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Iowa smallmouth migration


Joe R

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I've been doing some internet searches on Iowa rivers. After I drop my son off at college later this week in Ames I was going to do some river fishing in Iowa and "fish" my way back home over a 2 day period. In my internet search I stumbled upon this article that talks about migration. I'm sure many of you more knowledgeable folks know they migrate already to some extend but personally I don't know much about it besides I know that on the Kish, for example, I know where I can do better in colder water where they drop down and then in spring where they may not have made it back to the upriver sections I fish and the fishing is consequently poor (well there are certainly less fish I believe)...

 

Anyways....

 

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/fishing/fishing_bass-fishing_ia_0409_02/

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That was a pretty good read. I need to travel to Iowa for work occasionally and they mentioned some rivers I have driven right over. I also believe in river bass migration. I see it with a lot of tribs of the Rock River, Kish included. The Kish does have wintering holes where I have caught fish in March and December however they don't support the entire population.

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  • 1 month later...

There is some great fish data that IOWA DNR maintains that make it easy to access fish sampling data. In the research I done I was surprised how many rivers that state has and for the eastern half of Iowa they flow down from Minnesota and turn towards the Mississippi eventually. I timed it terrible with storms and rising water but I had a good 4 hour outing on the Iowa River near Iowa Falls and it fished well for smallies and pike. Spending time on Kish and doing exploring of upriver areas on south and north branch and finding a lot of fish. I didn't have luck in March upriver besides one area. Next March I will do some more exploring but I'm fairly sure there is a lot of movement to winter favorite spots late fall.

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I think you have to take the term "migration" with a grain of salt. Perhaps "movement" is a better term. A "deep wintering hole" on our local rivers could mean the difference of a foot or two, meaning, smallies have moved a few hundred feet up or down river in a lot of instances. In some instances, no movement at all. It's not like all the forage has up and vanished in the winter. Nor does the river freeze completely over. 3' of water is enough to sustain a bass all winter. Conditions may seem rough, but fish adjust.

 

The Kish guys do need a lot of excuses to make up for their lack of catching early spring and late fall. :P They really attach to that migration concept.

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Well whether you call it movement or migration its just wordsmith but based on my fish sightseeing observations and fishing results over the last few years I have a pretty good hunch they are moving farther then you think. As you know its an umimpeded river system. Since I fish over the fall through the winter there is a particular area on south branch that has extended deep water areas that I think would be prime for smallies in winter. Starting in early early March, late March, April, May, and into the summer months I see a progresion of smallie bites from skunk, to 3 fish, to 8, to up to 50 in prime time. Noticed this on this same section similar in a 2 year period. Same goes on a section of north branch but I have also found a wintering area. I think there may be something more to do with just baitfish but certainly that is a factor. Im going to play around with fishing the river in the cold months sampling areas again.

 

Im finding the same on des plaines river in Will county. Since I spend a lot of time on a 12 miLe stretch ive found a particular area that quality fish mass showing up in fall and are prevalent until spring. Warmer months very few in this area. There are no warm discharges within several miles of this area so nothing to do with that.

 

My winter smallie fishing skills arent very good I have to admit but i find it an interesting topic enougb that I like to think about it and test it. The iowa telemetry study does indicate migration or movement.

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I think you have to take the term "migration" with a grain of salt. Perhaps "movement" is a better term. A "deep wintering hole" on our local rivers could mean the difference of a foot or two, meaning, smallies have moved a few hundred feet up or down river in a lot of instances. In some instances, no movement at all. It's not like all the forage has up and vanished in the winter. Nor does the river freeze completely over. 3' of water is enough to sustain a bass all winter. Conditions may seem rough, but fish adjust.

 

The Kish guys do need a lot of excuses to make up for their lack of catching early spring and late fall. :P They really attach to that migration concept.

Every river has its own dynamics. I could debate that the Kishwaukee River smallmouth have a greater need/opportunity to migrate that say Fox River smallmouth. First of all, the Kishwaukee has only one dam versus dozens on the Fox which gives them the opportunity since they aren't trapped in dammed up pools. For need, I think there are several factors that give Kish smallies a greater need for migration versus the Fox. #1 the Fox is bigger and deeper on average than the Kish offereing more wintering habitat per river mile than the Kish. The other factors would be flow and artificial warm water influences. The fox has a greater CFS flow than the Kish preventing deep ice formation in the winter. Also consider the large amount of flow that comes water treatment plants and storm sewer drains off salted parking lots in the winter on the Fox River. You add all that up and the Fox simply does not freeze as solid as the Kish in the winter.

