Even more smallmouth locations

Here we have the site of an old dam that has been washed out. There are literally hundreds of these on Midwestern rivers and streams. Many powered old mills or factories around the turn of the century. Spots marked A are smaller pieces of rubble in the fast water that are only big enough to hold a single fish. In the swift water pouring thru the breach in the dam these spots can be hard to find. But potentially they hold some great fish and are worth search for. A swimbait or grub on a heavy jighead to get it down works great here. Often cast cross current and slightly upstream and letting the lure sweep down on a tight line is best. Spots marked B are bigger pieces of rubble fronm the old dam and can hold multiple fish. If they are undercut or naturally contain holes or pockets they can hold some big shovelhead as well. One thing to remember is that sometimes this is another spot where casting close to or even hitting the object with your lure can pay big dividends. Sauger sometimes also hold on this kind of place just not as closely as the smallmouth. Most old dams are undercut as at spot C if there is current flowing against the undercut it can hold nice smallies. These undercuts are also great places for a big shovelhead as well. Spot D is the bar formed by the downstream lip of the old dam when it was whole. This fishes like any other riffle but has the added benefit of being close to the deep water around the old dam. Expect some nice fish to be on this riffle at low light.

Low head Dam Fishing

Smallmouth country is low head dam country.  Tens of thousands used to exist back in the day to power factories and mills. A lot still exist today.  Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio alone have somewhere in the neighborhood of 800. I couldn't find numbers on neighboring states like Kentucky or Indiana but off the top of my head I can think of more in those two states than I can in my home state of Ohio. West Virginia, Tennessee, Virginia, if it's smallie country, It's lo head country.  From small ones it's safe to wade around up to large ones on medium and large rivers like the Kentucky or Scioto that are drowning machines.  Safety has to be a high priority any time one is fishing or boating around a low head dam of any size. Most low head dams form a powerful circulating current below them called a hydraulic that will drown the strongest swimmer even if he is wearing a life vest. In the last twenty years between 3 and 4 hundred people have drowned below low head dams in the US so this isn't a "it can't happen to me" type of scenario. If you do not treat low head dams with respect it could easily happen to you.
All that being said, low head dams are also often among the best places to fish on any stream that has them. You can find large numbers of schooling baitfish like shad, shiners and even skipjacks if you are close to a big river like the Ohio River. In other words lots of food for gamefish. Plus current, gravel, rock, concrete. oxygenated water full of eddies and seams. Dams are just all around great places to fish. So let's talk a bit about how to fish them. Most low head dams are not just a wall in the river. Instead the water falls in two steps to dissipate the water's energy and keep it from digging the river bottom out too much. But all that falling water still has lots of power and it does dig out a hole below the dam called a scour hole. It's been m experience that every low head dam also has some sort of undercutting going on as it ages. This can create a hidden home for big fish even a heavily fished dams.

In this drawing you can easily see why such undercutting would be attractive to fish. Overhead cover, oxygen,   a strong recirculating current bring food while the fish itself rests in relatively calmer water,  what's not to love if your a fish? And 90% of the fishermen who visit the dam don't target the fish tucked up under the dam itself. It's a recipe for a trophy. Below the smallest shallowest dams where it is safe to wade close to the dam, casting a diving crankbait  or a sinking or suspending minnow plug along the dam lengthwise can produce great results. Just remember that even tiny low heads can be deadly in times of heavier flows. Below larger dams where it is too deep or too dangerous to wade right next to the dam the current is too strong for most crankbaits to run well. Here a heavily weighted jig head is often your best bet. Other good lures to try are blade baits like silver buddies and tail spinners like the little George. Compact and heavy are the rules here, you want something to cut the current and get down to calmer water under the lip.

