my favourite time to fish for smallies is at sundown, when its not quite day but its not quite night. It's around this time, i find, that the baitfish come closer to shore, and the smallmouth come =in to feed on shad for the night, then move back to deeper water at dawn (my theory is they dont like the heat). in my experience, the best lure to use is a topwater during the few minutes that the sun comes down and the smallies are on their way in...its just really worked for me!