In my opinion all smallmouth are not going to feed at once. Smallmouth love the channel at dale. I think the fish you are always on are fish that are not "really" all that active. BUT when you take live bait and put it somewhere where it shouldnt be, THERE GOING TO EAT. As everyone probably knows, I love to fnf fish and love fishing dale. The fish we catch on fnf are fish that are activily feeding and are more zoned in on the shad movements. In my findings, after the smallmouth go into there fall and winter transition they will hang around the same places untill pre-spawn. I have even went back to places I have caught fish on fnf all throught the day and kept catching fish. I think its all about being there when some fish have decided to come out of the channel and up to feed. This is just my opinion and we all know about opinions.lol Keep up the good work though.. There are many good things about live bait fishing. you are always on top of where the fish are staging and thats the one for sure bait cause its what they really eat!