Let's expand our look at our low head just a bit. Many low heads have a secondary hydraulic right at the base of the main fall of water. (A) Here you often see carp in the summer trying to make their way up and over the dam. It's been m experience that at most dams this area does not hold many smallmouth bass, at least not sizeable ones. Sometimes though, there are very nice channel cat foraging up here in very swift shallow water that no one seem to target. Casting a bait up onto the dam itself and letting it fall into this area can produce some unlikely but exciting catfish catches.
Then we have our undercut we just talked about (C). Just blow this is the main hydraulic or circulating current. I've seen shovelheads, channels, smallmouth and hybrid stripers high in water column here if large schools of baitfish are present. Below this boil a calmer current flows along the holes bottom. On a big dam you might find blue cats here as well as saugeye holding up during the day. Too often though this area is devoid of cover and not the best place to fish. Oddly enough this is the most fished part of the dam. Lastly we have the lip where the scour hole ends. Often there are gravel and rock bars thrown up here even to the point of forming small islands in the river. These create lots of different seams of conflicting currents that can be fish magnets. These bars often have lots of rock that hold crayfish and darters for gamefish to feed on.

At many older low heads large boulders and concrete rubble have been dumped to control the undercutting of the dam (A). This provides great cover for crayfish, insect life, sculpins, darters and well, lots of smallie food. This is done most often done at older dams that have already been undercut so there are usually nooks and crannies for smallmouth to get into also. If the holes are big enough, and they usually are somewhere along the dam, here is where a big shovelhead will hide during the day also. Over time, during flood events, some of this rock and rubble is naturally washed into the scour hole (B). Now instead of a featureless bowl there is plenty of fish holding structure. And of course some of this also ends up on the bar at the lip of the hole (C). All in all these older dams are some of the most interesting ones to fish and my favorite kind of dam.

It's very important to realize that a fish doesn't interact with it's environment in the 2 D sort of way we do walking on the ground. Instead it see's it's world in a 3 D way much as a bird flying in the air does. Even more so really as the water currents are much stronger than air currents. To a smallmouth a strong seam is an object as real as a building. Low head dams produce all sorts of currents too many to discuss really. Just remember that smallmouth love edges. Anywhere you see an edge, a seam where faster and slower water meet is worth trying below a low head. Often on at least one side or the other below a dam eddies or other respites from the current exist (C). These can be large swirling eddies as big as a house where the dam meets the bank or smaller individual ones created by concrete rubble dumped to prevent bank erosion. Again either way they produce edges where faster and slower water meet. Our undercuts (A) that we already discussed can also channel the water flowing over the dam and create seams all along the dam face. Keep an eye out for pockets of foam just sitting there indicating a calm spot in the turbulent boil below the dam. Likewise the bars formed at the scour holes end (B) are not uniform and create chutes of faster and slower water as well as water channeled sideways across the river. These chutes can create channels down below the dam for quite a ways (D) that if deep enough can hold lots of fish. If there is a theme throughout this whole discussion, it is to spot the edges. When you first look below a dam is just seems a huge mass of disorder and chaos. Slow down a minute and look at pieces of the water. Find calm spots, edges, seams. The longer and closer you look the more it will all "slow down" and begin to make a bit more sense to you. Though complicated and nothing like the "reading the water" we are used to, they are more than worth the time to learn to fish. Just remember each dam is a bit different from every other dam and looking, learning and experimenting are the name of the game.

Typical river configuration

Here is my exaggerated drawing of a typical piece of a small to medium sized river. A riffle of large course material followed by a run of slightly smaller material diminishing in size till it merges with the silt and sediment of the pool before the whole thing repeats itself again. The idea that the material that makes up the rivers bottom follows this pattern of course rocks tapering down to silt is an important one for fishermen to remember. The bigger rocky material of the riffle harbors all kinds of prey for a predator like a smallmouth bass. Crayfish, hellgrammites, darters and sculpins abound in riffles. The fast water flowing over the riffle also adds lots of oxygen to the water. Many different species of insects also find homes in the rocky water of riffles. A run is the transition area between the riffle and the pool. Although not usually as rocky as the riffle, runs still have a rock or gravel bottom. Along with many of the same species as the riffle, other species such as different kinds of minnows and shiners join the mix here. A run with boulders or a ledge or anything else that provides a place for smallmouth to find a spot out of current but still have food carried to them by the current is almost always a good spot to fish. The deeper pools generally have softer silt covered bottoms and are populated by shiners and minnows that feed higher in the water column. Cover in pools might harbor largemouth bass or some crappie as well as the most beautiful little fish on earth, the longeared sunfish. Again picturing in your mind that the bottom changes over a length of river can be key in figuring out how and where to fish it.

