# So you wanna catch a 20 inch river SMB?



## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

I'm sure there are dozens of ways but this works. And I'm only talking rivers and streams here, where a 20 is a true trophy. Not Canada, not Lake Erie, not Dale Hollow. Do it for a year and you will catch one.

First off there are a couple things you need to know. Smallmouth bass basically are extreme homebodies. Catch a big rainbow trout out of the best spot in a trout stream, knock it in the head and eat it. If you come back in two weeks another big trout has taken its spot. That isn't the case with smallmouth bass. Except for their migration to their wintering holes and spawning time a big smallmouth will faithfully live it's entire life in one or two pools of the river. Year after year! Study after study shows this. How is this important in finding big smallmouth? Well it means you have to find a stretch of river where a big smallmouth can live for seven or eight years at least without somebody knocking it in the head and eating it. From most studies I've seen smallmouth will use a defined riffle as a boundary and often will never go past it except to migrate in fall. NEVER. In summer the mature smallmouth on a really sharp, strong, across the river riffle will be two different populations. One upstream and one downstream. 
So where to fish? You find your access point to the river. The stretch everyone fishes. You go either upstream or downstream, either in person or on Google maps, till you find a well defined riffle. One that goes all the way across the river. That is your boundary. The fish above that are a separate population than the one's that are hammered back in the easy to get to stretch. Now follow that all the way to the next well defined boundary. No access points in between? No easy water to get to? Now we are getting somewhere. Now in between those two lines find the best specific spots to fish. It may be right at the boundary line itself. Just understand that one side of a riffle might be trophy water and one full of just small fish even though they are just thirty yards apart. Very odd isn't it? I'm not sure any other river fish is like this. Shovelheads are homebodies too but in times of high water will range wildly and repopulate fished out holes. A hole where the big smallies are fished out is just that, fished out. It might be chock full of smaller fish but this is no indication as far as big fish are concerned. So you create a list of spots. Very specific spots that have to fall between good (as in not overfished) boundary lines. You do this for as many different stretches of the river as you can. Every river around here has these stretches. Some are out in the middle of nowhere like many of the LMR and Whitewater stretches. Some are protected by having the riverbank lined with houses that are not home to fishermen or at least not home to fishermen that keep fish. Lets face it even kayak fishermen most often hit areas where they can launch and land easily and only take long, all day floats thru harder to reach stretches rarely. Plus most of these guys are catch and release guys. But it doesn't matter how hard a stretch is to get to unless it has that defined boundary to separate it for harder fished areas.
In that stretch we have found that we want to fish, I'm a firm believer that the biggest baddest smallmouth will take the best spot. Why do smallmouth in lakes school according to size? Because the bigger ones are mean bastards and the littler guys avoid them. In a river that means the big bass, the one we are trying to catch, takes the best spot. Sometimes that spot isn't obvious. Maybe something out of the norm is going on and maybe that fish is cruising back and forth below a riffle nabbing stonerollers that are spawning or any of a dozen other scenarios. But some spots are obvious. Like I said maybe our fish is off doing something else that day. But if you come back time after time to the best three or four spots in that stretch and fish them over and over eventually we are going to find that fish home. 
Find three or four potentially good stretches of river defined by specific boundaries at each one. Then find the best spots in each of those potential stretches. Now the hard part. Fish those. Fish them in the rain. Fish them in the middle of the night. Fish them at dawn. In the middle of the day. Fish them till you know them by heart. Until you can close your eyes and picture every tree, every rock, every nuance of current even though your home in bed.
Your probably going to catch half as many fish as you did when you just got in the river and waded throwing an inline spinner everywhere that looked even halfway fishy. Hell, your probably not going to catch even half as many. A quarter or a third is more like it. But your eventually going to catch THE fish. Like I said it's all about catching just that one single fish. 
Most of time that best spot is going to be some sort of seam. Somewhere there is a well defined line between currents of differing speeds. Maybe a creek mouth that has a pocket of dead water with the main river current creating a line across it. rubble from an old dam, a rock bar, a riffle. Any of a hundred different things that create that magical line. Sometimes its all hidden underwater but often you can see that sharp line drawn on the surface where the seam is. If you find one of these fish it to death. And then next trip hit it hard again and the next trip again. Sometime, in some flow, under some condition, that seam will become the best spot that day and our big fish will be there. Maybe not today, or tomorrow but someday. Never ever pass up a seam in your chosen stretches of river. Even if you have been skunked there five trips in a row. Who knows trip six, seven and eight might yield big fish.
See it's simple. Painfully simple because it's not the river fishing we all learned how to do. And your probably going to catch less fish. Sure we still look for riffles and runs and currents and seams. But (and it's a huge Oprah sized kinda but) only look at those as defined by the specific boundaries in each section of river. It can be the greatest coolest fishiest piece of structure you have ever seen but if its on the wrong side of our boundary it's not a fraction as good as something much less sexy on the right side of the riffle.
Now for the disclaimer...with fishing there are always exceptions. You might catch a monster right in the middle of the hardest hit stretch of the whole river. Who knows you may know a better easier way to catch a hawg smallmouth. If so I'd love to hear it. Or just fish like you normally do and you might just catch a big one anyways. But this works. Follow it and you will learn what works, where to fish, where your boundaries actually are, and you will begin to catch bigger smallmouth more often. And you will eventually catch that 20. And the next one. It's repeatable year after year.


