Tried and tried but not successful

[Zachb6]

 To start things off ive been fishing this local lake that is the only one around that has stocked smallies in it. Its used as a stocked trout pond for a few months but people go and catch most of the trout leaving some survivors and then just the smallies, (that im aware of). I know there are smallies in there because ive caught 2 but after talking to a game warden at that lake he said they've shocked the lake and wouldnt be surprised if the next state record comes out of there. Not saying im gonna hunt and try for that state record but ive been fishing there a little over a year and only managed 2 fish caught. Im a lmb fisherman but i like a challenge every so often so i try to catch these smallies. I am just asking for some more pointers on where to catch these fish because they are just such beautiful animals and i really enjoyed the two ive caught. Ive tried tons of baits hitting all of the water colemns, shakes heads, texas rigs, wacky senkos, Ned rigs, deep divers, medium divers, jigs, squarebills, spinnerbaits , chatterbaits, topwater, basically everything you can think ive tried. Ill add the actual topo map later but thought i would ask for some pointers now. Thank , Zach

[Bass Turd]

I'm no help with smallies but describe the lake (water clarity, depth, structure, points etc...) in some detail to help refine responses.

[J Francho]

Are there largemouth in the lake as well?  Largemouth will out compete smallmouth for prime territories, leaving the smallies to move around quite a bit more, often deeper.

 

You're best bet is when they move shallow for the spawn.

[A-Jay]

Fish a drop shot on 6lb test.

Long casts on & around steep drops.

And whatever you do, do not use a nose hooked SK Rage Craw.

Good Luck

A-Jay

[Zachb6]

Here's the topomap i promised! And the water clairity is pretty well, id say 2 feet of visibility on a good day 

[Further North]

Any rock piles, down trees fallen into the water?

[Spankey]

I'd crank it around rock and structure and try to pick up on some reaction strikes. That will get your head in the game by landing a few fish. But never fished it. I than would switch to plastics once I was sure they were there. 

[SWVABass]

Throw up a screen shot of it on google earth some one on here will pick it apart. 

 

I would fish that steep bank on the ne side ( assuming top is north). Like Ajay said drop shot, menace grub, or a kvd 1.0/1.5 cranked parallel when the water starts to stay above 53.

[BigSkyBasser]

That contour that sticks out of the middle on the left side of the pond should be good during pre and post spawn depending on the water temp. I'd use a jerkbait to find the smallies and then follow up with a shakeyhead or drop shot once some fish start swatting at it. 

 

Later in the year a topwater will allow you to cover most of that water and they should smack the snot out of it and tell you more about where they congregate.

 

Have you experimented with trout colored swimbaits at all? Might be another good idea since stocked trout likely provided part of the forage and may trigger some aggressive reaction bites.

 

 

[Zachb6]

Ive mostly tried green pumpkin and natural colors, i do have a 4" trout swimbait ive thought about using but im really not confident in throwing swimbaits 

[Angry John]

I agree the point that is labeled with the 15' contour would be where I was trying to nail both of the bass species.  I would start looing at some 3 and 4 inch paddle tails with heavy heads to pick up the smallies.  They tend to stay deeper most of the year so this will give you results year round by changing the weight of the head.  Keitech are the best IMO but bass assassin make a great 4" shiner bait that holds up better.

[Zachb6]

Ive heard some rumors floating around that smallies love gobbling down bright chartruse swimbaits, would this be worth a try or would i be wasting my money?

[IndianaFinesse]

I agree with swbass15 on the steep dropping shoreline on the top right, the area where the deep hole cuts closest to the shoreline will be a good spot to try during the winter. Once the water starts warming up, find some areas protected from the wind with a hard sandy or pebbly bottom, look for them to stage on drop lines nearby and eventually spawn there.  With the water clarity on the muddy side like you mentioned I would try half of a zinkerz on a 1/16 ounce mushroom head, aka Ned rig, fished slowly near the bottom.

[J Francho]

I'd probably just throw a topwater popper or spook, all over the main point around dusk.  That works on the quarries around here that have smallies in them.

[SWVABass]

Couple other baits to try while it's still cold would be a hair jig, jerkbait, and tube. I know here where I am when the water is lower than 52 you gotta let it soak, and short slow movements get more bites. Outside of trout what else is in that pond to serve as a prey base?

[Paul Roberts]

Prey fishes?

Cover?: Vegetation? Wood?

Substrate? Muck, sand, gravel, cobble, ...

Clarity sounds on the low side at ~2ft. 

 

That's a little lake at 9.6ac. Are you in a boat?

 

My guess this is less a bait issue -you've thrown plenty. This is a location and timing issue.

[J Francho]

Just now, Paul Roberts said:

This is a location and timing issue.

 

<drops mic>

[Zachb6]

Sorry for giving a vague description and taking so long to reply, ive been dealing with a brutal sinus infection,, anyways ill add some more stuff about the lake. To start from here in nebraska 2ft water visibility is considered really clean, at least eastern nebraska where i am. From what i can tell from dragging jigs and texas rigs theres not much to the bottom. What i mean by this is theres tons of grass, and the main bottom is just silty mud. There are a few downed trees but they are a foot from the bank and in 6" of water...:/

 

I do hopefully plan on going out later this week after a nice warm front comes in and ill measure water temp and report back. 

