Ultralight River Smallmouth Baits

[Big John]

i use a fenwick elite tech river runner 6'8" ultralight, with some cheap pflueger reel and 10/4 sufix 832 for most of my river smallmouth fishing. the rod is rated for 1/32 to 3/16 oz lure weight. i do plan to step down to 6/2 sufix 832 or maybe even try a 4lb test co-poly line (any suggestions for co-poly line?). I understand that is somewhat limiting for my intentions, but does anyone have any lure suggestions? i have gone to 1/4 oz as my heaviest lure on this rod, and have not had any problems. if it makes any difference, I mostly fish the winooski river below the ibm dam, and the lamoile river from route 2 to lake champlain. this is in north eastern vermont. as far as lure i prefer, i like skirted jigs, and soft plastics best. the smallmouth that i have caught with this setup was about 10" long and i caught it on a berkley goby in goby magic color, on a 1/8 oz round jig head. if there is anything other information i can provide to help narrow a selection, please let me know. but from what i have found, there is a very limited selection of "ultralight" bass lures in general.

[11justin22]

Tiny brush hogs and 2.75 tubes work well for me

[tomustang]

I don't consider braid a component to ultralight, having a superline kills the break factor in battling. Just the typical Trilene 4-6lb is a good start and all you need if you decide to not use braid.

As far as UL baits, casting bubble and dry/wet fly are excellent and mostly over looked. What produces the most for me is a 2" grub on a 1/8oz (or even a 1/16 for slower action) ball head jig.

[Big John]

i have not decided entirely to ditch braid, but i would like to find a co-poly or straight fluoro in 4lb test that is limp and managable. i have been using 1/8 oz jigs with some soft plastics, but have not tried a grub yet. i have been looking in to jigs a lot lately, but i am having a hard time finding them light enough so when rigged with a trailer they dont overload my rod.

[Crestliner2008]

Get yourself an UL combo and fill it with 4# test monofilament line. The mono floats so you can use small UL lures like the tiny spook, pop-R and others. Great fun with top waters and the mono will take care of you in that situation. You can also use small 1/8th. oz. spinnerbaits with that set-up, such as the Pond Magic. And of course, you can wacky rig some 3" Senkos on it too! All very productive presentations.

[grampa1114]

I carry 2 5'2" buggy whip ul rods at all times in the car. Normally a small crank or twitchbait on one and 1/16 oz ballhead w/a 3"sluggo on the other. I use 4# flourocarbon and have on rare occasions even caught a fish with these rigs.

[iabass8]

Get yourself an UL combo and fill it with 4# test monofilament line. The mono floats so you can use small UL lures like the tiny spook, pop-R and others. Great fun with top waters and the mono will take care of you in that situation. You can also use small 1/8th. oz. spinnerbaits with that set-up, such as the Pond Magic. And of course, you can wacky rig some 3" Senkos on it too! All very productive presentations.

on my UL trout rod, i use 4lb stren magnathin. line is super strong and very manageable.

crestliners lure suggestions are spot on for small stream smallies.

you by all means can use braid fishing with your UL but i would most definitely drop down to a much smaller braid in around the 4/1# test. you could try nanofil. i toyed with it on my an UL small stream set up for spinners but preferred mono after using it. i personally get more enjoyment fishing mono on UL.

[Big John]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have considered nanofil in the past, but i tried it on a friends setup and did not like it. What braid goes to 4/1? I know power pro has 5,4,and 3 I believe. Any other braids go to 4 pound? Anyone use the smaller sized power pro? My big pull towards braid is the sensitivity, and if I get snagged it will pull my lure loose before breaking more often than not. And it's the only line I have used that doesn't become a coiled mess after some time. Any co-poly's in the 4 pound range? I think 4lb yo-zuri may be a little thicker than I want. Also, where can I get hair jigs? I found bigsmallietackle.com the other day, anyone used them?

[Lund Explorer]

Your rod/reel combo sounds quite a bit like mine, a custom built 7' UL rod paired with a Pflueger President 25 reel. Like Tom & Crestliner stated, I use mono line like 4lb Trilene XL with this rig. If you want to stick with braid down to the 4/1 size, you could look at BPS/Cabelas in the ice fishing section where I've seen several brands of what would be called micro-braid. Spool up some mono backing and then top of the reel with the braid as most of these only come in 50-100 yd spools.

My favorite baits include small topwaters like the Pop-R and Torpedos, inline spinnerbaits like the Mepps #1 or #2, 2"-3" grubs/craws fishing on 1/16 to 1/8 ball jigs, and a splitshot rig for 4" worms.

Several sponsors on this site have baits you may want to consider. Northstar has a line of small jigs that you may like, and nothing beats Ragetail's Baby Rage Craw. Check'em out!

[basscrusher]

Tiny Ika (by Gary Yamamoto) on 1/8 oz ball head. Green Pumpkin or black/blue.

Yum craw papi (2.75") on same leadhead.

[Big John]

i have never seen the tiny ika anywhere, but i have some fat ika. do you know where i would be able to find them? if i am not mistaken, the fat ika is almost 3/8 oz by itself. are the tiny ika the same overall profile, just scaled down? thanks!

[basscrusher]

I get Tiny Ikas at Dick's...they have a good selection, at least a half dozen colors. It is about 3" and substantially thinner...not at all too beefy for UL gear. Dick's carries them in their panfish section.

Also, hair jigs (esp. marabou) are great on UL gear. Stay away from weedguards...an UL will not have enough backbone to compress the weedguard when setting the hook.

[Big John]

cool, thanks. there is a dicks on the ride home from work today, i will have to check that out. thats actually where i got the fat ika. thanks for all the help everyone! i am still open to suggestions on a 4lb co-poly line, or maybe even fluoro as long as it handles decent.

[mod479]

Yo Zuri Hybrid or Suffix Pro-Mix copoly

I've had goodluck with both, very supple and easy to handle on spinning gear, but also quite strong for 4# test.