Year In Review ~~Smallmouth Edition~~

[WI_Angler1989]

What presentations, lures, stages, etc did you have the most success with for Smallies last season? What was your most fun day?

 

I had a couple sequential days that were a blast! The rivers were completely swelled with rains, which is a notoriously hard time on my river. 

 

I got on a pattern walking the shore with a Green Pumpkin Blue Baby Bizz Bug, rigged on a Cadman's Smallie Crawlin jig, and casting the grassy flooded edges on one of my rivers. It was like clock work! Cast in the grassy shore and wait for a hit darn near every cast! 

 

There were a few prime spots that would hold 5 or 6 tanks, all stacked up, fighting for the best spot. 

[FryDog62]

Being next door in Minnesota we had the high water too... overall it was a bit of a down year because of the conditions but there were some definite high spots.  
 

Down for me this year was topwater, especially on the rivers because of the strong current.  Crankbaits were hit and miss.

 

Best lures were Chatterbaits as a search bait.  Smallies seemed to be scattered for much of the year but the Breaking Bream color with a Bull Frog Ultra Vibe Speed Craw trailer worked well on both lakes and rivers.  A Biwaa Armored Craw on a Ned Head worked well in rivers.  As always the Caffeine Shad with Owner Twistlock Light 3/32 oz was lights out at times.  
 

Best day was an hour and a half trip to a local river to test my Ultrex cable repair.  Didn’t even know if I’d have time to fish.  Thankfully the motor held great and I decided to skip the Biwaa up under several overhangs.  It was mid-June and just going to post spawn phase... shoulda stayed all day!

[TnRiver46]

It was a great year for 20”+ smallmouth for me. They are all chronicled in photos throughout the “latest catch pics thread.” I would guess that 90% of them were caught with a plastic worm, and most of those on a small 1/8 oz round ball jig head that most anglers would never throw for bass 

[MickD]

Typical year in that they were hard to find, but when I did find them, I did pretty well.  Best day was Oct 20, fishing alone, tubes and Ned for the most part, a few by snapping swim baits off the bottom, took 28 with only a couple under 2 pounds.  Largest 6 -7 with a couple over 5.  Here are some from the year.  The DNR came along, checked me out, and I recruited them to take a pic for me.  No pic of the 6-7.  In the pic below, the pic in the center was taken by the DNR about 9 AM on Oct 20. 

[A-Jay]

 

First - You have to know I'm all about these kind of threads - especially in January . . . . 

Second, I'm fresh out of "Likes", but suffice it to say, I like every post here 

Lastly, my submission to this fine thread can be found Below.

 

While in the moment, there were several times during the 2019 season where I felt like I was 'struggling' to get on plus size Brown Bass.  Big time nasty weather & what seemed like relentless big wind may have contributed to at least some of that.  However looking back at the season as a whole - I'm very pleased.  

 

 

A-Jay

 

[Way north bass guy]

This year for me was a decent year, for the amount of time I was on the water. No real big ones, but lots of fish in the 4-5lb range. Like A-Jay, I also had some days where the wind was just brutal, and sometimes it seemed to go on for days, but I still managed to get out in it and find some fish. Best day for me was the last trip out in the boat, end of Oct. I was only out for a couple hours, but once I found them, I didn’t move the boat more than 30’ for the rest of the trip, and caught a fish on literally every single drop to bottom. I left them biting, and sure wish I could’ve got back out there one more time, but I guess there’s always “just one more time” wished for everyone, that’s what makes it so special. 

[Steveo-1969]

My smallmouth fishing was tough this year. I am wading/bank fishing the Upper Potomac River and the smallmouth population is way down right now. I spent hours and hours fishing normally very productive water getting skunked before making the decision to mainly wade in front of a dam where there was a small concentration of smallies. I still caught more catfish (while fishing for smallmouth) than I did actual brown bass.

 

Small paddletails, finesse skirted jigs, Ned Rigs and Gulp minnows caught most of the fish.

[FryDog62]

1 hour ago, Steveo-1969 said:

My smallmouth fishing was tough this year. I am wading/bank fishing the Upper Potomac River and the smallmouth population is way down right now. I spent hours and hours fishing normally very productive water getting skunked before making the decision to mainly wade in front of a dam where there was a small concentration of smallies. I still caught more catfish (while fishing for smallmouth) than I did actual brown bass.

 

Small paddletails, finesse skirted jigs, Ned Rigs and Gulp minnows caught most of the fish.

Is there an environmental or natural explanation to the smb population being down on that stretch of river?  You may deal with tidal issues that we don’t in the Midwest...

[gim]

I specifically targeted smallmouth 4 times this past season: once in a lake (Mille Lacs) and 3 times in a river (Rum).  The one time I went to ML is was one of the best days I've ever had out there.  My Father and I landed 7 smallmouth over 17 inches in length and I personally caught the biggest smallmouth I've caught out of that lake in 6 years of fishing it - a 21 incher (pictured).  River fishing wasn't great because as some have already mentioned the water was simply too high and murky to have a prolonged productive bite.  I really gave jerk baits a lot of effort this season, both for smallmouth and largemouth at various times of year, and they were effective.

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, Will Wetline said:

Like WI_Angler1989 and A-Jay, I like to review the past season during Massachusetts' hard water months. Here's a look at smallmouth and the baits they ate last year:

 

 

The first smallie of 2019 took a vibrating blade "blank" from Barlow's rigged with a 1/0 Siwash and gussied up with prism tape.

