Favorite baits for riversmallmouth 2024

cax1 reply :

heddon tiny torpedo

skitter pops

zoom 4in lizard normally match color to river bottum

Smiths.R reply :

Tubes for sure. 4'' Senko's work really well too.

bassnleo reply :

Clear water

tube, fluke, small worms or craws on a drop shot

Stained to muddy

Spinnerbait, crankbait, jig

Crestliner2008 reply :

The list is almost endless! But early on, I'd opt for hard jerks or tubes fished slow. Smallies will hit anything that represents an easy meal. The trick is finding them.

RyneB reply :

I very seldom get fish on the same bait in back to back days. But if I had to hit the river with only one bait id have to flip a coin between a Yum Crawbug and a Bomber Model A in bengal firetiger color. Topwater would be a Sammy 115.

retiredbosn reply :

4 inch curly tail grubs, paca craw texas rigged, jerk baits.

harpers ferry reply :

3" curly tail grubs w/ jig head

3" plastic dads w/ jig head

trout size in-line spinners and spoons

4" plastic worms weightless

tiny torpedo

3" rapala clone

of course I use light spinning tackle w/ #6 mono

SMfisher reply :

green pumpkin seed 5" senko, 4" black mister twister with a tru turn hook, if using live bait crawdads, madtoms or large shiners. fishing at night jitterbugs 5/8 oz size color depends on moon, light night or dark night.

SuskyDude reply :

These are my go-to's:

4 inch Mizmo Tube w/ 1/4 oz. head.

Storm Wiggle Wart

Rapala Shad Rap - SR5

Yo Zuri ZZ Pop

1/2 oz Booyah Moontalker Spinnerbait (night bite)

Upriver88 reply :

4" yum dinger, dingers seem to sink faster witch is better for drifting in currents IMO

Bomber square A

and jig of choice with craw trailer

River Rat316 reply :

Forgot bomber square a, I don't crank much but when I do in the river it is my go to!

flipnpitch reply :

Green Pumpkin BPS Tender Tube

Strike King Series 3 Sexy Shad

4" Green Pumpkin Dinger Wacky Style

smallieking reply :

Lake fork baby crawdad on 1/8 ounce jighead

Rapala DT4 in bluegill around shallow rock is excellent

Bps XTS green crawdad squarebill crankbait is also a go to for shallow rocky flatsl

5inch kvd perfect plastic ocho wacky when smallies dont wana bite is also a favorite.

Last but not least any 4inch tube will get the job done

tnbassfisher reply :

Zoom 4" and 6" Lizards have by far out-produced any other lure for smallmouths for me.

obnascar reply :

June, July, & August I was very sucessful last year with a 2 1/2" YUM CrawBug.....Green Pumpkin and Tequila Sunrise. The 3 1/4" did not have nearly the action of the 2 1/2" length.

SlateTundra reply :

I love fat crankbait, lipless bait, jig w/trailer, popper, spook, gulp minnow, wake bait, and spinnerbait.

St.Joeriversmallie reply :

Bandit 200's, shad raps, small jigs with grubs. Pretty much crank most of the time. Those 4pounders just cant seem to leave those bandits alone. Usually anything brown, yellow, green. Then i switch to more shad colors towards fall.

smmouthluvr reply :

i cant wait 2 get out there w/those little rebel crawdads always best 4 me

Northern Strain reply :

Quote
I very seldom get fish on the same bait in back to back days.

Isn't that so true, best lures for 09:

-silver rattle trap

-spinner bait (strike king burner)

-berkely gulp on a jig head

Northern Strain reply :

Quote
Those 4pounders just cant seem to leave those bandits alone. Usually anything brown, yellow, green. Then i switch to more shad colors towards fall.

yes the bandits are nice, best colors, this is all you will need, rootbear, rootbear chartruse, and red craw. Talked to a guy that used to fish flw, now he just guides the white river, but he told me those are the colors to use. Also prowler lures makes a nice 3in stuby tube, get a few of those in roadkill, and you will be set.

smashingsmallies reply :

Without question, 4'' grub twister tails, multiple colors cuz' it can change literally from hole to hole, on a jig head sized to depth and current. I use 6" grub twisters in early season thru mid June in Ohio. Deadly, deadly, deadly. The twister tail give's you the opportunity to fish it as a swim bait or with a pop/crawdad presentation on every single cast.

brittlab reply :

rebel teeny craw or panther martin gold/black 1/16 oz. spinners have worked the best for me so far

badnewscj reply :

For this time of year (or rather hopefully in the coming weeks) I get on the spinnerbait bite.

Didn't see cinnamon brown 4 inch senko's mentioned. Had good success on the upper potomac last summer with these.

Tirador reply :

For river smallies a 3" salt & pepper grub on small saftey pin spinnerbait dragged along the bottom.

BassThumb reply :

In order:

1/8 oz. Strike King Mini King Buzzbait - White

1/16 - 1/8 oz. finesse tube jig with light wire hook - Watermelon, green pumpkin/gold, smoke/red flk.

