Stream fishing for smal mouth

[drcray]

I checked out the manoa river near the UH manoa campus. I took a little bit of hiking, but I finally found some pools that appear to be harboring SMB's. I saw a nice size one from shore in one pound and some small ones in another.

I didn't bring a rod on the trip, but I wish I would have.

How do you guys catch SMB's in streams. What lures if any work best, and if you use live bait do you just use the mosquito fish and minnows swimming around?

I have never really fished a stream with intense flowing water, but I generally know where to look to find fish. I don't know how to fish one though. I was planning on using some light weight rooster tails, crankbaits, swimnaits, and topwaters to try and catch them. I was planning on bringing some dry flys and a fly pole as well.

The water was only about 1 to 3 feet maybe at the deepest if that.

Any tips are appreciated

Mahalo

[roadwarriorsvt]

I've caught smallies on a variety of lures, such as roadrunners, beetle spins, curly tails, Texas rigged plastics, and live crawdads.

[Ahnkochee]

Brown Roostertails, 2" pumpkinseed Powerbait grubs, live medaka, live crawdads especially the little guys around 2"

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

Dojos are killer smallmouth bass bait.

[drcray]

Haha I just moved here! What are the mainland names for some of these baits lol! I am still learning your ways

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

Opps my bad. Dojos are weather loaches, they have eel like bodies and are related to carp I think. Anything big enough mouth will eat them.

[drcray]

Where do I find them? I will be bringing a dip net to catch bait and hitting the stream tommorrow afternoon. Any one who wants can join. Like I said I found some pools with nice sized ones.

Should I bring anything else to catch bait? I have size 20 hooks for Oama that I use on baby tialpia and cichlids too.

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

Back in the day, when I was still in highschool, we used to go up to the stream (aka "da creek") that feeds into the north fork of lake wilson. They will hide under the small round rocks in the stream bed. The best place would be where the dead leaves would collect on the bottom. You just dredge the muck with a scoop net. Used to find some in the roots overhanging the edge of the water or in the grass. I haven't gone in such a long time that I do not know if they got wiped out by the invasive species. I heard they can be found in the taro ponds also, I guess anywhere there is flowing cool water. In japan, they eat them.

[drcray]

Thanks for all of your help 007! I really appreciate any local knowledge I can get. I will update you guys tmrw if I catch one!

[Ahnkochee]

Medaka = Mosquitofish though any of the live-barers like mollies or swordtails will also work. Easy to catch in local streams using minnow traps especially in brackish water streams and canals.

[drcray]

Had some luck on live madaka

[roadwarriorsvt]

Right on! Congrats. Smallies are always a good fight.

[drcray]

Thank you! I thought the big guy wasn't coming in! Huge rips on my drag down stream! So fun!

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

I haven't caught a smallie in years! Fun fish to catch. You did better than I did on that friday. Went oio hunting and got skunked. Lost one awa au'a (hook failure) and lost one oio. When I sighted him, he did not look that big but he nearly spooled me and then I got reefed. Oh well, back to the lake.

[wlonderee]

I have fished the North Fork of Lake Wilson (Kaukonahua), south fork, multiple Pail streams, and a few other streams many times and will catch as many as 25-30 bass and as few as 5 but normally catch at least 12-15 bass per outing. I use tubes, spinnerbaits, and in-line spinnerbaits. I also have started fly fishing. PM me if you are interested!