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.
 
Reactions: O. mykiss
Markk
bad news
 
hobster

Bad news indeed
 
Reactions: Markk
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
 
Reactions: troutdude and plumbertom
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.
 
Reactions: troutdude and O. mykiss
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
 
Reactions: plumbertom and troutdude

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