Zoom Super Fluke - 3/0 red EWG - White or Ark Shiner

Rapala X-Rap and small lipless cranks - Ghost/white/bone/silver, gold shiner with orange belly, clown

1/4 oz spinnerbait - Gold shiner or olive, with gold double willow. White with white tandem willow.

fishing4smallies reply :

I fish in a rocky bottom river with stained water and the main forrage is crawfish. I do a lot of jig fishing with red or brown colored tubes and Spider jigs and a rage trailer. If I'm using crakbaits I niormally throw a red rebel craw.

WanderLust reply :

Around here perch patterns seem to be a favorite for smallies. I have a bandit 200 in perch that I nailed a nice smallie and a patrolling Northern...

My son also nailed a 3 pounder on a jointed shad rap in perch and one of my buddies got a 2 pounder on a little Xrap in perch with a white feather tail.

Guess they like perch.

wvbucketmouth reply :

I got to get out yesterday for a quick trip. I hit the Pike Island Dam on the Ohio river. I only got to stay for about 90 minutes. Caught 9 smallies and 1 LM. Caught most on a Jointed Shad Rap (JSR-4) in Silver Shad color. Caught a couple on an X-Rap (XR-6) in Glass Ghost color.

I had a MONSTER "something" on, but lost it before I could see it. If it was a smallie, it was a 6 pounder ;D

I have a feeling it was a big ole ugly drum though. My drag was singin, and I have pulled some giant drum out of the water below the dams. They will eat anything! Could have been a nice striper. A few guys were catching those.

I always seem to do very well on Rapala's in the river, so I will call Rapala's of all types, colors, and sizes my favorite river smallie bait.

Bwickfisher reply :

I haven't found smallies that won't hit a white grub. They also like Yum Crawbugs in green pumpkin and curltail worms on a carolina rig. I like to let these baits drift through areas where I think the fish are. Let the river do the work. Shallow cranks are great too, I prefer the Bomber Square A.

badger_bassin reply :

Tubes on standup jigs

Bandit 200 (chartreuse spatterback)

#3 in-line spinner

rapala skitter-prop and skitter-pop

The Yankee Fist reply :

On the river from shore where I live, any conditions:

3.5" tubes, green pumpkin, black flake(CENTER weighted)

4" Yama DT grub, same color as above, jig head in the tentacle end, weedless jig.

Small grubs, white and black

Mepps, etc.

Black hair jigs early in the season, like now.

bassnbtom reply :

hmm good info here guys

unageo09 reply :

We have never caught smallmouth until this year. We started using a storm wildeye swim shad. In a 4" 7/16 oz and a 3" 1/4 oz size. Probably just dumb look for us, but i guess they like em a little bit.

cax1 reply :

Quote
We have never caught smallmouth until this year. We started using a storm wildeye swim shad. In a 4" 7/16 oz and a 3" 1/4 oz size. Probably just dumb look for us, but i guess they like em a little bit.

for some reason every swimbait i buy from storm ends up swimming funny on its side no matter how i tie them on

flipinstick88 reply :

My best bait has been this http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_10203974_100006006_100000000_100006000_100-6-6 5/16th, in the brown craw color with a 4" green pumpkin Berkley power hog trailer.

GRiver reply :

zoom finesse green pumpkin, texas riggged, football jig with net bait paca chunk green pumpkin or a top water popper. It always seems to produce something...

bassbum85 reply :

green pumpkin ultra vibe speed craws or tubes of the same color texas rigged

Botte reply :

Case Sinking Salty Minnow(White), Tube(Green Pumpkin), Jig n Grub(Green Pumpkin), Spinner Bait and 3" senkos.

But the best ever bait for bronzers is a live hellgrammite.

bigbill reply :

Smaller rebel crawfish crankbaits in chartruese or match the crawfish natural colors in your area.

We also use joesflies short striker in the pools too. I try to bring it over rocks into the pools os i don't spook the bass by casting it into them.

Remember the river bass are always hungry and the river bass are much stronger fighters because there swimming all the time against the river current. I'm not sure if any have noticed this or not.

I've been told to fish lakes/ponds for bass during the spring/fall and fish the rivers during the summer for bass.

green reply :

Tubes Mister Twisters and beetle spins

tritz18 reply :

Custom topwater bait (smaller than a zara spook) and weightless senkos

BigMouthBasstard reply :

3in gulp leech on 1/8 oz jighead

4in tube in brown/orange (craw)

4/5in Kalins lunker grub 1/4 oz jighead

Mepps black fury in-line spinner

spro bonzeye frog- popper

Gorgebassman reply :

3inch curley tail in electric blue on a 1/8 oz jig head

or a drop shot tiki worm (no one really uses senkos do they?) ;D those are my 2 best producers.

spooksandflukes reply :

This is what always works for me.

Strike King burner spinnerbait in sexy shad

then 3" Chug bug

then Rapala flat rap in chrome/blue

then 1 oz Buckeye football head mop jig

if that doesnt work my all-time favorite,

4" Yamamoto grub dark color on 1/8 oz texas rig, or you can start with that rig first ;D

matstone7 reply :

The RageTail baby craw has been hard to beat this season. Fished on a naked jighead or a trailer on a finesse jig, it's been hard to beat in our waters.

pudmunk reply :

grubs

senkos 5" black/blue fleck

lipless blue crank

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Favorite baits for riversmallmouth 2024

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