change over

[champlain fisher]

I was wondering if those of you who fish rivers and streams that get fish that come from lakes notice that the month of August the fish seem to be the smaller than most other times of the year. The river that I fish most of the time has smallies that come up from Lake Champlain and around this time of the year most are under 2 lbs, which is small compared to earlier in the season. To me this tells me that the river is changing and that the fall runs of salmon and trout are just around the corner. Do you guys think that the change in daylight causes the bigger fish to head back to the lake as the temp of the river has not started to cool enough to tell the fish that winter will soon be here. Ditch, anybody have any opinions?

[Ditchrat]

Bigger fish are more likely to move to find food or the right water temp. I would bet that when your catching the bigger smallies that there are smolts or smelt(young) in the river. Those fish know its time to get fat for the winter, so the lake sounds like its the place to be. Or maybe the are just smarter then the small fish. Not that these are the case though.

All things aside Summers always a tuff time to catch big fish, bright skies and lots of food makes it hard for us to ge them to bite. This one spot in MA where I fish for stripers is loaded with fish. If you go out plugging you'll hit a couple in the morning and at night, but nothing during the day. But If you hit the spots durning the day with the exact bait they are feeding on, I've caught 30 fish in a tide, when nobodies catching anything. The Cape cod canal always recieved reports from shops and locals that fishing is slow in the summer, but I was always catching lots of fish. Why is that? My guess is that people under estamate how smart fish can be.
I know from your post that you have the skinny down on the champ. tribs, so thats not you. But are you bait fishing or fly? I would bet that If you can get some Helgies you'll find that the big fish are still there but are selective.
Check the moon phase, all bass love feeding at night on full moon, and low light times. Then rest during the day.

[champlain fisher]

I use both flies and bait in this trib and catch fish on both. Helgies are great bait but there are salmon and trout from 8 to 12 inches that stay in the river and they are prone to these so I don't use them for that reason, don't want to kill or hurt those udersize fish. It seems like that there is a period when the bigger bass just seem to not be there anymore. Time of the day fished does not seem to matter as far as the size of the bass caught. Last time I fished it, a few days ago I caught plenty of fish but only one was over 2 lbs. That fish over 2 slammed a crawler. I switched to some streamers and still caught some more but all on the small side. We have had plenty of rain, the water level is just about the best you could have and there is enough food in the river for the fish to hold them. Would having to hold in a current make the fish want to find easier places to feed such as the lake? Do the food sources that are most prevalant at this time not jive with what the bass like to feed on? There are fallfish in this trib also but most are big enough that a smallie would have a hard time feeding on them. I know that when the size of the bass being caught on this trib starts to go down that in about a month there will be trout and salmon starting to show up.:) You still catch bass at this time also but again they are smaller than in June till mid July. Once I don't catch bass anymore the trout and salmon are there in decent #'s and they are an after thought till the next summer.