First Ever Smallmouth Bag Limit Trolling Keitech Swimbaits!

[UPSmallie]

I know these fish aren't huge, but as a total newb troller I was beyond ecstatic with the results.  There's a very, very, weedy bay approximately 2 miles from my house, but I have barely ever fished it.  I've solo fished it by myself only twice before today and both times I ended up snapping off multiple lines on the prop and losing quite a few fishing lures.  I'd gone out yesterday and had a weird experience of a fish grabbing a keitech swimbait I was fishing, by the tail, and swimming off with it.  I fought it for a good 30 seconds before it bit off the tail of my keitech and swam off.  It was never hooked so I figured it was a walleye.  Luckily, I had two other 4.3 inch Keitech Swing Impact Fat swimbaits at home in pro blue/red flake.  I rigged them up on a 4/0 swimbait hook texas-rigged and slid a 3/8 oz bullet sinker above the lures to keep them down in the weeds.  As an experiment, I slid a trailer hook onto one of the Keitechs and threaded it through the body texas-rigged behind the swimbait hook.  I wasn't sure if the extra hook would help with short-strikers or would interfere with the tail's action, so I only did this to one of the lures.  I headed out to the bay in my 14 foot aluminum boat just before 8 AM this morning and starting long-lining the swimbaits 200-250 feet behind the boat.  I don't have planer boards, GPS, depth chart, or a fish finder, so I was relying on my Navionics $10 app.  I just followed the break-lines it displayed on the screen.  After about an hour and a half I hooked into my first smallmouth.  Let me tell you, fighting a smallmouth 250 feet behind the boat is one of the hardest ways I've cranked in a fish.  Those things fight hard from way back there.  I soon hooked and landed another on a different stretch.  I then hooked into another, but it popped off as I was fiddling with the anchor rope.  I soon found a honey-hole stretch I named 'Amen Corner.'  Every pass by it yielded a smallmouth.  It was non-stop action.  For fun, I wanted to see if I could catch a limit of smallmouth and I needed just one more.  I pulled into the opening stretch of Amen Corner after letting about 200 feet of line out and closed my bails.  Just as I do so my engine kills, so I get to work cranking it.  I see something out of the corner of my eye and it's my rod getting jerked!  You have got to be kidding me.  It couldn't have drifted more than 5-10 feet and a smallmouth hammered it.  It was unreal fishing.  All fish were 14-16 inches and the heaviest fish was 2.22 lbs.  Bag weight was 11.20 lbs.  After pictures, some of the fish were cooked for dinner and others tossed back into the water.  I look forward to hitting the bay again in the future because I think I have these bronze backs dialed in.  Yes, Keitechs are deadly on all species.  Included is a video of the last two catches start to finish.  Btw, the last fish was caught solely on the stinger and I caught a couple others on that lure, so I don't think the extra hook affected the action.  I'll probably add a second hook to the other one.  Fish On

 

 

 

[A-Jay]

Nice Smallies ~

Congrats

A-Jay

[Gundog]

  Those buggers are deadly for smallies no matter how you use them. 

[UPSmallie]

Thanks guys!  Definitely looking forward to the next.  Will probably need to start trolling crawler harnesses rigged weedless if I want the walleyes haha

[Bluebasser86]

13 hours ago, UPSmallie said:

Thanks guys!  Definitely looking forward to the next.  Will probably need to start trolling crawler harnesses rigged weedless if I want the walleyes haha

I catch way more walleye on Keitechs than I do whenever I actually fish for them with crawler harnesses. I usually catch lots of bass on the crawlers 

[jbw252]

Nice outing with some good looking smallies.  WTG.

[UPSmallie]

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I catch way more walleye on Keitechs than I do whenever I actually fish for them with crawler harnesses. I usually catch lots of bass on the crawlers 

Good to know!  Will have to keep at it then

[TnRiver46]

Nice fish, trolling is effective for me as well. Can't believe I waited so long to start doing it 

[UPSmallie]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice fish, trolling is effective for me as well. Can't believe I waited so long to start doing it 

 

Definitely man.  Shore fishing for about the same time and I'd catch maybe one smallmouth if I was lucky.  In the boat it felt like cheating once I figured out where most of the smallmouth where.

[RoLo]

Great Job    

Trolling is the Bomb!

 

Roger