cover edges. I also noted they will move vertically often and move “up” to feed.  Smallmouth are masters at positioning in current.   Smallmouth seem to have feeding stations and resting stations. Timing for when they are feeding is something I have yet to fully grasp. One thing that seems true is if you got bit and it just shut off,  move deeper before you move horizontally.  Just some thoughts.

[Dwight Hottle]

On 12/13/2022 at 9:39 AM, Team9nine said:

Start with the link in A-Jay’s post above 

 

…but yes, Buck treated smallmouth, and all other game fish, just like largemouth. He did note them having more of a penchant to feed “off bottom” than a largemouth. 

 

Where smallmouth feed is dependent on where the bait & type of bait is located. When smelt were prevalent in large numbers in the great lakes & other large bodies (Rainy Lake) of water the smallies could be caught in great numbers fishing suspended jerk baits as opposed to bottom oriented presentations. The general water clearing that took place in the great lakes years after the Cuyahoga Falls River caught on fire in 1969 coincided with massive schools of smelt proliferating. During those years the long minnow baits (jerk baits) out fished the tubes & other bottom baits because the smallies were feeding up. They were suspending & looking for bait above them. When the smelt populations died off & the goby's were introduced in the system the smallies started feeding down more often concentrating on the highly fatty goby's that littered the bottom. Gobies do not have air sacks so they can not swim up or laterally. The can only swim along the bottom horizontally making them easier to catch.

If you understand the bait sources that are prevalent in your waters you will have a better understanding of where to locate the smallies & how to track their movements. Best suggestion is to always locate & follow the bait. The smallmouth will be close by. 

 

[Team9nine]

40 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

 

Where smallmouth feed is dependent on where the bait & type of bait is located. When smelt were prevalent in large numbers in the great lakes & other large bodies (Rainy Lake) of water the smallies could be caught in great numbers fishing suspended jerk baits as opposed to bottom oriented presentations. The general water clearing that took place in the great lakes years after the Cuyahoga Falls River caught on fire in 1969 coincided with massive schools of smelt proliferating. During those years the long minnow baits (jerk baits) out fished the tubes & other bottom baits because the smallies were feeding up. They were suspending & looking for bait above them. When the smelt populations died off & the goby's were introduced in the system the smallies started feeding down more often concentrating on the highly fatty goby's that littered the bottom. Gobies do not have air sacks so they can not swim up or laterally. The can only swim along the bottom horizontally making them easier to catch.

If you understand the bait sources that are prevalent in your waters you will have a better understanding of where to locate the smallies & how to track their movements. Best suggestion is to always locate & follow the bait. The smallmouth will be close by. 

 

Thanks - very interesting, and explains/supports why Buck and others would have noted and mentioned this behavior at the time. I don’t believe gobies were introduced/discovered in the Great Lakes until 1990 or shortly thereafter, and probably took a while to spread and proliferate before the smallie behavior changed to match and take advantage of the new forage.