UPSmallie

At times, they definitely can be harder/more of a challenge than catching largemouth, especially if you are fishing from shore. The biggest thing I've noticed when comparing the two, is that you will have MUCH more success if you stick with minnow style baits than you will if you stick with traditional largemouth style plastics. Rapalas have outproduced Senkos for me for smallmouth bass 10-1. I've even caught smalmouth on spoons, but couldn't buy a bite on all things plastic. They can be frustrating, but keep at it and you'll start to learn.

Yes! Thanks. Anchor Pulley Lock came up with what I was looking for. Thanks a ton.

Sorry guys I don't have any pictures to describe this item because I can't figure out what it's called, so I'll do my best to describe it. My Uncle has a basic 10 foot boat and where he has the anchor and the anchor rope coming from the boat, he has them run through a little metal clamp that is screwed into the boat that pinches down the anchor rope when you let out the desired amount of rope out so that the excess rope doesn't pile up in your boat or keep running out. I'd love to buy many many of these things but I can't for the life of me figure out what they're called and so I can't find any to buy. It's not a custom-made piece as I can tell they are mass produced. Sorry if this is too confusing but thanks for any help.

Yeah they can be pretty confusing sometimes, but definitely worth hit once they get hooked. Thanks Turkey Sandwich! Always awesome to see the fish hit and then realize it's on

Knew it'd happen eventually fishing topwaters. Threw out my Heddon Spook and before I could do anything a seagull dive bombed it. It hit the water and then the seagull swooped in and tried picking it up in probably less than 2 seconds. Thankfully I was able to tow it in and pop the treble hook out of it's leg as a nearby woman held it's beak shut. What are the chances that a woman with experience rehabilitating seagulls would be fishing right next to you? Seagull flew away unharmed and I learned to watch for any and all birds in the area before you throw a minnow bait on the water. Anyone else every hooked one, and if so, were you successful in removing the hook?

Pounded, smacked it, slapped it, slammed it, and my favorite for fishing topwater - Steamrolled it

For topwater explosions, a good rule of thumb is "Wait for the weight." Seems simple. Your line is always tight when fishing topwater, so you'll know if you feel the fish on or not. Usually, like others have said, you'll feel the weight after only a second or two. If you set the hook immediately, it's a 50/50. Wait for the weight and you have about a 90% success rate. I too sometimes set too early so sometimes it can help to always be expecting the strike and have a rehearsed plan on what you will do in your head. This cuts down on the 'Oh wow gotta sling the hook' mentality if you're taken by surprise.

Wow! Throwing Topwater Paid Off big time for me tonight. Fishing my One Knocker Spook and had a monster smallmouth jump 100% out of the water at it. I'm guessing to stun it or something because no hooks. Fished all kinds of stuff and finally came back to the One Knocker. Worked all kinds of shoreline and then had one hammer it probably 25 feet out in 6 FOW over submerged weeds. Put up a heck of a fight as I was going nuts and couldn't believe he actually ate it and not just bumped it. Came out to 3.24 lbs and 18.5 inches. My personal record! Probably 30 minutes after sunset in the twilight before dark came.

Usually just fish a T-rigged Senko with a 1/4 oz bullet weight above the worm. If rigged decently the setup should glide between the weeds without many hook-up issues. When it gets caught up occasionally, it should pull loose. I usually cast out to a lesser weedy area. Let it sink a little bit and then pop, pop, glide retrieve back to the boat or bank. If reeled fast enough it can go just above the weeds for the most part too.

Thanks guys for the help. Not many LGB's in my area, mostly just smallies so I think I'll settle on the Rainbow Trout and if I ever get enough time to fish downstate I'll pick up a Lite if I get around to it. Thanks for the input!

Have had pike and smallmouth crush my one and only shadow rap and really the only damage so far is scratch marks from teeth on the lure. Not my go-to lure by any means, but it produces from time to time.

Thinking about buying a 168s, and have heard great things about either color. Thoughts on which one to get?

Thanks guys for all the help! I don't know the exact name of the weeds, but judging by google images they look like pond weeds. https://www.google.com/search?q=types+of+underwater+weeds&rlz=1C1WLXB_enFI553FI553&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=775&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdoIS1hrLOAhVF6CYKHUVYB3UQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=fRI_yvDZ00lgSM%3A I'll definitely try throwing some senkos and flukes. If I stumble on pockets of water I'll try jigging too.

Hey Guys, in less than a week I'll be going downstate to visit family and have a chance to fish some decent largemouth bass ponds/lakes. My favorite lake down there happens to have many largemouth, biggest being around 6 lbs. Usually you have to row or paddle out to reach the fish since the weed cover is so thick near the bank. Once you're in the deeper water (10-12 feet) you'll find the fish. My biggest problem is that the weeds in the lake come up all the way from the bottom to about 1 foot below the water's surface. This makes it nearly impossible to fish lures, unless you use topwater. Does anyone have suggestions on how to fish here without going just on the surface? The topwater action is usually alright, but I'd like to try and expand my game if possible. Thanks

9 times out of 10, at least when it comes to pike fishing for me this summer, the fish won't even hit hard enough to distinguish the strike. I'll just be reeling in my lure and then I have 5-6 pounds of deadweight on the end of my line. If I'm able to reel the deadweight and it's not firmly stuck, like a snag, I set the hook. Haven't lost a fish or lure all summer doing this method.

