Winter smallmouth tactics

[rangoo]

I fish a deep clear water reservoir with rocky structure and some man made brushbpiles. I fish out of a small aluminum boat with no electronics. What would be the best technique to find and catch smallies right now ?

[TnRiver46]

Small tube jig with 1/8 oz jig head shoved into it. Drag slowly on the bottom 

[Dwight Hottle]

Hair jigs.

[Team9nine]

Hair jig, blade bait (Silver Buddy, etc.) or float and fly...

 

-T9

[OkobojiEagle]

You're not giving us much to go on... how large of an impoundment, how deep, what water temp...?  All of the above presentations are good suggestions, but as the smallmouth are most likely hunkered down pretty deep now, I don't think you will have much success until you get a sonar to find the deep structure most likely to hold them.

 

oe

[rangoo]

1 hour ago, OkobojiEagle said:

You're not giving us much to go on... how large of an impoundment, how deep, what water temp...?  All of the above presentations are good suggestions, but as the smallmouth are most likely hunkered down pretty deep now, I don't think you will have much success until you get a sonar to find the deep structure most likely to hold them.

 

oe

I can't afford sonar. Are you saying it's impossible to catch fish without it ?

[Scott F]

During the winter, smallmouth will school up and hang out in a very small area in a deep part of the lake. You need to be able to locate them before you can catch them. Even if you locate them, they aren't easy to get during the winter. Without a sonar unit, you might get lucky and find them, but you could be very close and not know it. You can get a nice unit that will show you what you need to know for under $100. If that's out of you price range, go out and do the best you can without it.

[mike bat]

Tubes tubes tubes .. fish slow but cover water .. you don't need a fish finder to catch them ,, become the fish finder with that tube .. once you get a few bites your on them .. but remember they move day to day and sometimes by the hour .. 

[DoDFire]

If you have bluff walls where a creek/river channel swings into the bluff check that area out real good, also the ends of a bluff where it tapers out. If you have any banks where there is chunk rock and gravel mixed look in that area. Look for transitions where the rocks change size or where a vein of rocks might meet the gravel. The isolated rock piles where nothing else is around need to be looked at as well. If you can find a cove or pocket with bait fish loaded in it that always makes for a fun day. I fished a few days ago and had to go 3/4 the way back in the coves to get bit, the fish weren't  1/4 ways in or 1/2 way in or all the way in the back, it was 3/4 and that was every cove or pocket I hit. Once I figured that out I just went 3/4's in and dropped the trolling motor. A big plus or the key ingredient for all the things I mentioned is have'n deeper water near by. Don't forget to check some shallow stuff, you would be surprised sometimes where the smallmouth go in the winter. I promise you, you don't need electronics to catch fish. I fished out of a 16' flat bottom for 5 years before I bought my Bullet and I think I caught more fish out of it than my bass boat. Most of the time the fish are hugging bottom this time of year and you won't see them on a screen. I also give another vote for the hair jig in 1\8 oz. and a blade bait, that is pretty much all I have in my boat during winter. I start sling'n and drag'n my 1\8 oz. hair jigs when the surface temps hit 55° and dropping. What ever you have rigged up needs to be fished slow this time of year. One last thing, since you don't have electronics you might want to check out some type of satellite image online of the waters you fish, this might help you see the creek/river channels and how the terrain is on your body of water. I look at the 2 lakes I fish all the time just to get an idea of what it looks like. I can zoom way in and it shows the lakes around here at winter stage and I can pick out a few things that catch my interest. Sorry for rambling on, I just love smallmouth and winter and talking about both. Hope this was some kind of help.

[Crestliner2008]

Not having a sonar is a disadvantage. But not an impossible task. Have you tried drift fishing with a hair jig and/or blade bait? The hair jig is just crawled along the bottom. The blade is jerked up off the bottom until you can just start to feel it vibrate; then drop it back down and repeat.

 

Also, a map can tell you where the major structures are, such as points and sharp drop offs. You can start drifting over those to begin with. Also an internally weighted tube jig dragged and popped on/off the bottom can be extremely effective. Good Luck!