Lure Selection For Snag Filled River

[hooah212002]

I found a new spot that so far seems to have a good population of SMB. However, it also has a good population of snags, which I am pretty sure are large rocks because the shore is very rocky and the water level is low so where we currently fish from would normally be underwater. I hooked into a few fish yesterday on lipless cranks (caught one and one got loose before I landed it) and everything else was unproductive, even similarly colored lipped cranks. Before too long, I had my only two lipless cranks. Ultimately, I went through maybe 5-6 lures, not including how many texas rigged worms I lost. Is there an effective way to reduce losing cranks to snags? The river itself is flowing pretty fast. On anything that requires anything less than a fast retrieve, the bait ends up downstream (and ultimately running parallel to shore) very quickly. Whether that effects presentation negatively, I don't know. I am fishing from shore, so I don't have ready access to what would be considered a pool or eddy: all available water is in current.

Am I just going to have to suck it up and risk losing lures? I did not, however, try a jig and craw or tube as I do not yet have any. From what I have read on more expensive cranks (like the Xcalibur XR50 real craw, for example) that the hooks are set up so as to reduce snags. Do different hook sizes make a huge difference? It seemed as though the current itself would carry my bait right into the snag without me retrieving it at all most times. I even lost floating cranks.

All that said, I want to add: SMB are flippin awesome. The one I caught (I think it was my first ever) was maybe half the size of the LMB in my avatar but he had twice the fight!

[clayton86]

Try floating square bills or rebel teeny craws if you get hung up let some slack in your line the current will dislodge it 9/10 times and start your retrieve again. Also if your using grub, jig, tube, crank's anything really and the current doesn't dislodge you try the "snap" method I call it but instead of going slack pull your line tight then with your other hand pull some line out and snap it like a rubber band I guess would be the best way to describe it. Usually it will pop your lure out but not always.

[hooah212002]

Try floating square bills or rebel teeny craws if you get hung up let some slack in your line the current will dislodge it 9/10 times and start your retrieve again. Also if your using grub, jig, tube, crank's anything really and the current doesn't dislodge you try the "snap" method I call it but instead of going slack pull your line tight then with your other hand pull some line out and snap it like a rubber band I guess would be the best way to describe it. Usually it will pop your lure out but not always.

Floating square bill: I lost my brand new SK KVD square bill soon after it caught me a striper (later in the day when I was ready to call it quits. ONE MORE CAST!).

rebel teeny craws: I actually have one (I think). I can't cast it very far though, so I didn't use it much.

I do know of the snap method.

[clayton86]

the teeny craws can be tough on casting gear. I fish a river much like you described for smallies all the time besides what I already mentioned I also use a lot of jigs football head type and tubes preferably weedless or with the weight more in the middle not all the way on the end iv found that extra rubber acts as a bumper and helps bounce it out a cracks and rocks rather then wedge in there. You could also do weightless flukes or senko's smaller ones like 3-4" drifted in the current.

[hooah212002]

I was trying the teeny craw on my spinning rod. Admittedly, though, i put zero thought into line selection when i got it as it was something to enable me to get bait in the water and before i got re-obsessed. I don't even know what size line it is, but i imagine it's 15# berkley mono or something. Way too heavy.

[J Francho]

Topwater, paticularly a chugger or popper. Can't get hung, and will call big fish up.

[hooah212002]

Topwater, paticularly a chugger or popper. Can't get hung, and will call big fish up.

Tried both and got nothing. The current is so fast it carries them downstream then to shore before i can really work them even if I cast upstream. I was under the impression that it's counter productive to work the bait upstream since it's unnatural and SMB lie in wait for bait to come FROM upstream. Is this wrong?

[J Francho]

It's conventional wisdom to cast upstream, but that doesn't make doing the opposite wrong. A quartering cast, working the bait quickly as it sweeps the hole can very effective.

[Gavin]

Spinnerbaits & Buzzbaits can work really well at times, so do Zoom Flukes, and Swim Jigs...Walk the dog plugs are awesome at times...but you need to be able to work them fast in current...You rarely lose a lure if you have have some type of watercraft. Just paddle or motor over and get it. Have fun.

[hooah212002]

You rarely lose a lure if you have have some type of watercraft.

HAHA, thanks for rubbing it in....

[Crookedneck]

Spinner baits will get ya a few. I like to use 1/2 - 3/4 oz in the current. Keep your tip up, reel just fast enought to keep the spinner baits above the snags. I like a willow/colorado mix. Right now they are tearing up the spinnerbaits up here by me.

[BassinDrB]

Haha, those are all very good options, but the best and least expensive I would have to say is the wacky-style senko. Just let it go with the current and eventually the fish will come to get it and hang on, because those fish in strong current have quite the shoulders!

Good luck catching them!

