The sandy bottom makes their beds easy to see as it is just a large white ring. But I have found the bigger smallies will acctually have rocks in their bed for some reason. You will see a perfect white ring, with a few rocks the size of baseballs in them. Not sure if it is for them to hit against to make the eggs come out easier or what. But if I'm bed fishing and come across a smallie over 3.5 pounds, 9/10 times it will have rocks in the middle of its bed. Bassectomy and I realized it this year on one lake, then began noticing it on all lakes. Even on George and Champlain.