Autumn Rivers Of Bronze

Cast number one results in a powerfully built 18-incher! Cast number two and a 20-incher comes to hand. Cast number three and I find myself hooked into something really big and powerful! Moments later, I find that my hand is barely fitting around the shoulders of a very thick 23-incher!!

- Rob Dankowsky

Nothing gets my heart pumping more than giant, river smallmouth bass. And nothing gets my heart racing like catching a bunch of them, especially on back-to-back casts! Sound to be good to be true? Well, not if you’re talking about the consolidated pods of river smallmouth bass in September, October and November.

Around the second week of September, smallmouth bass in rivers begin an annual migration to the select pools that they will spend the rest of the fall and winter in. This migration from summer habitat can often cover the span of tens of miles. River smallmouth vacate their summer feeding stations at this time of year to travel downstream to larger pools that offer greater depth and highly reduced current.

THE RIVERS

This fall migration happens in small to medium rivers all over southern Ontario. Some of the best rivers have outstanding steelhead runs, while others do not. Most of them also contain other resident fish species, from carp to muskie.

The rivers in question can have holes from three-feet deep in some of the smaller ones to over 20-feet deep in some of the bigger ones. Furthermore, in the middle of summer, water in certain sections of these river is often only a few inches deep. The primary forage in these rivers tends to be both abundant crayfish and minnow species. Smallmouth generally top out at 22-inches in these rivers, but fish up to 24-inches or seven-pounds are a possibility. Almost every year fish greater than 22-inches and six-pounds can be caught in late fall.

LOCATION