DrB

[hooah212002]

Haha, those are all very good options, but the best and least expensive I would have to say is the wacky-style senko. Just let it go with the current and eventually the fish will come to get it and hang on, because those fish in strong current have quite the shoulders!

Good luck catching them!

DrB

Funny you should mention that. I tried it twice and lost both on the first cast before I even moved the rod or did anything.. Granted, I don't have weedless hooks, but I am unsure how well weedless hooks would have helped in this situation since a weedless T-Rig got snagged.

[hooah212002]

Spinner baits will get ya a few. I like to use 1/2 - 3/4 oz in the current. Keep your tip up, reel just fast enought to keep the spinner baits above the snags. I like a willow/colorado mix. Right now they are tearing up the spinnerbaits up here by me.

I was tossing 3 different spinners all day as well. I lost one, albeit to a tree due to a failed cast along the shore. I tried to retrieve it because it was an SK Bleeding Bait (hmm, that brand/type doesn't seem to like me. 2nd Bleeding Bait lost in as many days. Bad ***?), but nearly took a plunge in the process and was ankle deep in mud. I posted about my poor strike detection ablilities in a different post, so the likeliehood that I got some hits on the spinnerbaits but failed to recognize them is a very good possibility.

[Crestliner2008]

Here are two of my suggestions. First would be a reverse Texas rigged Fat Ika. Second would be a 4" or 5" hollow bellied paddle tail, rigged on a lightly weighted swimbait hook. Both of these can be tossed in the snaggliest of cover and retrieve without hanging. Hope this is of some help!

[Bluebasser86]

A heavy shakyhead can be a good option since it will anchor your bait to the bottom until you move it again. You'll still lose some, just goes with the territory of fishing in rocks. If the rocks are really bad a weightless fluke might be one of your best options.

[Joe Lajoie]

Go to bass pro and get you some good river shoes and fast dry shorts. Then get your butt in the water! I wade and rock hop the river here all the time. While your at it, pick up a 20.00 machete, get it razor sharp and attach it to a sling so you can where it around your shoulder. A machete makes fast work of snakes swimming at ya! That becomes important when you are hip to chest deep wading between rocks.

[roadwarrior]

Here are two of my suggestions. First would be a reverse Texas rigged Fat Ika. Second would be a 4" or 5" hollow bellied paddle tail, rigged on a lightly weighted swimbait hook. Both of these can be tossed in the snaggliest of cover and retrieve without hanging. Hope this is of some help!

X2!

[SuskyDude]

Few tips from someone who has spent countless hours wading:

Bullet weights will hang up like crazy. When I first started fishing the river, I used to t-rig tubes with bullet weights and realized I was hanging up so much because the weight easily wedges into cracks in the rocks. I now only fish tubes with 1/4 oz. barrel jig heads inserted into the body and hang up way less as a result.

Inline spinners are great moving baits to fish from shore/wading. They can be fished shallow to deep, don't dive straight for the bottom like cranks and therefore hang up less, and you can cast them a country mile. I reccomend #4 Mepps Agilias in silver or gold (undressed)

Topwater, topwater, topwater. When the river is warm,low and clear, topwater is always reasonable choice, ANY time of day. You don;t need the long pauses that you've been taught to employ for largemouth in calm water. Work them fast and cause a ruckus. Poppers, walkers, buzzbaits, whatever you like.

Casting u stream, or quartered upstream is the orthodox method, but not the only way to do it. I've caught tons of smallies casting downstream with all types of lures.

Smallies relate to current in a river more than anything. The warmer the water, the faster the current. In winter, they hole up in large slow moving eddies, backwaters and deep holes. In summer time, active fish can often be found in fast moving chutes and riffles, either in the upstream "push" or at the tail where the water is really churning and white. Current breaks, the line where fast water rushes by slow water, are like buffet tables for smallies. They can sit in the slow water, while the swift current washes food by like a conveyor belt. Most current breaks are easily visible, such as one caused by an obstruction like a large log, or a rock bar extending from the shoreline into the current, Others are not easily seen, like when swift water flows over a ledge. Fish will hang out in the slack water behind the ledge and watch the current flowing above them for prey to come swimming/drifting by.

Learn what type of current situations smallies like and how to read the water and you'll be way ahead of the curve.

[Backwoodsbasser]

Weightless tubes and soft jerks like flukes. My favorite is bass assassin shad assassin in albino w blue back. Perfectly matches minnows Chubs shad blue back herring Alewives. 5 inch version is most productive for me although look around Nd see the size of ur baitfish. Other than that patience fishing from shore is tough you have to wait for the fish and then once there is one in ur vicinity you have to draw its attention and generate a strike. Keep throwing it all you'll get better at avoiding snags although loosing baits are part of the game pro amateur starter it happens you just learn to deal

[iceintheveins]

Rig a yamamoto hula grub with a 1/0 EWG and a parasite weight pegged to it.

[iceintheveins]

Oh and try the lindy no snagg timber rock jigs with grubs.