Smallie Tip 2024
Bass Angler Magazine reply :
What's the best smallie tip that you've learned or been told that you're willing to share?
tatertester reply :
Don't be afraid to cast a topwater lure over deep water as smallmouth often suspend out there and will come up to hit a surface lure.
retiredbosn reply :
On hot Summer days fish the fast rapids. Sure you get hung up, but the smallies are there.
tytay89 reply :
Big ones love the channel I caught this one in middle of the lake over creek channel 130 ft deep..
A-Jay reply :
A Lucky Craft 128 is Not Too BIG !
A-Jay
Dwight Hottle reply :
Smallies will come up through the water column a long way to eat what they perceive to be a dying bait.
cueball reply :
Pay attention to what prey the fish you catch are spitting up. Smallmouth can be really picky about what prey they are targeting. A football jig dragged through a school of smallmouth keyed in on perch fry can be completely ignored.
roadwarrior reply :
In still water <12' deep, the Fat Ika is unsurpassed.
Hi Salenity reply :
How do you rig it?On 12/13/2012 at 12:13 AM, roadwarrior said:In still water <12' deep, the Fat Ika is unsurpassed.
roadwarrior reply :
Standard rigging: #6 Yo-Zuri Hybrid/ 7' MF spinning tackle/ 4/0 Gamakatsu Offset Worm Hook (thin wire)/
skirt forward, weightless & weedless. BTW, this is the basic rigging I had at Guntersville last spring. The
only difference was #4 Hybrid. My big bass was 7-7.
tytay89 reply :
Skirt forward? Like a spider grub?
roadwarrior reply :
On 12/13/2012 at 1:32 AM, tytay89 said:Skirt forward? Like a spider grub?
Yes.
The skirt flares back against the body when you move the bait up or forward. The Fat Ika
falls away from you when you drop it on slack line and the skirt flutters up. Play with the thing
in clear water and you will swear it's alive!
00 mod reply :
Never try and net them the first time to the boat!
Jeff
11justin22 reply :
On 12/11/2012 at 8:16 PM, retiredbosn said:On hot Summer days fish the fast rapids. Sure you get hung up, but the smallies are there.
Yup, around the rivers here when it heats up those fish will be right up in the middle of the white water.I feel like I'm fishing for trout lol.
On 12/13/2012 at 2:44 AM, 00 mod said:Never try and net them the first time to the boat!
Jeff
Hahaha fished a night tournament on bull shoals and my partner caught a 4lb smallie and got it up by the boat, I tried to net it and it jumped OVER the net and immediately threw the jig. I felt as tall as an ant.......
retiredbosn reply :
Another one I just thought of concerns tubes. Leave a little air space between the jig head and the closed end of the tube, the trapped air in there really helps in not getting snagged. The tube hits the cover and deflects off, it really helps with snags and I think it has improved the number of fish I catch.
ol'crickety reply :
On 12/11/2012 at 5:43 PM, tatertester said:Don't be afraid to cast a topwater lure over deep water as smallmouth often suspend out there and will come up to hit a surface lure.
You're right about this. From time to time, I'll sling a topwater bait out into the open, blue yonder and triggered an eruption.
ol'crickety reply :
This is a good thread. Thanks for starting it. I'm not a sophisticated fisher. I use two primary tactics to best bass. The first is a split shot above a bait hook with a leech over the side of a canoe. That has caught thousands of bass. The second is an F13 Rapala, which allows me to cast farther, but still finesse. I fished with an outdoor writer last fall and he thought me kooky for twitching such a long lure for smallmouth, but he soon switched when he saw me catching bass that didn't care about the size of bait, but were beyond his reach.
Siebert Outdoors reply :
Best tip I've ever had. "Forget everything you know about catching LM and you will catch Smallies". I thought that was a rude comment at the time but once I did it and quit fishing like I did for LM the Smallies became a lot easier to catch.
flippin and pitchin reply :
Commit yourself to learning the dropshot technique because it will produce in water 3 feet deep and 43 feet deep.
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 12/15/2012 at 4:35 AM, Siebert Outdoors said:Best tip I've ever had. "Forget everything you know about catching LM and you will catch Smallies". I thought that was a rude comment at the time but once I did it and quit fishing like I did for LM the Smallies became a lot easier to catch.
So that's why I never catch any largemouth. I'm always in the smallie mode.
ol'crickety reply :
On 12/15/2012 at 6:56 AM, Dwight Hottle said:So that's why I never catch any largemouth. I'm always in the smallie mode.
Your pics suggest you're always in mega-smallmouth mode. I bet when your fish regurgitate what they've just eaten, you see things like Godzilla and the Kraken.
greyleg33 reply :
Don't believe 'em when they tell you you have to use small baits...
OkobojiEagle reply :
Fish exposed hooks whenever the cover allows.