 

 

A hair and hackle football fooled this one. 

 

 

Making various hair jigs, Midwest finesse heads, blade baits and whatnot keeps me sane throughout the winter.

 

 

The fish were inactive this cool, early spring day so I sat on top of a rock hump and threw a 1/8 oz. bucktail into maybe 30 feet of water. Remember, when the water temp is in the low 50ºs and colder, your key to success is to work your bait slowly so your presentation will be in sync with the other creatures in the ecosystem.

 

 

The 4th of May was a dismal day but smallies were moving in prespawn areas and readily gobbling Z-man plastics on Do-it's Midwest Finesse jigheads.

 

 

It was still cool a couple of weeks later when this smallmouth made the mistake of thinking that a Lucky Craft Staysee 90 was a nutritious meal.

 

Mid to late May I relied on these soft plastics:

 

 

Z-Man's Finesse ShadZ is a favorite as is the Finesse TRD. One of the most exciting techniques I've learned is "snapping" a Fluke-type bait. I've switched to Z-Man's version because their ElaZtech plastic lasts a lot longer than other brand's plastisol.

 

Oh, the 5/0 Gamakatsu worm hook was removed from a smallmouth that ate a TRD. I have no idea what had been rigged on it that the bass found appetizing.

 

 

How about some topwater? This post spawn smallie came up for Duo Realis'  Popper 64.

 

 

Last trip of the season was July 5 because I don't like summer's heat and humidity. Too, I don't use sonar and the smallmouth in the clear water reservoir I fish are chasing their food supply around in deep water. But on a nice day I might anchor in a known spot and work T-rigged soft plastics at 20' - 30' depths hoping one might swim by. 

 

This year I plan on doing much of the same, still looking to better a 6.3 . . . I know they're in here . 

Exceptional Work Sir ~ 

Especially considering where & how you hunt for these Brown Ghosts. 

Best of luck to you this coming season in your quest for that 'better' brown bass.

Perhaps consider plus sizing your offerings ever so slightly, and I do mean ever so.

2020 will be the year.

A-Jay

[Steveo-1969]

19 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Is there an environmental or natural explanation to the smb population being down on that stretch of river?  You may deal with tidal issues that we don’t in the Midwest...

Unlike the Lower Potomac, the Upper Potomac that I fish is non-tidal. The SMB population is down in the UP because of high water the last 4 years during spawning. The MD DNR is well aware of this through seining, electrofishing and fisherman surveys. They now have a 5-year supplemental stocking program that started in 2019. They took 40 adult SMB out of the UP to a state hatchery, but were unsuccessful in getting them to spawn so they were returned to the river. Instead the state purchased 2000 juvenile SMB and stocked them in portions of the river that showed exceptionally poor survey results. They will continue trying to stock with state-run hatcheries for the next 4 years.

[Dwight Hottle]

My year in review only constituted one week of smallie fishing at Rainy Lake in May of last year. A group of four smallie chasers spent May 11-17th at Rainy. This was our second trip same week as the previous year. Ice out was a week earlier than 2018 but water temps were about the same if not colder. We had fewer fish numbers than our first trip & less size. I tried a few different baits like a dark sleeper & some hair jigs but quickly tied on a jerkbait to hook up my first fish. Ima flit size 120 in white & chartreuse shad, LC pointer 100 in shell white & duo realis jerkbaits in 110 sp in white & 120sp in white were the predominant baits. White baits definitely carry an advantage on Rainy Lake so I don't even bother switching colors as long as the bait is white or a white look of another shade/color. WE did good on the smallies but not great. We did have lots of bonus walleyes & pike. My buddy John caught his PB pike, a 20lb class fish measuring 42-43 inches. We are going back again this year but one week later than our first two trips hoping to find more active smallies but still prespawn.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WI_Angler1989]

I love reading all of your stories! Such a wealth of knowledge and experience we share here on BR. 

Thanks everyone, and a Happy 2020 to each of you! 

[Birdman2136]

Late to the party here, but being from WI as well I thought I'd interject.

 

High waters on the river section I fish led to easy fishing early in the season, find slack water and I could catch 3-6 fish off the same area. Two lures caught my fish here: 1. Whopper Plopper 75 2. Peppers Custom Baits spinner bait in Kitchen Sink color.

 

The rest of the season I caught numbers and big fish on scaling back to a 4 inch Kalin's Grub on a darter head. Summer craw was the color I believe. 

 

My lake smallies weren't much different. My biggest smallie came on above mentioned spinnerbait and second biggest game on a Whoppler Plopper 110. Numbers days came on above mentioned grub...

[12poundbass]

Late to the party hear as well. The brown bass (out of a lake) completely eluded me. This was my first year with my G3, first year fishing offshore, first year with actual electronics, and first year fishing for smallmouth out of a lake. I have a tiny river near by that I frequent and catch a few out of there.

 

Looking back I had my expectations set a little too high! With all these first I should have been happy just getting a line wet. I didn’t get out on the smallmouth lake nearly as much as I wanted or thought I would. While I was left pretty bummed out not catching any, it also left me more thirsty to hit it hard this year as soon as the lid comes off the lake. 

[Boomstick]

It has to be a crankbait for me because of all the smallies I got on Lake Champlain. I got a few others, but last year was a tough year for me.