After the flood

Now our point might harbor the ultimate secret spot.  Along comes a huge event, that 100 year flood. The whole river is in a raging flood many times higher than normal floods. And the raging river knocks the end off our point. The very biggest material that isn't completely swept away is now directly downstream from the new tip of the point. So you now have a deep instead of gradual slope off the end of the point. This creates a really strong seam downstream sometimes for thirty or forty yards. And for extra good measure all kinds of really big rocks under the seam for bass to stage under and ambush stuff. (C thru D) Hole run seam point and cover rocks all together. The key is to recognize a point that doesn't seem to taper off correctly and to realize you need to fish straight downstream of the tip of the point.  Just upstream of the bar (A)  is now deeper with flow a great spot to find a big saugeye or channel cat. Now strong current flows off the end of our shortened point and a seam might set up all the way from A to D. If this seam is anywhere near a deeper wintering hole for smallmouth it might just be the best spot in the entire rivers length to catch a trophy every fall. The flood event which  knocked the end off the point has probably deepened the hole (D) even more than usual if any wood cover is present in the hole you can be sure a trophy flathead has set up housekeeping there for the summer also. Points and bars thrown out into the river by tributaries are also candidates to have this same situation occur. No matter how they are caused any seem that has a line of big boulders strung along it's length is the destination spot on any river that has one.

Lateral Sort and Point Bars

This illustration shows a point bar on the inside of a bend in a typical stream. This constriction in the rivers channel makes the current speed up as it goes around the point. As you know a spot close to the center of a wheel is turning slower than a spot on the rim of a wheel. The water curving around the point also has to do the same so the faster swifter water on the outside of the bend digs out the bottom and far bank creating a hole off the end of the point. As the hole is eroded over time there is more pressure by the faster water on the outside side of any material dislodged. Also often a secondary current right on the bottom is often set up. These result in dislodged objects being moved slightly towards the point every time they are moved by high waters. In multiple high water events the bigger material is moved closer to the point while smaller material is swept away. Over the course of many many years this can sometimes result in a lateral sort of the rocky material off the point. With the biggest stuff that has stayed on the point after repeated events being right at the tip of the point and steadily smaller and smaller stuff laid down in strips as you go farther from the point. What's this got to do with fishing? Well crayfish and darters love rocks. Stuff the size of a grapefruit especially. So somewhere along the width of our point and pool of sorted rocks is a strip of bottom that is ideally suited for them creating a mini city of smallie food. (B in our diagram) While the outside side of the hole might be swept bare of bigger rocks and is just a layer of fine gravel deposited between big events. In other words NOT crayfish and darter cover. (C)  Now sometimes shiners will use this fast water pouring over bare gravel too so you do need to throw a cast or two there too.
But what happens is a guy comes along fishing beaches his yak or canoe and walks out to the end of the point. He then makes a nice average cast to the center of the hole and fishes his lure downstream thru the hole. He reels in repeats and does this a dozen times. If he doesn't catch a fish he moves on. Well he cast over top of the sweet spot and his lure was barely in in it. Sometimes we are reeling in and catch a fish seemingly right at our feet. When this happens make sure its not a lateral sort situation. Cover the holes off the ends of points laterally with each cast following a different path that the previous. Right along the steepest banks in bend pools if there is any cover is the ideal habitat for a shovelhead to make his home. (D) Below the bar (A), if the bottom is hard enough can be spawning habitat as well as a place for fish to move up shallow at night and feed.

Some shiny lil fishes

For a complete list of all fish species in the Great and Little Miami as well as the Whitewater check out this link

 http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CD4QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Foh.water.usgs.gov%2Freports%2Ffishspecies5.pdf&ei=4Hy8VMfvBMSzggTKvISgDQ&usg=AFQjCNHaOqaX2i4xZCMotjgPvLKM83GzNQ&sig2=KfsKpRzWdz58FvGirrQRlA

Here are some highlites of some of my favorites:



Emerald Shiner

The emerald shiner, like most shiners, is laterally compressed, which means they are taller than they are wide. Their sides are a shiny silver color and can also have an emerald green hue. I like to use crystal flash when tying jigs or flies to imitate shiners because of their metallic shiney sheen. Emerald shiners are broadcast spawners which is a fancy way to say they are lousy parents and just spray out eggs willy nilly and give no care to their young. Pool dwellers, they are usually found in open water and stay near the surface.  They feed on zooplankton, insect larvae, and small flying insects such as midges.