 

And onto the other forage or fish in the lake. Like i said before its a stocked trout lake but besides trout and smallies ive heard of some crappie in there and as far as i know there are not any lmb's. But after walking the banks this past weekend i did find 2 dead gizzard shad which were about 4" long. And another that was half eaten. Oh and ive seen some massive goldfish swimming around in there. 

Hope this helps! 

-Zach

[SWVABass]

Think Rapala makes a gold fish colored bait. I would be getting some of those cranks to try. If there isn't another predatory fish in there such as lmb pick apart that wood, even if it's only 6" deep, they will be on it at some point this year. Find the best ambush spots after the spawn the fish should be there and should be some of the bigger ones, only other thing I can think of is they would suspend and roam following the gizzard shad and gold fish..

[fishnkamp]

I throw 2 baits everywhere for smallies, Kentucky spots and largies. These two are Kalin 5 inch lunker grubs and Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers.  Throw bluegill. watermelon seed/red flake or smoke sat & pepper.  The skinny Dipper I would throw on a belly weighted swimbait hook. Try white trash, Houdini maybe a sun gill or one of the money shots.  If you need to get deeper, try a Picasso 3/8 or 1/2 ounce swimbait jig head will work. They look like a fish head on a hook.  I catch some big fish using all of these baits. Bass Pro sells a hook with a worm weight attached. They are now under the Enticer brand but look here. This makes lots of plastic easy to fish.  Search BP for this:  Bass Pro Shops Perfect Finesse Worm Jighead  I lie an 1/8 or 1/4 weight and then get the size hook that matches your bait well. I texpose it.  With both of these bait I will swim them, then kill them and let them flutter a bit then twitch and swim them again.

  

 

[Paul Roberts]

On 2/28/2017 at 0:03 PM, Zachb6 said:

Sorry for giving a vague description and taking so long to reply, ive been dealing with a brutal sinus infection,, anyways ill add some more stuff about the lake. To start from here in nebraska 2ft water visibility is considered really clean, at least eastern nebraska where i am. From what i can tell from dragging jigs and texas rigs theres not much to the bottom. What i mean by this is theres tons of grass, and the main bottom is just silty mud. There are a few downed trees but they are a foot from the bank and in 6" of water...:/

 

I do hopefully plan on going out later this week after a nice warm front comes in and ill measure water temp and report back. 

 

And onto the other forage or fish in the lake. Like i said before its a stocked trout lake but besides trout and smallies ive heard of some crappie in there and as far as i know there are not any lmb's. But after walking the banks this past weekend i did find 2 dead gizzard shad which were about 4" long. And another that was half eaten. Oh and ive seen some massive goldfish swimming around in there. 

Hope this helps! 

-Zach

Your smallies won't likely be eating goldfish, or stocky trout. They will eat the younger shad (yours will be gizzards which will likely outgrow SM gape size within their first year). There are almost certainly sunfish of some type -bluegills and/or pumpkinseeds perhaps. These, along with yellow perch and young crappies, will be primary forage. It’s also possible that they are on crayfish too, just depends on whether there’s a good popn there.

 

I fish a pond (about 12 acres) that by looking at it would be LM water, and it does have them. It also has SM though and they are more or less mixed in. They all feed on bluegills in and on edges of primary cover -milfoil and coontail. There is a deeper dam end and a shallower weed and slop end. I find the SM all over the pond as SM tend to be more mobile than LM. I’ve even caught them in the slop on "frog" baits. They are generally more visible than the LM, often openly cruising where I can sight fish to them. Visibility runs 3 to 4ft in this pond. I find both SM and LM outside spawning bluegill colonies and interestingly, and typically, I find the LM hugging closer and "ambushing", the smallies cruising by and slashing. In general you can expect LM's to be more sedentary, SM more mobile.

 

I also find SM along the weed walls, and in this pond there is an elongated hump away from shore that always holds some SM, and a few LM. I've caught a number of SM in the 18-20" range in this pond. 

 

I see two main scenarios for your water: 

 

-Shad in open water (if there are good annual hatches of them -but gizzards in small waters can do poorly so this may come to nothing)

 

-Panfish prey around shallow cover, and over open water (bluegills being zooplanktivorous and insectivorous).

 

-A possible third might be crayfish, esp if you have rock there somewhere but you didn’t mention that. 

 

You're lake is deep and steep -being such a small water- so I'd focus on the flats/benches. In my SM pond there are several such “benches” that the SM visit regularly. I see two such areas in your pond/lake. One is the point on the W shore and the wide point/flat and cove right across on the E shore. If water clarity is really never more than 2ft, you might actually be able to ignore the deep water. 

 

If your SM are piscivorous, (not keyed on crayfish) then you can expect them to be mobile and feeding higher in the water column.

 

Here’s what I like in my SM pond: swim jigs, small swimbaits, tubes, lipless cranks, and top waters -in particular I, at times, do really well with a little 1/8oz Triple-Wing buzz bait.

 

Good luck with it. Looks like fun.