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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

Thanks a lot! Can't wait to get out this spring to test this out.


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## Fishingnoob (May 19, 2013)

Great post! Thank you


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## BornWithGills (Feb 26, 2006)

Thanks osg, one of the things I love about your posts is that they get me planning on how to implement new things


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

...I feel like I shoulda paid money to read info like that....would you take a check OSG?


....great post stinky! Thanks for sharing


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## Atwood (Sep 6, 2005)

We catch more keeper size fish in an hour out of the rivers than most people catch all day out of the best local lakes, so i wouldn't make it sound like your floating all day for one good fish, even though that's why we're out there. I've caught dozens of smallies out of rivers and creeks that top 5lb,It takes a lifetime of patience to figure them out. Once you do it's hard to fish the lakes anymore. Most people do everything wrong when it comes to lure choice but you can still get the big gals if you keep after it.


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## WISH IT WAS YOU (Jul 25, 2006)

that was a hell of a post thanks for sharing what you described was the HUNT the chase whats makes it all worth it


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## partlyable (Mar 2, 2005)

Great post. I just started river fishing last year and fished the same 1/2 mile stretch multiple times a week and got probably 15 fish in the 16-18 inch range should I try to find a new spot or will these fish be getting bigger. It's in an area not many people fish. 

Thanks for the post very informative on what to look for as that is the kind of information I read this site for. 


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## kyhokie (Mar 9, 2009)

Everytime I see your post they are funny and informative. Thanks OSG!


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## Rick46 (Jan 15, 2014)

Good advice. Hoping to catch a 20 this year


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

Thank you! I hope to see posts with a lot of 20" fish this year!


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

Great write up Steve. This has to be one of the most valuable pieces of info I've ever seen written about our river systems. 



Tackle-addict said:


> Thank you! I hope to see posts with a lot of 20" fish this year!


Yeah, hopefully more than 25% of them are legit 20 inchers... Unlike last year.


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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

GarrettMyers said:


> Great write up Steve. This has to be one of the most valuable pieces of info I've ever seen written about our river systems.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, hopefully more than 25% of them are legit 20 inchers... Unlike last year.


LOL, glad someone said it.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Some more reading on the subject for anyone interested in smallmouth home ranges...


http://www.stream.fs.fed.us/fishxing/fplibrary/Gerking-1953.pdf

http://archives.in-fisherman.com/content/tracking-river-smalljaws/1

http://wisconsinsmallmouth.com/wordpress/?page_id=26

http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academi...easonally discontinuous surface flow_ Ma.pdf


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## WISH IT WAS YOU (Jul 25, 2006)

Atwood said:


> We catch more keeper size fish in an hour out of the rivers than most people catch all day out of the best local lakes, so i wouldn't make it sound like your floating all day for one good fish, even though that's why we're out there. I've caught dozens of smallies out of rivers and creeks that top 5lb,It takes a lifetime of patience to figure them out. Once you do it's hard to fish the lakes anymore. Most people do everything wrong when it comes to lure choice but you can still get the big gals if you keep after it.


 man is this so true i really started river fishing the past five years and dont even really enjoy going to the lakes anymore mabye its not that i dont like lake fishing but when i know i can go to the rivers and my catch and size rate tends to be a lot higher i think im just spoiled by river fish 

i feel like fish in a river grow faster as well mabye thats not correct but it just seems that a big smallie can sit and have all the food come to him with out going out and wasting energy chasing food. thus getting more energy out of every meal compared to a lake fish


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## dre (Aug 14, 2009)

This is awesome and very informative! I can think of a couple stretches that match this already!


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## catmando (Aug 21, 2006)

Agreed. I caught this fish several times in the same area this year and hope to catch him again next season. Just hope he doesn't end up on someone's stringer.
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## suresnagsalot (Dec 15, 2013)

thanks alot for that awesome mini seminar! a can allways tell wen an article is excellent because it clarafies and brings together passed experiences of my own, and gets me excited about it all again. 

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## Capt. Crude (Nov 2, 2012)

Awesome post.


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

Man, that's great stuff OSG. I'm really grateful that you are willing to share your fishing knowledge and experience.


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## MogadoreRez87 (Feb 14, 2009)

Two words. Ohio River
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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

MogadoreRez87 said:


> Two words. Ohio River
> Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


That is an awesome smallie Mogadore. Congratulations. 

Awesome fish, awesome picture. You should post it here, http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=236888

That fish is worthy of it's own thread.

You should start one. I'd like to learn more about how you caught it.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

Awesome info Master Stinky but your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me....