Spotfin Shiner

Spotfin shiners are one of the two most common minnow species (second only to the bluntnose minnow) found in Ohio. They are solid silver, sometimes with a bluish cast. Spotfins also have, you guessed it, one or two elongated spots on their dorsal fins. Able to thrive in reservoirs, spotfins often inhabit the pools of our streams. They tend to eat a variety of aquatic invertebrates. These guys  spawn in crevices between rocks or in bark on limbs of submerged fallen trees.

 

 

 

Chubs


Chubs are one of the most common fish in most streams. They are even abundant in  very small trickles where they are often the top predator. They feed on a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial insect larvae and other invertebrates. Large chubs will even eat small crayfish and fish. Chubs can even be caught on a little piece of worm under a tiny float and many caught this way end up as shovelhead bait. Catching a chub or two is also a byproduct of any trip spent fishing small flies on the fly rod.

Central Stoneroller

One of the most common fish in the smallmouth streams of the Midwest is the central stoneroller. I like to think of central stonerollers as solar batteries for smallmouth. You see central stonerollers are the champions of algae eaters and  may consume up to 27 percent of their body weight in algae per day. The algae thru the miracle of photosynthesis converts sunlight into energy. The algae in turn is eaten by stonerollers and then eaten by smallmouth bass. Nice direct line, simple is always better right? Well, except that according to Wikipedia there are over 72,500 algal species worldwide in most recent estimates and maybe more than a 1000 in a single river like the Little Miami. But that's a topic for another day, back to central stonerollers. Central stonerollers have a lower jaw with a flat, shelflike extension used to scrape algae from rocks. Omnivores, central stonerollers eat detritus, animal matter, and terrestrial vegetation besides the algae that makes u almost half of their diet. Adults range in length from 3 to 5 inches, but they can reach 7 inches. Males are generally larger than females.
 It takes one to four years for central stonerollers to reach maturity. Breeding males begin building nests in late winter and continue throughout midsummer, creating large, bowl-shaped depressions   just upstream or downstream of riffles by rolling stones along the bottom with their noses . Which is where they get the name stonerollers. The males aggressively defend their nests against rival males. Spawning occurs in early spring and summer. Females remain in deeper water outside the nesting site, entering only briefly to produce up to 4800 eggs in a nest. The male fertilizes the eggs, causing them to stick to the gravel of the nest, preventing them from being carried away by the currents.
When it comes to their appearance, it seems every source I find uses the word stout to describe them so I'll go with that that. Stout brownish minnows with breeding males that have some orange and black on their fins, large pointed tubercles (horn like bumps) on their head, and reddish orange eyes.
That's a pretty wild description and also accurate.

