A-Rob

You got 'em that day! Send those bad boys my way, gorgeous smallies, nice work!

For the less academic (haha) I bought a VHS tape of Woo Daves smallmouth tactics for 0.70 dollars at bass pro. It shows his favorite tactics for smallies. He won the classic with smallmouth I think. If not the classic some other b.a.s.s. elite tourney, either way dude knows how to fish 'em! Good luck bro

I fish lake georgian bay, part of lake huron. Its not the exact same, but there is some similarities with such a big lake with a lot of offshore structure. I love tubes for smallmouths. Where I think this can be handy for you is by changing the bullet weight, which aren't expensive, you can fish any depth with the same lure. You can start dragging/hopping/swimming the tube at the shallow side of your ideal depth to the deeper side of it and try to figure out that puzzle. Good luck amigo!

My biggest problem with using a lure to heavy, or with too much drag, for the rod rating is that it becomes a pain to fish. What happens is your rod becomes half to full bent when you are trying to drag in a big lure, if you get it caught up in some weeds its a bit of a nightmare trying to get it thru with no backbone. It all adds up to frustration and a lot of effort to work the bait. I don't have expensive rods, but they all do their job, including a 50 dollar flipping stick (there's always sales), pick up a cheap(er) rod with the proper rating if need be, it will make a world of difference with fish counts and your arms. Good luck bro!

depends. Whats your winter temps like? Smallies tend to hide out pretty good in the winter where I'm from. But if I were to fish for winter bass, most likely it will be largemouth and most likely I will be throwing a jerkbait, snapping it and pausing it for 1 minute then snapping it again. Its super slow fishing, I prefer summer fishing haha. Good luck bro.....oh ya and use live bait that will work better if you want to accelerate things

I would sit down with, or better yet go fishing with, Iaconelli. His passion/intensity for competition is something I can personally relate to. His fishing style is also the way I like to fish....but he's obviously way better at it! I like his pace and techniques.

equipment will keep tweaking itself and become more and more technique specific (ie the way rods are going). Hopefully, after a poor summer on my lake (sub-temps, the smallies never got active), I am anticipating an amazing season after they had a season off chilling out, so I can give the bucketmouths a break. Iaconelli will win the bassmaster, KVD wins angler of the year again. Greg Hackney hopefully does good to.

my Grandad got me going on smallies. I developed/expanded my game from there.

I think the best way to catch winter smallies is to head south haha I can't help much as my lake is iced over in the winter, in fact its probably iced over by now haha. I tried fishing in 40 degree water once, got a pike but no bass. I tried everything I could. Hopefully you have more luck brother

I love topwaters for largemouth. For Smallies I try once in a while but all I get from it is a hit and miss. I follow it with a worm and pick it off sometimes. A lot of time it takes a swipe and I never see it again. What I'm rambling on about is I do agree that it is exciting but not as effective or efficient as fishing other lures, ie a spinnerbait just below the surface, way better hook up ratio. So I'm in the same boat as you dude, I will be reading everyone elses answers haha

I would throw a tube or creature bait. Play around with the weight, just enough to manage but not overweight it. There's tons of creature baits out there and pick one that you think looks legit and you will have confidence in. I use brown tubes and a creature called a "beaver"

I used a paste that Berkley made, just their basic one but it was incredibly messy/gobby. I switched to Yum spray in crawfish. I like scent, but figure it works more for covering up the human smell I put on the bait tying it on or whatever as opposed to specifically attracting fish. The spray, whatever brand it is, I think is good as it is way less messy/easy to apply. I use it b/c I like to pretend I am a pro haha.

I agree/disagree with you. There are times when slowing down works. I have had a lot of success fishing cover such as moored boats in a bay on my lake where you can burn a bait by it or pulling the bait out too soon and not get a bite, but a nicely placed lightly weighted plastic will grab it every time, commonly on the slow fall. I will see my line swimming before I flip the bail. In open water then ya, I will stick with the erratic fast pace fishing. Dragging tubes is another slower tactic that works great for smallies up north.

zoom, yum.

For smallies: Shoals. Especially if they have some weeds and broken rock around them. You can fish it from the peak of the shoal all the way deep around it.

I said soft plastic b/c I think I can fish a tube anywhere anytime and catch 'em. But man is it ever fun chucking a spinnerbait at high speed and having a nice smallie smash it, a close 2nd. I was surprised to see spinnerbaitin' so low on the poll, you can do some awesome damage with it.

haha ya winter will definitely slow down the bite. A good day on the water in the winter will be a lot slower then a good day in the summer. Slow stuff down, use a crank or jerk and use long pauses between jerks. Slowly dragging and deadsticking soft plastics work ok to. I don't fish much in the winters as my lake is an icecube. Good luck bro!

Thanks bro, sounds like the consensus is I need to shake the dust off my drop-shot skills.

Nice, I messed around with a booyah boo bug with a yum trailer as I love throwing the jig & pig for some bucketmouths. I didn't stick with it long enough to figure out if it was legit. Now I know, I will start chuckin' it again.

I like those ideas. thanks!

I don't know about you guys, but I tend to have a fast paced style of fishing. I like lures that cover water, get reaction strikes. This would include a spinnerbait, a fast moving x-rap or crankbait, or stroking a tube. I have been trying to incorporate a more precise, finesse skill set to my game. This would include shaky head fishing, and drop-shotting. So this would lead me to my questions... 1. What is your favorite power technique for smallies? 2. What finesse style do you fish to offset your power fishing? Thanks guys, your ideas will make me better.

I have caught a few on some 4" swimbaits made by magic swimbaits I think. I actually got into them later on in the year so limited use, but the first time I threw it out into a channel between to rock shoals, I caught 2 nice smallies on my first 2 casts.....can't complain! I think if you are looking for #'s, fish a reasonable sized swimbait, like 4".

Sorry to simplify.... I fish a lot of weedy/rock flats. I will often texas rig a 3.5-4" tube for smallies in a natural color (brown, green) or a black/blue. I will use a 1/4 to a 3/8oz bullet sinker depending on weather (heavier for rougher/deeper water). I like the texas rig b/c I will swim and hop the tube around the boulders and through the weeds. If there is bass there you will get them.

I think so. It depends what you mean by "bigger" I recently caught some nice smallmouth bass on cranks that I thought were made more for largemouths like the Strike King cranks in model 5 and 6. In fact the first smallie I caught on the size 5 was about a 4" baby bass. I think that's the definition of "reaction strike". I would stay within reason tho, I have had a lot of luck downsizing as well.

Thanks guys I had it rigged basically the way ya'll said. I didn't like the one way that left the hook rigid, just didn't look lifelike. I'll keep with the way where the hooks swings free and the tubing is just spiked sideways on it.