Smallmouth in the Mac

[hobster]

A buddy of mine caught quite a large smallie on the McKenzie. We did some flyfishing this evening with little luck. Anyone heard of smallmouth in the McKenzie river? Water seem to really warm too. Kind of scary.

 

[Markk]

bad news

 

[hobster]

Bad news indeed

 

[troutdude]

I agree. Bad news. Would seem to me to be an illegal transplant; possibly that is.

Would that whole system be way too cold? For a warm water specie.

 

[hobster]

It sure used to be that’s what is so alarming. He caught it in some frog water, so I imagine it was warmer than the rest of the river. He contacted ODFW to see if this is becoming more common place, but hasn’t heard back yet.

 

[O. mykiss]

I agree. Bad news. Would seem to me to be an illegal transplant; possibly that is.

Would that whole system be way too cold? For a warm water specie.

I bet it’s not a transplant. The willamette has them, all it takes is for the fish to swim up the McKenzie

 

[plumbertom]

Would that whole system be way too cold? For a warm water specie.

Smallies are very tolerant of cold water, much more so than Largemouths.

 

[O. mykiss]

Smallies are very tolerant of cold water, much more so than Largemouths.

I’ve caught smallmouth out of the grande ronde in March and April when the river is at flood stage and all snow melt. They were feeding like crazy on outmigrating smolt