Smallmouth Bass Plea
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Before the wife and I were blessed with two baby boys I used to fish all over the Tenn river. Pickwick and Wilson were my playgrounds on many a trip. I have caught some very nice smalies (one over 7 pounds) on a crankbait tackle but, nothing over 5 pounds on the fly. I still have all of gear and the boat that has been tucked away in the garage for a few years now. I have been thinking real hard on a spring trip to Pickwick to visit a few old stump beds and shell mounds just off of the main river channel. A clouser minnow won’t stand a chance when the water get around 55-60 degs. I have bunch of good photos of my past life as a smallie junkie but, they are all in 8×10 print film. Suddenly I find myself out in the shop tying clousers as long as a spinner bait. What gives? Heck I even bought a new Canon Rebel XTI and a few nice pieces of glass for it. Maybe this is year for a few trips? You would be more than welcome if you want to make the trip to North Alabama. April is good for BIG wipers below the dams and for withe bass as well. 😉
These are two hours east on I-20. I am going to make sure to load up a rod and a box next time I am over this way for work.
Concerns surround hybrid smallmouth
By Rob Pavey | Outdoors Editor
Sunday, October 21, 2007It took a fancy lab and DNA tests to unravel the persistent rumor that smallmouth bass have somehow found their way into the Savannah River near Augusta.
After analyzing one of the peculiar bronzebacks landed by local anglers, it turns out the fish was not a smallmouth at all – nor was it a native redeye bass known to inhabit the rocky shoals.
“It was neither species, but rather a cross between the two,” said Georgia fisheries biologist Ed Bettross, who has been working with South Carolina Department of Natural Resources biologists in efforts to solve the mystery.
A fish landed near the Waterworks Pumping Station in late summer was sent by S.C. biologists to the University of South Carolina genetics laboratory, where tests confirmed the fish was a hybrid.
“That’s been part of the concern, actually the biggest part of the concern, that if smallmouths got into the shoals, they would hybridize with the redeye and change the genetics of the redeye bass,” Bettross said. “Then we’d no longer have the pure redeye bass.”
One of the curious findings of the DNA tests showed the Augusta-area fish was likely a first generation hybrid – meaning its parents were purebred smallmouth and redeye bass, Bettross said.
“So the question becomes whether the smallmouths somehow worked their way down the basin and somehow hybridized the redeyes, or maybe it’s possible they were brought down here as hybrids,” Bettross said.
South Carolina DNR biologist Jean Leitner said several other fish are scheduled for tests to expand the findings from the first one.
Smallmouths don’t occur naturally anywhere near Augusta, she said.
“We haven’t had any indication of them being anywhere in this drainage here except at Keowee and Jocassee and both of those lakes are far upstate,” she said. “We’ve only tested this one fish, but if smallmouths are there in the shoals, it is trouble because you lose the redeye as a species there.”
I almos postive that the shoal bass and redeye’s are two differant species. Redeye’s can survive in much cooler streams than shoalies. Shoalies also get much larger. A recent winning tourney angler on Blackshear stole the contest with a shoalie that was 6.4.
I think shoalies look a lot more like a smallie than a redeye with the bold stripes down their sides.
http://georgiawildlife.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=115&txtPage=5
The state has records for two differant species.
Now that the warmer temps are coming in, the shoalie bite on the Hooch DH should be coming on soon.
Zach, on the Hooch, downstream from 41 bridge near the intersection of I285/S.Cobb by the train tracks = Shoal bass heaven in spring.
I’ll float from Cochran shoals down to 41 and wade it during last couple of hours during the week. I’ll fish nymphs/ streamers that resemble a hellgramite. Basically a Black WB or a Rubber Legged Dragon.
Topwater is fun, especially during low water. I do like to drop a Black WB with no weight. Standard poppers and Stealth Bombers work well.
I tied up some bream patterns Puglisi style that I want to try out this year.
Zach, a pontoon would be safe and reliable anywhere in the DH section upstream from 41 bridge because there are takeout points if you get in trouble with current.
I’ll probably start this up in mid March. Pontoons would be fine for the Hooch. You can park at Mount Paran and float to Paces. You can lock the toon up and walk back to your car if you don’t want to haul it back up.
BTW Zach, for the shoalies on the Hooch, they start at the place I showed you before (where I saw tons of spawning carp) and then downstream from there. According to my fishing log they were out in early-mid June after the DH ended and the water became marginal. I caught two on a rainbow wooly bugger and one on a popper. Josh’s setup also sounds good. I know of a group of guys who are really hard core into fishing non-trout on the river, but they are a quiet bunch. Here’s a quote from Georgia Wildlife, “WRD initiated a project in 2003 to restore the shoal bass population downstream of Morgan Falls Dam. Shoal bass are native to the Chattahoochee and the extensive shoal habitat downstream of Morgan Falls Dam likely sustained a healthy population prior to construction of Buford Dam in 1958. A small population of shoal bass still exists in this section. A five-year shoal bass fingerling-stocking program began in 2003. Approximately 176,450 shoal bass fingerlings have been stocked over the past four years.”
Also, late May was when the carp were spawning and in sight-casting distance. Hhhmmm?
Zach,
Like they say, shoal bass are very different than redeyes. Check the Alabama DCNR site.
The real place to fish `em is on the Flint – a native fish in its native environment. That’s never been stocked! Where in the US do you find that? Well, about an hour south of Atlanta.
And while they may feed mainly on sub-surface bugs and crustaceans, they are black bass at heart – they’ll blow up all over a topwater. And they do it in what looks just like trout water. Here’smy Flint page.
If you’re wanna, email me & we’ll go do it in the spring.
Kent - FlyFishGA
well zach, if you are ever in the Erie, PA area, we can hook you up (pun intended) with some great bass fishing in presque isle bay. Here’s a link to a quick article on the fisherie http://flyfisherman.com/northeast/kwpresqueisleparadise/#cont. Bass fishing is a blast!
If you make it up to PA to fish with Paul, swing down through the south eastern part of the state on your way home and you’ll have a trip on the smallmouth factory Susquehanna River.
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