I helped stock the Yough last Thursday. I got out on the water 2 hours before the truck arrived and went to the best spot that I planned on placing fingerlings. I caught 12 smallies and 1 largemouth and put them in my livewell (no lectures please). I took them 3 miles downstream and released them in a good smallie hole. I'm sure others moved in quickly, but I had 2 hours to burn so I figured WTH.
Out of the 12 smallies, only 1 was caught in shallow, slack water. The other 11 were all caught in deeper current 4-8' deep. That's a definite shift from 3 weeks ago when I was catching them all in shallow current. In that time the avg. water temps only dropped a few degrees, so photoperiod must also be another factor in their movements.
After stocking I got 2 hours of Esox fishing in before the storms rolled through. Lost a decent tiger at the boat and landed a nice pike. They were definitely getting in the mood before the cold front comes through tomorrow. Hopefully that doesn't shut them down for long.