 

I don't think 3 feet of water gets it done as a wintering hole on the kish which is a river that 90% of its depth is less than 3' during normal river flow.

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From a smallmouth perspective November through late March. Pike are a cold water species and if you are on to good pike spots that can produce up until the water isn't soft enough to fish.

 

It's not like every smallmouth vacates the Kish as I have caught smallmouth in early March and early December before. Like Joe stated it goes from a 20-40 fish/day potential, to a 1-4 fish is a good day after October and before April.

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To me the mid 40s temp is a magic number I had some stellar days in November and even a December day but that was some of the freaky warm spells bumped the water temps to mid upper 40s. Like I said I will be sampling some different areas in cold months and see if I can get my first float and fly fish

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Interesting article/study. I think Paul sums it up nicely with his "each river has it's own dynamics" statement. With that said I really do still wonder how catchability relates to movement/migration in any river vs. water temperature, conditions/fish activity. If there are fish present and the conditions "favourable" shouldn't that translate into catchable fish? With every year my preconceived notions on smallmouth are chipped away by my own experiences. Looking foward to this coming cold period to challenge myself as I certainly enjoyed myself this last cold period.

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Did a quick read of the Wisconsin report interesting, when I have time I will reread slower but I did see that they observed movement when water was around 60 degrees and the fish moved a long way. Skinnier water its all the more important to get out of dodge.

 

There's about 45 miles of SBK between the confluence at Cherry Valley and Sycamore, I've floated or waded about 24miles of that length. Going to try and piece it out further to get up to 45 in a couple years I'm bound to find a few wintering areas. Only fished about 11 miles of the NBK...and there is about 27 miles of river between Cherry Valley and Marengo. Just a little personal challenge to get all the approx 72 miles of these branches I'm only roughly halfway LOL

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  • 2 weeks later...

Let the Kish migration start. Based on recent trips I can tell you the NBK smallies have vacated Mchenry county and for the most part the east half of Boone county also. This year I've been focusing on notably upriver waters...very few fish even the bottom dwellers have vacated and lower count of baitfish also it seems. Just caught a few small pike and a couple largemouth.

 

SBK is a different story. I fished some very difficult to access areas way upriver with shockingly extended deep water. Loaded with quillbacks, hog/white/redhorse suckers, carp, pike, and in rocky areas a lot of smallmouth.

 

Does anybody care about this stuff? (LOL) My thoughts were there is a lot of smallie movement, sometimes heading far downstream to bigger waters. Just in my sampling of about 11 miles of way upriver water on the two branches I'm finding some areas vacated in recent weeks and some areas gaining a lot population in recent weeks. Going to keep playing with it to see if the smallies stick around in the way upriver areas where they seemed to be stacking already and hitting everything that moves.

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I definately have an interest. After reading that Wisconsin DNR report I was shocked by the results after I did the KM to miles conversion. Correct me if I'm wrong but they radio tracked movement up to 11.8 miles in a day with a minimum movement of 45 miles and a maximum of 67 miles between August and November ice up.

 

The smallmouth are putting on the feedbag but I wouldn't say they are hitting anything that moves. In some of the easy access forest preserves you still have to work for the fish and you can observe others that won't hit. You are getting way off the beaten path and accessing fish that get no pressure and I'm sure that contributes to mood of hitting anything that moves.

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I definately have an interest. After reading that Wisconsin DNR report I was shocked by the results after I did the KM to miles conversion. Correct me if I'm wrong but they radio tracked movement up to 11.8 miles in a day with a minimum movement of 45 miles and a maximum of 67 miles between August and November ice up.

 

The smallmouth are putting on the feedbag but I wouldn't say they are hitting anything that moves. In some of the easy access forest preserves you still have to work for the fish and you can observe others that won't hit. You are getting way off the beaten path and accessing fish that get no pressure and I'm sure that contributes to mood of hitting anything that moves.

 

 

Yes Paul for sure I'm fishing the hardest to reach areas intentionally. I may drop gear off and hide it at a bridge dropping and have to find a place to park several miles away and then ride my bike back to a bridge and hide it, then just go up or downriver 2-4 miles. So yes I'm finding naive fish. I do the same on Des Plaines in Will county and it enables you to rack up big numbers of naive fish.

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Scientists are now using drones to track tagged animals. I don't think it has been done with fish yet, but I think one day they'll be able to. Imagine implanting a transmitter in a smallie in the south branch and/or north branch and being able to have a drone automatically navigate up the river, locate it, record data, and track its movement over time. It could be very revealing as to how far they travel as well as the pot 'o gold (bronze) wintering locations.

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