A little bit about Darters

With winter upon us, I'm trying to bone up a bit on the complicated food chain in our rivers. Today a bit on darters...
Darters are among the most ecologically important  fishes found in found in the  streams of the midwest. In many sections of stream up to a third of all fish species will be some kind of darter. But most fishermen that wade and fish these same streams know little or nothing about them.
Darters are also an important piece of that big puzzle we are always trying to put together when we are out on the water. So here is a mini primer on these cool little fish.
Each species of darter has evolved to occupy a specific slot or niche in the food chain. That is why there are often several species in the same section of riffle. Some may occupy bigger rocks and rubble than others. Some species may live in more current or shallower or deeper water than other species. In my favorite river, the Little Miami, there are a dozen species alone.  Darters prey on insects and crustaceans, and in turn are preyed on by species such as smallmouth bass and saugeye. Darters are an indispensable  link in the food chain. The presence of darters in a stream reflects good water quality and diversity of healthy habitats.
A darter is built to maneuver in, around and under rocks and gives it an advantage as a bottom forager. Fast swift riffles provide protection for darters because few predators can live there and must move in and out even if they do forage there. In nature, it is usually true that "form follows function."  Many darters do not even possess a swim bladder. This lack of buoyancy allows them to stay near the bottom in swift currents. Many bottom-dwelling darters possess flattened, downward-sloping heads. This feature lets them take advantage of water flowing to help plane or push down on the fish's head, thereby helping the fish to remain near the bottom. Some darter species that live at mid-water depths do possess a swim bladder to help them remain suspended in the water column.
Darters are small. However, there is considerable variation in length among the species found in  our rivers, anywhere from an inch or so up to six inches long.
What darters eat varies with the lifestage of the fish. Juvenile darters chomp on small crustaceans such as water fleas, plankton and zooplankton . Adults prefer midge larvae, blackfly larvae, mayflies  and caddisflies. Larger darters species  may also eat amphipods freshwater shrimp, isopods sowbugs and crayfish. Darters do not compete with most minnow species because the minnows often occupy the upper levels of the water column. Food availability and water velocity help to determine the activity levels of darters' foraging. For example, in pools or areas of slower current, darters range farther to procure food. Similarly, when flow rates are high, travel is reduced. The presence of large crayfish which will prey on darters as well as predatory fish such as smallmouth bass will affect how much darters move also. It turns out that in nature crayfish, while smallmouth prey themselves, benefited from darters being forced to hide underneath the rocks to avoid smallmouth predation. While at the same time the crayfish crawling around hunting in the rocks evicted the darters which made them become more active and available for smallmouth to prey upon. At the same time big darters will eat small crayfish, It is, as the saying goes a fish eat fish world down there.

Photos are from the great ODNR Species Guide Index, a great source on information on all wildlife.