Lets not forget one important thing guys, I got this from Wookieepedia -

" The title of Jedi Master was the highest formal rank obtainable by a member of the Jedi Order. Reserved for those who had shown exceptional devotion and skill as well as balance in the Force and often combat, only individuals who had been given the rank of Master could sit on the Jedi High Council".

I'm afraid OSG may be using his powers for darker reasons.

Here's what I suspect,
Master Stinky is having you all stay in one place trying to catch what may or may not be an elusive " shadow" as he keeps his treasured spots hidden away in plain site.
His evil plan is to keep you preoccupied so's not to have you "stumble" upon him at his heavenly holes.
He is tricking his young padawans which wreaks of ancient Sith practices.

I have sensed a darkness about him since the first time I met him a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.......

These are not the droids you are looking for......


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

co-angler said:


> Awesome info Master Stinky but your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me....
> 
> Lets not forget one important thing guys, I got this from Wookieepedia -
> 
> ...


Ah but grasshopper I have used the most insidious method of all. I have used the truth. If you ever want people to not do anything tell them how great it is. Look at the American diet. We are bombarded by story after story telling us how wonderful we will feel and how much longer we will live if we would only eat better. All backed up by mountains of research proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt. So what do we do? We eat more and more of things that even worse for us. Same thing with exercise or letting your child watch too much TV or a myriad of other things. Notice how I cleverly even included links to research backing me up. All part of the master plan...(insert evil laugh here)


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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

Great reading thanks OSG. I haven't got my 20 yet but I've caught three 19's all in the same segment of the LMR so I'm hopeful for this coming summer.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Ah but grasshopper I have used the most insidious method of all. I have used the truth. If you ever want people to not do anything tell them how great it is. Look at the American diet. We are bombarded by story after story telling us how wonderful we will feel and how much longer we will live if we would only eat better. All backed up by mountains of research proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt. So what do we do? We eat more and more of things that even worse for us. Same thing with exercise or letting your child watch too much TV or a myriad of other things. Notice how I cleverly even included links to research backing me up. All part of the master plan...(insert evil laugh here)


Why you insidious bastard!


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## brettsky225 (Aug 10, 2012)

Great info OSG I'm trying my hand at some river fishing this spring and summer and I might just try that and love the comedy also  


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## suresnagsalot (Dec 15, 2013)

it was all a lie! NOOOOOOO!

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## Xim2coolx (May 12, 2013)

Great write up! 


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

The last three years of Fish Ohio Awards for rivers and streams. Pretty interesting stuff I thought....


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

I see you fishing the Rocky River soon OSG!


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

co-angler said:


> I see you fishing the Rocky River soon OSG!


I have to admit I googled it. But It's only like 30 minutes less than driving to the New River in West Virginia. That's my bucket list river for next year...


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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

Interesting facts there, I think everybody should rush to the GMR to get in on the action.


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

Mill Creek is in the house!


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## Topher (Apr 6, 2014)

I love this post and I am amazed that the Beaver Creek can host such a pig. 

I loved those reports, specifically the dates. There were 20s being brought out from April to October.


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## Topher (Apr 6, 2014)

So I went out this morning keeping an eye on the tips in this thread. I found a spot with a fork to the north and a bend and a ripple to the south. The whole thing is maybe 100 yards.

I liked what I saw. I waded out in ankle deep to a good sized fallen log, stood on the log and had a good perch of the area. It was foggy this morning and was enjoying the smells and sounds of the world. Mama deer and a couple of young ones, just losing spots it looked. I said to myself as I castes around my area, "oh, the morning fog is lifting" and that is when I caught the glimpse.

Out from under the log I was standing on was the largest small mouth I have ever seen in the wild. I only saw a partial in the murky water, like a whale sighting. It was there and it was gone and you ask yourself, "did I just see that?" And you think and you watch and you remember, "Hell yeah! I just saw that!"

I am guessing it was at least 18" and I am trying to be conservative. But what caught my attention was the girth. This dude was a chunker. 

I have a dumb phone virgin mobile phone. No camera. I just finished ordering a cheap virgin mobile phone with a camera just for this baby. You will be mine, oh yes, you will be mine.


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## Fishing Flyer (May 31, 2006)

oldstinkyguy said:


> I have to admit I googled it. But It's only like 30 minutes less than driving to the New River in West Virginia. That's my bucket list river for next year...



I grew up 15 minutes down the road from the rocky river, and only learned this spring about the smallmouth fishing. Lake Erie smallmouth make a spawning run up the rocky on the tail end of the steelhead run, which is why all the fish ohio smallies are caught in the April to June window. I usually fish the steelhead run at least once each spring, but I was too late this year and went for the smallmouth run instead. I caught a couple in the 14 to 16" range, and saw a nice fat one in the 20" range hit some guys lure about two feet in front of him on an old blown out ford. If you head up in April, you can try for the best of both worlds.... Silver bullets and monster smallies. 

On the other hand, the New River is supposed to be a fantastic smallmouth experience as well. Some buddies of mine wear life jackets and do some type of boat-less wade-float dance down the river.


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