Small-mouth fishing shallow rivers

[Garrett Bosley]

What is the most effective bait to use when trying to catch small mouth in a shallow river less than 10 feet in depth? I am in Arkansas so it is getting fairly warm now. I usually use a jig with a craw and do pretty decent.

[Gundog]

If its got a rocky bottom I use tubes. All in all, any crawfish imitation is probably your best bet.

[bowhunter63]

Rage Craw or Baby Rage craw on a rage rig.

[MIbassyaker]

Tubes and other craw imitators are hard to beat.

For another take, there's a book called "River Smallmouth Fishing", by Tim Holschlag. In it he has chapter on top 20 baits and when to use them. Then he boils it down to 6 for getting started: for bottom contact (1) a 4" worm on a slider head and (2) a grub on a jighead; for mid-depth (3) an inline-spinner, (4) floating minnow crankbait, and (5) a fatter-bodied shallow-diving crankbait like a rebel craw; for topwater (6) a propbait like a heddon tiny torpedo. There are a lot of other, fancier things that work well, but this seems a good list for covering the bases.

[Turkey sandwich]

Tim Holschlag's book is a good introduction to smallmouth in rivers and 

@mlbassyaker covered the basics. 

In rivers, for me, it's more about eliminating the stuff that probably won't work than limiting what will.  That allows me to find using on the baits and rigs I like to fish. For example, in moderate or fast current,  I'm not throwing a Carolina rig with an 8" worm the way I might in a lake to work submerged structure or a weed edge.  With moving water and rocks, it's a recipe for disaster.  I will, however, use a drop shot because it allows me to suspend or roll plastics just above the bottom without a ton of weight. Think about the techniques you know and fish well first.   You'd be surprised what you can do to make them work and how versatile a drop shot, lipless crank, spinnerbait or light jig can be.

 

Some notes:

 -The inline spinner is extremely underrated as a numbers bait.  

-2.5-4" tubes are fantastic year round baits.  Match the size to season and color to water clarity forage.  Depending upon how much vegetation you have, you can rig them either t-rig or with 1/16-3/16oz tube jigs.   It's worth it to have rattles and some chartreuse dip'n dye in your bag.  

- 2.5-4" grubs with simple ball jig heads catch everything

- working a popper in a smallmouth river is a lot of fun.

 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

I agree about the inline spinner effectiveness.  In one upstate NY creek, I have had fantastic success on a rooster tail spinner, gold blade with rainbow trout color body.

[Scott F]

i fish shallow rivers for smallies quite a bit. For the most part, the lure you use almost doesn't matter. What does matter, is getting whatever bait you use in front of the fish. Any bait you have in your box will catch river smallmouth when you put it in the right spot. Having said that, the bait you use also has to work in the water where they are. A jig in a fast, shallow, rocky riffle is just going to be snagged in the rocks on every cast. Getting that jig through a tangle of branches in a downed tree also isn't going to work very well. A weightless, 4 inch Texas rigged rigged Senko will work in either of those situations. During the summer, those two places is where I find 80% of my fish. When trying to cover a lot of water I'll throw a #4 plain Mepps. I'll also keep a topwater tied on my third rod most of the time. 

[bowhunter63]

1 hour ago, MIbassyaker said:

Tubes and other craw imitators are hard to beat.

For another take, there's a book called "River Smallmouth Fishing", by Tim Holschlag. In it he has chapter on top 20 baits and when to use them. Then he boils it down to 6 for getting started: for bottom contact (1) a 4" worm on a slider head and (2) a grub on a jighead; for mid-depth (3) an inline-spinner, (4) floating minnow crankbait, and (5) a fatter-bodied shallow-diving crankbait like a rebel craw; for topwater (6) a propbait like a heddon tiny torpedo. There are a lot of other, fancier things that work well, but this seems a good list for covering the bases.