Mid-day summer location in natural lakes: when fishing a feeding flat mid-day, turn around and throw out the other side of the boat. Smallmouth can be caught mid-day in the summer suspended at the the same depth as the flat a long cast out from the drop off of the flat over much deeper water.
oe
flippin and pitchin reply :
On 12/15/2012 at 6:56 AM, Dwight Hottle said:So that's why I never catch any largemouth. I'm always in the smallie mode.
I don't know about you Dwight, but I have a difficult time remembering anything let alone trying to intentionally forget it.
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 12/16/2012 at 8:44 AM, flippin and pitchin said:I don't know about you Dwight, but I have a difficult time remembering anything let alone trying to intentionally forget it.
Now that you mention it I can't remember.
jkroosz reply :
VMC spinshot hooks
jkroosz reply :
I've been hatched to fry
Flywatersmallie reply :
Tubes are popular for a reason!
Crestliner2008 reply :
Law permitting, use two rigs. One, floating a suspended, wacky-rigged Senko in the water column on a slip bobber. Second, fishing a more active presentation, such as the drop shot, tubes, jigs and/or swimbaits, on the other rig. With two guys in the boat, fishing this way, "quads" are not uncommon. Talk about a fire drill! LOL! 
Steve K reply :
Dead sticking works for overly pressured fish. I have seen and heard of way too many nice smallies get caught doing this not to try it. It just takes patients.
panda_slicks86 reply :
dont be afraid of tossing bigger baits especially 2-4 weeks after spawn and during fall.
Crookedneck reply :
There are days when if you are moving it at all, then it is moving too fast...
flyfisher reply :
Nose hooked stick baits flat out produce.
plumworm reply :
drag a crawfish colored tube any place you can.
jhoffman reply :
When the water temps rise in the river systems find the rapids, fish relocate here because a: its an easy meal and b: theres more oxygen present in the water
jhoffman reply :
In moving water there is also a pecking order. If youre catching small fish at the head of the riffle the big ones are likely further down stream but not completely out of the riffles.
VtGr0wn reply :
if fishing soft plastics let out some line after casting i get 70 % of all my hits on the lures fall to the bottom..... also i tend to cast right were the sun meets a shadowy area on bright days
Felix77 reply :
On 12/11/2012 at 5:43 PM, tatertester said:Don't be afraid to cast a topwater lure over deep water as smallmouth often suspend out there and will come up to hit a surface lure.
x2 - I had a hard time believing that they would come up from 30 feet + for a Spook until I saw it for myself. I even went as far as to estimate how fast a SMB takes to get from 30 feet deep to the surface. It's less than 2 seconds! Yes I researched how fast a bass charges and estimated it out ... I know ... I'm a Geek.
Felix77 reply :
On 12/15/2012 at 5:37 AM, flippin and pitchin said:Commit yourself to learning the dropshot technique because it will produce in water 3 feet deep and 43 feet deep.
This is my 2013 fishing goal! It's all about the drop shot for me.
Felix77 reply :
SMB Tend to be much more curious and aggressive than LMB. With that being said don't be afriad to try erratic moving baits. Fast twitching jerkbaits, swim a tube aggressively, burn a spinnerbait etc.
Bass Angler Magazine reply :
I appreciate the great tips guys - We have a couple good smallmouth articles coming up in the spring issue of Bass Angler
Shoop05 reply :
Smallies will often slam into a bait without actually trying to eat it the first time around. They do this to stun or disorient the bait so they can scoop it up the next time around.
Ive seen this a few times, especially with weightless flukes and things like that when we were retrieving at a faster pace. A smallie would come up and smack it but not eat it, we'd let it sit for a couple seconds, move it again, and theyd come back and drill it.
Not a constant eating strategy, but I look for it when I am not hooking up on the initial bite.
EvanT123 reply :
[quote name="ChunkNWind13" post="1233399" timestamp=
Ive seen this a few times, especially with weightless flukes and things like that when we were retrieving at a faster pace. A smallie would come up and smack it but not eat it, we'd let it sit for a couple seconds, move it again, and theyd come back and drill it.
Not a constant eating strategy, but I look for it when I am not hooking up on the initial bite.
lmbfisherman reply :
On 12/11/2012 at 5:43 PM, tatertester said:Don't be afraid to cast a topwater lure over deep water as smallmouth often suspend out there and will come up to hit a surface lure.
Yes I agree, last summer I used a white/cht Buzzbait over deep water and got a couple.
Brewerbass reply :
Get out after em as soon as the ice goes out, Its some of the best fishing of the year. Jerkbaits and lipless cranks work really well.
Smallies also love to go on a feeding frenzy when the wind is blowing, dont be afraid to fish the windy shore or structure using spinnerbaits
mrmacwvu1 reply :
A clear tiny torpedo is deadly
Sam reply :
On 12/11/2012 at 8:16 PM, retiredbosn said:On hot Summer days fish the fast rapids. Sure you get hung up, but the smallies are there.
X2
Plus they like small black and blue jigs in the summer.
Clifton905 reply :
you cant have enough zoom fat alberts, jigs or jerkbaits.
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