Lure selection for the Little Miami River

I think that one reason river fishermen dont painstakingly match the hatch with exact copies of the forage that bass eat is that rivers are so daggone complicated. In the LMR over a hundred different species of fish have been recorded and most of them are small fishes that could serve as bass food. And the abundance of these can vary wildly over the 110 mile plus length of the river. But since the Little Miami is designated a National Wild and Scenic River it has been studied rather extensively. Sampling surveys over the years have shown definate trends that can help you with your lure selection depending on where you are fishing in the river. Many minnow species like the central stoneroller and the various darters and shiners are found throughout the river but the population densities of each are different in different sections of river. In the lower LMR, say from Loveland/Milford to the Ohio River, shiner species such as the emerald shiner greatly outnumber other small fishes. So what does this mean? Well, shiners have a completely different shape and profile than other small fishes. They are long with a thin profile and look slightly flat being taller than they are across and silvery in color. In other words alot like classic floater diver minnow plugs such as the Rapala or AC Shiner. In the lower river you might want to fish soft plastics with this profile too such as the Mister Twister Sassy Shad. Shiners also spend alot of time in open water and close to the surface so topwaters like the pop-r are also great where shiners are common. Also the closer to the Ohio the more shad you will find. In the middle reaches of the LMR you begin to find higher and higher numbers of darters in every survey till they become the most common small fishes found on some stretches. Darters are very very colorful and on average smaller than shiner species. Darters also spend most of their time under and around rocks in swifter sections of the river. This is why rock cover becomes more important as you progress upstream and sandy gravely cover less so. Also riffles produce better in the middle LMR than the upper or lower LMR. Lures in brighter patterns with a bit of red or orange produce well in the middle LMR. Instead of a silver rapala like you threw in the lower LMR, a slightly rounder bait like a smaller rebel minnow in a "rainbow trout" pattern might be a better place to start. At the top of the middle LMR, say from Fort Ancient to the Narrows, the number of darters and shiners equals out somewhat with more plain minnows like the stoneroller than anything else. Here it becomes an anything goes affair dependant more on where you are fishing, a riffle might be full of darters but next to a pool with shiners, chubs and minnows in it. In this stretch carrying a wide lure selection can really pay off. Further upstream the river becomes a minnow factory with high numbers of darters and minnows such as the stoneroller. In some pools the number of stonerollers is staggering, well into the thousands. Here generic minnow lures like inline spinners and metalflake grubs really shine. These are just general guidelines and you might find smallies feeding on darters in the lower LMR and on shiners in the middle LMR but it gives you somewhere to start. The particular spot you are fishing is just as important as the section of river. If your fishing a riffle you might want to fish a bottom hugging smaller brighter lure while a bigger silvery plug might be the ticket in a big pool. Some common small fishes of the LMR... Central Stoneroller The most common small fish in the LMR, Stonerollers are stout brownish gray minnows with short, rounded fins. The snout is bluntly rounded and projects beyond the nearly horizontal mouth. Their mouth is always white in color. Males during breeding season have some orange and black on fins, large pointed bumbs on their head, and orange eyes. Stonerollers spawn in spring between March and the end of May. Males dig spawning beds just above or below riffles and aggressively chase other males away. The eggs are sticky and become lodged in the gravel and the nests abandoned prior to hatching. While they can reach seven inches most stonerollers are around three or four inches in length. Stonerollers feed by scraping algae from rocks on the riverbottom. The LMR is also home to other minnow species such as the tonguetied, suckermouthed, bluntnosed, fathead, and bullhead minnows. These are some of the most common small fishes in the pools of the river. Shiners The LMR is home to something like fifteen or sixteen different species of shiners. Shiners typically have a long thin profile and look slightly flat being taller than they are across. Shiners as a whole tend to hang out in open water like pools and often high in the water column. Shiners typically eat tiny insects and other various aquatic invertebrates, and terrestrial insects that fall in the water or fly just above the surface. Often when it is still and wind is not blowing you can see them dimpling the surface feeding on tiny insects like midges. Most shiners are three to five inches long but a few can reach up to ten inches in length. Darters The LMR is home to around a dozen different species of darters. Darters run two to four inches in length for the most part and are among the most colorfull fish you will ever see. When breeding most darters become very bright with fins edged in orange or red and bright blues as well as spots or bands of bright colors on their bodies. Darter species on the LMR include the greenside, rainbow, fantail, least, johnny, and orangethroat darters as well as the logperch, varigate, banded, channel, blackside and slenderhead darters plus maybe an additional one or two that I may be missing. Most darters inhabit swifter riffles in the LMR often hiding under flat rocks in the swift current. Darters eat mostly small crustaceans and aquatic insect larvae. Sculpins and Madtoms The LMR is home to five species of madtoms as well as the mottled sculpin. Like the darters these guys spend most of their time glued to the bottom of swifter riffles and runs or at least right on the edge of such places. Ferocious predators they are almost like tiny three to five or six inch long shovelheads, eating whatever they can fit in their mouths. More camoflaged than darters they are usually colored to blend in with their surroundings. Chubs The LMR has around seven or eight species of chubs. Chubs mostly have a thich rounded body and can grow fairly large, up to a foot in some species though most are around five or six inches in length. Chubs eat small invertabrates and insects but large ones can even take small crayfish. Chubs grow big enough to be caught on hook and line and are often caught as shovelhead bait. I almost dont want to get into crayfish because I'm going to part ways with 95% of you on this. First off they are very important as smallie food. So important its almost impossible to overstate their importance. That being said heres why I hardly ever imitate them! Even though I'm constantly fishing for smallmouth that are feeding on them. First off, pick a day in June. Then there are really only two sizes of crayfish in the river as far as a smallmouth is concerned. Great big ones left over from previous years and ones hatched this year. The old ones may vary in size but to a smallmouth they are all the same size...too damn big. Every study I've seen says that smallmouth are constantly selecting small crayfish and leaving the big ones alone. Or if they take a big one they circle around it a while or pick it up and blow it out several times till they get it facing tail first. Several studies suggest that the very biggest smallmouth are the most selective for size. Ok so that leaves me that years crayfish. In midsummer that years crayfish reach a size that smallmouth love. In one study in Wisconsin crayfish were 14 percent of food volume in May but a whopping 83 percent from July to September. So after July if you catch a smallie he's probably looking for a craw. So heres my problem. Smallmouth arent selective about minnows in the LMR, they come in all shapes, colors, and sizes so they cant key completely on just one. But young of the year craws are all the same size, the same color, almost exactly. And this size changes constantly. In their first year crayfish molt something like ten or eleven times because they are growing so fast. So every craw looks the same, is the same shade at the same time in that hole and every smallmouth knows it. So I cop out. If a smallmouth is nosing around looking for a craw and a tasty minnow imitation like a three inch grub swims along he's not going to pass it by. Ok so why is the rebel craw such a great lure? Look at these two pictures...

