I live in west-central Ohio, directly between two of the best rivers in Ohio for trout and smallies.  The trout river level is high but well within the banks, but the Great Miami River is WAYYY over its banks.  I was looking forward to fishing this river in the coming weeks, so my question is how does a flood effect the smallmouth bite after waters have receded? ? ? :-/

When the rivers I fish flood outside their banks, I've noticed that the bass tend to get pushed up into the shallows to get out of the current. The rivers I fish are a little smaller than the miami though. Heavy jigs and critter baits fished slow do it for me. I driven over that river a half a dozen times and wondered if there were smallies in there. Now I know.

From what I hear they are definitely in there.  There is no way to access the river safely right now, but I'll be waiting for it to start to settle back down and I'll be out there for sure!

i like fihsing flooded rivers but this time of the year i just dont see the bass going that shallow    they might move up and hang by the bank ledge but that will be it

hmm im dont sure if the bass will move shallow or not  they might just to take advantage of the abunlent feed when a river floods.   i love fishing flooded rivers in the summer  i will throw a shallow running shad looking crankbait into somebodies front yard and be ticking the grass of 1 foot water and will be smacking the smallies   hmm  all that i can say is give it a shot because u never know

Well I spent this past weekend setting up an emergency shelter, and then today's high temp is 9 degrees with 6 to 10 inches of snow falling tonight.  I think I'll stay in for a few days...wish it were decent so i could get out there!