Excellent book

[BillyBassMaster]

Little spinnerbaits work well for me 

[Hogsticker]

Poppers are fun. Don't leave home without some 1/8 Oz swimbait jig heads and 4 inch Keitech easy shiners! 

[SDoolittle]

+1 for in line spinners. Roostertails are my favorite due to the wide variety of colors and weights available. 

[Steveo-1969]

14 hours ago, Scott F said:

i fish shallow rivers for smallies quite a bit. For the most part, the lure you use almost doesn't matter. What does matter, is getting whatever bait you use in front of the fish. Any bait you have in your box will catch river smallmouth when you put it in the right spot.

This has been my experience as well.  Put a bait in front of a river smallmouth and they are probably going to eat it.  Most of my river fishing for smallmouth is in 1' - 6' of water, so pretty shallow.  I enjoy using bottom contact baits the most so I'm usually fishing a finesse jig/craw or a t-rigged plastic (Menace Grub/Baby Rage Craw/Dinger). Sometimes swimming a grub or a small swimbait.

[DaileyLimit]

I've always had good luck with plastic crawfish baits.  That said, the last two times I tried fishing the Saline river for smallmouth, I caught just one flathead catfish.

[Nick S]

On 4/12/2016 at 4:24 PM, bowhunter63 said:

Rage Craw or Baby Rage craw on a rage rig.

What is a rage rig? 

[Hurricane]

Try the Ned Rig...

[Steveo-1969]

1 hour ago, Nick S said:

What is a rage rig? 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/rage-rig.html

[Nick S]

3 minutes ago, Steveo-1969 said:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/rage-rig.html

Nothing new. River smallmouth fishermen including myself have been rigging soft plastics on weighted mister twister keeper hooks since the 80's. It's VERY snag resistant compared to conventional jig heads.  Winco custom baits and confidence baits both make weighted hooks also for this purpose. I've caught hundreds of smallmouth this year alone on a yum christie craw rigged on a 3/16 oz  mister twister weighted hook, maybe I'll make a name for it.... how about the yum twisted rig? 

[mrmacwvu1]

Jerkbaits and more jerkbaits

[FryDog62]

Only thing I would add is, in high percentage spots try: either on top with a Skitter Prop, or let it sink slowly with a Senko rigged wacky style.  

[Turkey sandwich]

On 4/17/2016 at 11:20 PM, FryDog62 said:

Only thing I would add is, in high percentage spots try: either on top with a Skitter Prop, or let it sink slowly with a Senko rigged wacky style.  

Skitter pops are likely Smallmouth magnets when they're feeding up.  I've actually had to decommission a few because they've gotten so destroyed.  

[Preytorien]

I like soft plastics, but in very rocky areas I tend to hang them up. Not usually a problem since I'm wading, but I hate casting to a nice rock outcrop only to get snagged and potentially spoiling a good spot. For those times I'll use a squarebill shallow crank or spinner. 

Along with soft plastics I like the Ned Rig, just make sure to use a heavy enough weight for your flow.

A lot of nice summer mornings I'll also use a popper or small buzzbait (1/8oz Strike King Mini Buzz) or Heddon Torpedo with great results.

Check out the Rivercast app - it gives you up-to-date information on your river's depth and flow at your closest USGS streamdata station

[roothead1]

Best thing I've found is inline spinners

[paleus]

I've had the most success by far with a ned rig. What river are you fishing? I'm from central AR and fish the Buffalo often. 

[smallyslayer]

A little paddle tail swimbait 3" or 3.5" up to 4" on a simple ball head jig. 

A little paddle tail swimbait 3" or 3.5" up to 4" on a simple ball head jig. 

[PatrickKnight]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 1:15 PM, smallyslayer said:

A little paddle tail swimbait 3" or 3.5" up to 4" on a simple ball head jig. 

A little paddle tail swimbait 3" or 3.5" up to 4" on a simple ball head jig. 

This is my go to when nothing else works in the rivers and creeks I fish.