There's a place on my home lake where I know I can go any day of the week and catch a fish, but they are always juvenile smallmouth. They're always there, and they're always the same size...dinks.

Should there be bigger fish around, or is something about this spot just attractive to juvenile fish?

The bottom arrow points to where the dinks always hang out. Its a steep drop off a big hill on the TN River that falls to the waterline, then has some slab rocks in maybe 9 feet of water, and then drops quickly to 12 to 15 feet. The dinks are home all the time but I've never caught a decent fish off that bank.

One time, many years ago, I caught a decent smallmouth off that pea gravel point opposit the bluff wall. It was a summer morning and he hit a Pop R on top just a few feet from the boat, scared the crap out of me because I was just kind of going through the motions, figuring I'd already passed the most likely place to get hit, and WHAM! Heckuva fight even though it was maybe a 2.5 lb fish.

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Should there be bigger fish in the area? Am I just not finding them?

Which part of the TN river? With a river that old, there should always be a chance of a larger fish swimming by at any moment. Normally I would say if it’s upstream of lenoir city, it’s destined to be only small bass but the bassmaster classic proved me wrong this year 😂. I’m somewhat kidding about that as there are nice bass on the upstream end but not as many as chickamauga, guntersville, pickwick, etc

The limiting of carrying capacity is usually done by lack of resources, which in this case would be food/forage.

It's an interesting question. I think @Jar11591 is right, that it's forage-related, and that the forage there is sized for small bass, but that begs another question: Why is small forage there?

I could be wrong but I don’t think that big bass hang in an area where there is a lot of competition for feed.

Thanks y'all. This is on Pickwick. I'm about to jump in the truck and go right now.

FFS

A-Jay

I don’t usually worry about the “why”. Sometimes spots are just always going to be small fish spots. In the end it doesn’t matter cuz it doesn’t get my attention anymore. But I will recommend this: before giving up on the spot, fish a bigger bait there! When I finally got good at swimbait fishing, I went to places like that that had sucked for years or just had small fish and realized the fish just didn’t wanna mess around with a small bait. You might have an area that is loaded with all sizes of fish but the small ones are getting to the bait first or the big fish are just focused on big bait.

Some people get so hung on small finesse baits because “the fish are keyed in on it” yet they don’t realize it goes both ways. I’ve had lots of times they won’t touch a 5-7” wake bait but you’ll catch 20-30 fish on a 9-12” wake bait. Never forget, fish getting keyed in on different size baits goes to both ends of the spectrum. It goes for smallies too. I’ve caught lots of smallies on 7-10” baits

Yes sir just ask the musky fisherman.

Could also be a timing thing. You mentioned the one nicer fish you caught was in the morning. Have you hit it in low light conditions like on a dark windy day before a big storm?

Bass are territorial, and big bass are extremely territorial. A big bass is not going to let a small bass sit at his dinner table. The small bass will not force the issue, because they don't want to become dinner.

Not to say a place might not have a mixture of small medium and large bass. You may catch a dink or two and still catch a trophy from the same location. But if you catch 15 dinks, and don't get any larger bass than there probably is no large bass to be had. Conditions and time of year change, as well as a big difference between day or night, so no place that has bass will never have big bass, but if at the times you fish you never catch larger bass, than there is a good chance that is because no large bass hang out there during the times you fish.

I have many spots that I will still make a cast or two, and if I catch more than three very small bass I will quickly leave. I have other locations where I will give it a bit more time if I think the conditions are right even after a few small bass landed.

Medium size bass that are too big to get eaten, but can still be bullied, if the prey is there, it will take more effort than it is worth for the big bass to defend their territory. If I catch 2.5 pound or over bass from a location, I am very likely to try different baits and retrieves before giving up on the spot and will most likely come back and try it again a while after I leave.

If you are fishing a spot that consistently kicks out bass less than a pound, than it is still worth a cast or two, but don't waste much time. A giant bass is not going to let a tiny bass eat a meal that he feels is his, and they aren't going to let a bunch of children sit in their dining room and eat all of their food.

I'm not talking about large structures that will have a variety of bass sizes. A large bass has a small personal space and if the structure is large there will be other size bass. Sometimes the small bass may be in 2 feet of water on a large point while bigger bass are 10 feet deep on the same point. The big bass will be at the prime place on the point, but that doesn't mean there won't be small bass in the vicinity.

Sometimes the reason for a place basically being a nursery are obvious, and other times the only ones that will ever know why, are the bass.