Thanks guys. Some of the coolest things I would have never seen if I weren't fishing.

Thanks, that helps a lot.

Thanks Turkey Sandwich. That is a great idea. I grabbed some Zoom Superflukes actually because of this theory. I found a good video on it on youtube too. For casting to fish off of a missed blowup, how do you rig your grub or fluke? I've been thinking about either jigheads or for some reason carolina rigging with an off shank hook.

Can't complain. Went back out this evening and got a 31 in pike and a 15 in smallmouth using a 1/8 oz blue and silver Little Cleo in a span of about 15 minutes. Topwater bite was stone-cold. Time to break out the Lemon pepper and Old Bay Seasoning

My most interesting fight came icefishing earlier this year. One of the last days of ice because of the high temps. 60 degree sun and about 6 inches of slush ice over 4 FOW. One of the last days to catch pike/muskie/walleye before the season closed for them to spawn too. Inside my little pop-up I rigged a deadstick with a live minnow hooked behind the dorsal fin in one hole and a seperate hole for me to jig in. The day dragged on and the only action I had gotten was a missed walleye. I was chumming like crazy since I knew it would probably be my last time out. I had to have dropped 25 crushed up dead minnows down my holes that day. Sitting back in my chair jigging a blue and silver do-jigger tipped with a minnow head. Up and down, Up and down. Had to have been an hour or so of just doing this. BAM!! Something slams my do-jigger and my drag starts screaming! Like literally screaming! Battle this fish for probably about 5 minutes and it finally starts to tire. I look down and see that it's a decent sized pike. Keep in mine that I'm not using a steel leader. It takes off again, and out of the corner of my eye I see my deadstick start jerking up and down. You have got to be kidding me. He picked up the minnow on the deadstick as I was battling him with a do-jigger in his mouth! I can't gain any progress on him now because not only am I battling him, but also my other rod! I flip the bail on the deadstick and keep cranking with my 6 lb flouro. Finally I get him up to the hole thrashing, pick him up by his gills and throw him on the ice. Sure enough, both hooks are pinned in the corner of his mouth! Only 24 inches, but an incredible fish. As I went to get the hooks out of his mouth, I see that he had bitten through the line on my do-jigger! Pure luck that I was able to land him before he snapped the line. Later when I gutted him, he had at least 23 mostly digested shiners in his belly. Not mine either. Go figure. His head rests planked on a wooden head mount in my room to this day. (Self preserved using rock salt and after 2 months applying clear finish).

Thanks guys for the help. It is more than likely that it probably does have a hook in it's mouth, probably from someone bait-fishing with worms using weak lb test. I saw the fish's full body multiple times and can confirm it was a smallmouth, as I've seen and caught pike in the same river before. That's a good theory Crestliner. I've had largemouths bump hula poppers before, but never commit and get hooked, so there definitely could be a correlation. I actually didn't try to set the hook on any of the hits as I was, like you said, waiting for the weight. The next time I fish this spot I'll try slower walk-the-dog retrieves. It almost seems like I get more fish on faster short bursts, but like you guys said, that might have led to all the misses. I'll keep you all updated.

Hey guys, I'm still a little puzzled after this one and maybe you guys can help me out. I fished a river mouth today probably from 7:30 PM till 9:30 PM. Around 8:35 PM a decent sized smallie, maybe 18-19 inches, 2.5-3 lbs started jumping out 100 ft from shore in weird, slow, erratic leaps. It did this maybe 35 times in a minute and a half. No idea what was going on out there, maybe a big pike or muskie. I didn't notice any flies or bugs hatching either. I tied on my Heddon One-Knocker and bombed it out. After a little bit the smallmouth blew it up! It jumped clean out of the water, but completely missed the lure. I was waiting to feel weight before setting the hook, but it never came. The hooks are razor sharp too. A little later I switched to a Heddon Super Spook Jr. Smallie comes right up in the tail wake and slaps it! Nothing still. The last thing I had any action on tonight was a little black jitterbug. The fish came up and lunged at it, but completely missed the thing once more. Was this smallie half blind or am I missing something?

Never really lost many big bass, but I have lost some big walleye. Always a thrill to see them coming up, only to see them spit the hook in your face. Keep fishing and one of these days, the big one will be in your net.

Try Silver Minnow Colored Rapala Shadow and X-Raps. They've caught me many smallmouth as well as pike on the twitch pause retrieve.

Thanks HuskyBass and Turkey Sandwich for the ideas and help. Update: I went back yesterday to the same river. I tried all kinds of new tactics jig and pig, senkos, tubes, etc. and couldn't get a bite. I did catch a 10 in on a shadow rap which was kind of weird since the rap is like 6 in long lol. About an hour later I was casting the shadow rap again and hooked the same darned smallmouth! I fin clipped his anal fin because I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. Having no more luck with smallies I decided to try for some pike. Threw on my lucky silver S-Shaped Spoon and 3rd cast hooked and landed a 26 in 4.25 lb pike. Just before I left I did see a decent sized dark brown smallie, maybe 3 lbs do another rolling surface motion thing. I'm not quite sure what he was doing. Finicky bass I guess. When I get the chance I'll buy some better swimbaits to throw and see if those help.