Big craws out of the LMR

Little craw out of the LMR Now lets be honest does a rebel craw look anything like either one of those? Does it act like them? I think a rebel craw is a crankbait that is just the right size for catching alot of fish in the river and it doesn't run too deep like something like a model A bomber does. It wobbles along at a good depth to fish below and above riffles and its a good size so it catches fish. Heck I fish one alot. I just dont really think I'm imitating a crawfish. Its generic fish food I'm imitating. When I'm bouncing a grub in the rocks or hopping a marabou jig along the bottom or fishing a suspending crankbait just off the bottom, thats when I feel like I'm fishing for smallmouth feeding on craws. Smallmouth are opportunists and theres too many minnow species for them to become selective so I'm not going to throw something like a really detailed plastic craw at them because thats the one and only thing in the river they just might be selective about. He might hit my big living rubber jig with a plastic craw trailer but he's going to really look it over and he might be just a bit afraid of it and suck it in and blow it out a couple times first but the same fish is going to confidently swim over and thump my smoke metalflake grub without a second thought. Like I said I'm going against the grain here but I dont try to imitate craws in the LMR when lure fishing. I think alot of the small dark jigs like marabou jigs or little living rubber jigs or even wooleybuggers the bass thinks is something else yummy like a hellgrammite in addition to a craw. The nice thing about fishing is people can look at things completely differently and both still be right some of the time. __________________ __________________

fish photography

this weeks exceptional warm spell has the fish active and biting like it's two months later...

Super fast smallie fly...

With the water FINALLY starting to fall it's time to think about some smallmouth fishing. Here's a super easy smallie fly you can whip out in no time...

Thread a bead on a size 2 or 4 hook.



Like with every fly wrap the shank with thread to keep things from sliding around. Then tie in a tail of mylar and just a bit of deer hair.



Tie in a piece of pearl core braid brown and wrap it forward to form a body



Next tie in a saddle feather and using hackle pliers wrap it around a couple times and tie it off



Ill often stop right there and use the fly as is. Sometimes I'll tie in a wing of mylar and a few whisps of bear hair for a different look.



I call the fly the Junction simply because thats one of my favorite spots on the river to use it.

The plastic grub...

I river fish sixty or seventy days a year most years and you won't ever catch me on the water without a three inch plastic grub. If I'm wading and not carrying alot of tackle I might only have a couple colors but one will be smoke metalflake. It just looks so much like a generic minnow in the water with just the right amount of flash and I have caught so many fish with it over the years that I just have alot of confidence in throwing it. I'm also pretty big on the various orangish brown combinations out there because I feel like they look alot like many of the darters and sculpins in the river and bounced along the bottom make an okay crawfish imitation. Seventy five percent of the time I fish a grub on an eighth ounce plain roundball jighead but I will go up and down in weight. If I find fish feeding in a run but not on the bottom (white bass alot, sometimes smallies) I'll go to a lighter weight to let the grub swim down the run on a tightline rather than hug the bottom.
I also think sauger, in comtrast to most other fish, actually like a bit of resistance when they hit and If I'm catching more sauger than bass I'll fish a quarter ounce jighead. Ill also go heavier in swifter deep water like say below a lowhead dam. I think you allmost have to work at fishing a grub wrong, just chucking it out and reeling it in will produce some fish tho most time I try to swim it slowly just off the bottom or let it sweep thru a run on a tightline, again just off the bottom. In slower water like a hole or around a bridge abutment Ill sometimes tightline the grub to the bottom and bring it back in a series of lifts or slow sweeps. This is also a good way to pick up a nice channelcat or two also. Some of the nicest channels Ive caught have been on grubs. It certainly wakes you up to be smallmouth fishing and tighten up on a ten pound catfish! Thats one of the grubs main strengths, in a river like the Little Miami you might catch any of seven or eight different species of fish on one on any given trip.