hi guys. how about a little help, the river here where i live is not very deep (15feet) at its deepest spots. most places are shallow and lots of rapids and breaks between deep spots. we have rainbow trout smallmouth bass, kentucky spotted bass, and redeye along with channel cats, bluegill ,carp ,suckers ,and all sorts of minnows. my question is why ,after 10 plus years of fishing these waters i have never caught a smallie over 19and 1/2 inches, dont get me wrong these smallies get fat. i have caught them 5 plus pounds, and i love catching them they bite hard and often. is there a factor that limits the length that a smallie will reach. in the nearby lakes smallies get longer, but they are not as heavy,also some but not all of our rainbows get a crooked lip like a salmon. whats up with that

my biggest smallie i've ever caught was 22"...in a lake....i have seen a few bigger than that, but not many. also in streams they just don't get to much bigger than 20". that doesn't mean they don't or can't get bigger in a stream.

now the hook jaw thing that trout and salmon do this as a spawning thing. so time of year has alot to do with this and so does the size of the fish.

In a river, food is always flowing past them in a current and it is relatively easy for them to just pluck it off as it comes by. In a lake it's not like that. In a lake the bass have to search and follow the food which may contribute to your long skinny bass problem. I don't know what to say about the "crooked jawed trout" though.
TIGHT LINES!

The bigger Smallies we catch up here on the Potomac !8" and up are found in deeper water. I have seen them cruising in the shallows but they are skidish. I think the big Smallies are moving more due to the volume of food they need. More than likely gobbling up large Crayfish and larger fish.This could cause them not to be as agressive. What I have found is the little Smallies hammer the lures and take off. The Big ones just suck it and the bite is so suttle that it's almost not felt.

I hope this helped a little.