Winter Smallmouth

[KLoell]

Was thinking about going out the day after thanksgiving.  Should be in the low 50s high 40s for the day.  I’d imagine the water temp to be in the mid to low 40s.  I’ll be in the central Indiana area and fishing a clear, rocky, deep, quarry of decent size.  I’ll be fishing from a boat with a depth finder.  Any suggestions on what to throw?  Areas to target?  Is smallmouth fishing any good in cold conditions? 

[IndianaFinesse]

Fish jerkbaits (my favorites are the vision 110 and 110+1, lc staysee 90, and pointer 78) around steep dropping banks, the steeper the better.  A deep channel swinging in close to the bank before turning back out again is a sweet spot.  Keep a small shaky head, blade bait, and 1/8 ounce hair jig ready to.  Fishing in cold water takes a little more skill, but the fishing can be great if you dial them in.  I fish a reservoir nearby you and have been killing it on jerkbaits the past couple weeks.

[KLoell]

@IndianaFinesse Awesome info thanks for the reply.  Is 20’ - 30’ of water too deep for jerkbaits?  There are a few spots I know of that are rocky flats in about 15’ that drop to deeper water.  Should I try dragging a drop shot, Ned, or stick with jerkbakts in that deep of water along the drop off? 

[IndianaFinesse]

3 hours ago, KLoell said:

@IndianaFinesse Awesome info thanks for the reply.  Is 20’ - 30’ of water too deep for jerkbaits?  There are a few spots I know of that are rocky flats in about 15’ that drop to deeper water.  Should I try dragging a drop shot, Ned, or stick with jerkbakts in that deep of water along the drop off? 

Unless the bass are suspending off of the structure overtop of that 20'-30' no more than 12-14 feet down (they will come up a few feet for a jerkbait sometimes), I would go with a shaky head or a blade bait.  A staysee might work for the fish (assuming they're suspending at least a little) on the edge of the 15' flat. I catch a lot of fish that are suspending overtop of 20 feet of water ~10-40 feet off of a steep/almost vertical dropping bank, on a vision 110 that only dives 5-6 feet.  The key is the bass are still relating to the structure, and are simply suspending at the depth that they normally would be while actually on the structure. 

 

Btw, I suck at drop shotting so I can't advise you on them, that's a technique I need to learn.

[TnRiver46]

I started to reply after reading the OP but then I read indianafinesse's replies and you can't get much better advice than that. My favorite way to fish a drop shot for winter smallmouth is to throw one overboard and set that rod down. Then cast something else on another rod and watch the drop shot rod laying on the deck while you fish. It eventually catches some, just don't forget about it when you go to free your hung lure that you are casting.  That always ends up in pulling fishing line out of the trolling motor prop 

[Crestliner2008]

Sounds to me like an ideal situation for using blade baits. Blades and the drop shot would be the two primary presentations that I would consider.

[Hobie1Kanobe]

IndianaFinesse said it best. I also like to use Ghost colored lipless/crankbaits in cold water for smallies. I always do well with that color.