wintering holes

[reel man]

Ok ,so I'm wondering if anyone knows where these bass wintering holes are on the root or zumbro rivers.Yah I know thats like handing over the winning lottery ticket.But it is catch and release now so you know the fish are safe. I am curious if the smallies have more than one area they go to.Are they more like just relating to the next deep area closest to theirs or is it a certain point of the river that there genetics cause them to go to. Do all the smallies head to the same pool or what? I do believe that the recent cold spell made them move drastically,cause all the baitfish are still their.How deep does a wintering hole have to be? There is miles and miles of water to these rivers so locating them could be very difficult.I have learned that there is a great amount of knowledge about bass from fisherman here and am just starting to learn about them as trout have been my passion.The lures you suggest and the presentations have really paid off.I did'nt realize how hard however they were to find at certain times such as right now.

[Jim W]

Couple things, (take what ya get I guess)

first...takes time to find good let alone consistent producing stretches of river...so your in your own waders there.

Second...the smallmouth aren't gone....

third, what have you been using and how?

In all the years wading for smallmouth, I can honestly say they are much harder to "pattern" than trout and other small river/stream game fish.

For example,

I have had quite a few consecutive outings(days in a row) over the years where nothing obvious changes, including, weather, time of day, available forage, numerous presentations/techniques etc, except for the bite.

Gangbusters to drought...sometimes in a very short and noticeable span of time.

Why? Hmmmmmm I wish I had an answer, but then again...would I have gone as much?

Keep the rods bendin'!!!

Jim W

[ikeslayer]

for this question i would watch or read a book by Dan Gapin. he is the man when it comes to river fishing. He spends more time on midwest rivers than any other fella i know. He is very well qualified and if he can't put you on fish go golfing. ike