The water levels on a river I fish for smallies have dropped quite a bit and the fish have moved from thier normal spring and summer time spots.  Where do you find the smallies in these conditions?.  Do you look for the deeper pockets and any remaining current?.  Also, it is a smaller river so a deep spot might be only 5 or 6 feet deep.  Is this deep enough to hold smallies in colder weather (Wisconsin)?.  

I'm way down in Arkansas so I'm not familiar with your streams in Wisconsin this time of year but if you can find a used copy of Stream Smallmouth Fishing by Tim Holschlag then I would highly recommend it for you.

Here is a link to a copy at less than half of what they want at Amazon.

http://www.allbookstores.com/book/0811723844/Tim_Holschlag/Stream_Smallmouth_Fishing.html

I hope this helps you.

Any depression, drop, edge next to a feeding flat, or current break should hold a fish. Sometimes you will find spots mixed it with them in the main channel around bridges. In some of the smaller rivers around me we just hop around from deep hole to deep hole catching fish on dropshot rig, tube, small crankbait, small swim bait or grub. Summer time or low water is when I really like to fish for smallmouth because it concentrates the fish.

Different question along the same lines:

Water: Crystal clear, fast moving (Class 3 rapids abound) depth is 1-4 feet.

Bottom: Jagged Bedrock, many crevasses. Boulders of all sizes abound. Sandy flats and several side coves are found as well as many weed patches with water levels of 6 to 18 inches. *Often you find crevasses running perpendicular to the current, not parallel with it.

Feeder creeks: Many tiny ones all over the place, small enough to walk over with one step.

Water levels: For months they were low. For two weeks following a hard rainy period it was brown and deadly swift. Now it's returned to clear and been normalized for about a week.

Problem: Where did the fish go???? I was catching but now the bass seem to have disappeared. "Bite checks" with a small piece of artificial bloodworm (by Fishin' Strips) will catch grass carp, perch and tiny smallmouth (all 4-8 inches) within one minute of a cast. NOTHING hits the usual lures... cranks, plastics, jigs and jerk baits are all coming up empty. I simply can't find anything over 8" anywhere.

I've tried:

Front and back sides of boulders, inside crevasses, along weed edges, at edges between faster and slower water, mouths of feeder creeks and around fallen trees.

Images of the area:

The water is currently moderate... not calm, not flooded. The fish have to have gone somewhere but, other than the micro-fish, everything seems to have disappeared over this past week.

Any helpful thoughts are appreciated.

Vorlin / Scott

Fishing the Rappahannock between Motts Landing and Fredericksburg. Looking to organize locals for informal fishing outings. Leave a voice mail at 540-736-7650 or get NetZero Voice and you can call direct. This phone number is not linked to any physical address... it's the number given with the free NetZero Voice service.

The fish followed the shad. This time of the year the shad swim up stream to spawn and smallmouth follow. Try to find areas that would hold up the fish like a dam or something.

Gotcha... I was just reading something else that had me thinking that perhaps the food had been swept away by the fierce currents after the rain and that they had been forced to follow the food.

Strange thing is, the shad are usually downstream at this point in time but they're on the way. They say that you can catch good sized stripers this far up river once the shad run really kicks in but striper season in this area is limited and I don't think it opens until next month.

Today it was in the 80's again... I'm wondering if I should still be using crayfish immitating baits or start transitioning to more shad-like jerk baits at this point. Once I figure out what to use and where to throw it, I'm sure things will heat up nicely... but it's a lot of trial and error in the meantime. I'm simply trying to learn some things here that cut down the number of things that I'll need to try!

Vorlin / Scott

Find the closest drop off to where you usually fish for smallies in the spring time.

On the St. Croix in Hudson, I found them off the drop off of a main point on the river in around 7-8 feet.  I'd camp on the point in around a foot or two of water, and cast down the drop off and reel towards the shallower water.  Worked for me.

If your lake is 6' feet at the deepest, I'm thinking those fish travel to a deeper part of the river, since that area probably freezes all the way to the bottom.  You should be able to find the smallies in that 6' hole early fall.