Need Smallie Advice!!

[Gazz]

This weekend I will be going into the Catskills in NY to visit some friends. We will be fishing a small creek that runs behind they're house as well as a decent sized reservoir nearby. Based on the picture that I have gotten from these friends that live out there, it seems to be a serious honey hole for smallies and trout. I typically focus on largemouth as the lakes near me aren't all that great for smallies. I will be bringing all of my regular gear and tackle but I don't have much that is geared toward smallies (at least not to my knowledge). I figured my ned rigs, small keitechs and senkos will work but I'd love some input on what else I can focus on. I have a solid variety of jigs and skirted jigs in different sizes so maybe that could work too. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, we will be fishing from the bank or wading in a bit at most. Thanks!

[Finessegenics]

You’ve got it nailed down already. Ned rig, small swimbaits and senkos are about as good as it gets for creek fishing. I’d also throw in a small popper, some sort of floating minnow bait and an inline spinner. The floating minnow and in-line spinner will let you catch just about anything that swims in there, including the trout. A tube would be great too but they tend to get hung up like crazy so I’d shy away from that unless I knew the spot wasn’t insanely snaggy. 
 

Creek fishing is simple, target deeper holes of slack water near current or if you’ll be casting into current, have your bait naturally drift by a rock or log jam and you’ll get bit.

[Gazz]

2 minutes ago, Finessegenics said:

You’ve got it nailed down already. Ned rig, small swimbaits and senkos are about as good as it gets for creek fishing. I’d also throw in a small popper, some sort of floating minnow bait and an inline spinner. The floating minnow and in-line spinner will let you catch just about anything that swims in there, including the trout. A tube would be great too but they tend to get hung up like crazy so I’d shy away from that unless I knew the spot wasn’t insanely snaggy. 
 

Creek fishing is simple, target deeper holes of slack water near current or if you’ll be casting into current, have your bait naturally drift by a rock or log jam and you’ll get bit.

Thanks! I actually just picked up a few inline spinners as well as some Kastmasters for try and target the trout so that's perfect. I have some experience fishing creeks and rivers but it's been a very long time and I was young and dumb then. 

[gall]

Like the member said you baits will work well especially in lighter colors if you have any tubes deff bring them. Also can't go wrong with a baby torpedo had great success with them. 

[NYWayfarer]

In-line spinners are great for creek Smallies. Glad to see you got some for the trip. 
 

4” weightless Yum Dingers work great. let them drift in the current and Smallies will get them. 
 

Small cranks like the Rebel Wee Craw, Rage Tail Baby Craw T-rigged, Ned rigged Nikko Hellgrammite have all been very good to me this season.

[Brian Martalus]

A wise old angler that I knew once told me  that there is not much that a silver Mepps number 2 spinner won’t catch. Although perhaps not ideal for any one situation, you can catch trout, crappie, smallies, White perch, LMB bluegill, etc on it. I think I even caught shad on it this year in the Potomac. You can easily cover lots of ground in a small stream with one.

[MickD]

My son just caught a number of smallies in a mid MI river with small surface lures, Pop R's.  The fish were sighted before casting to them and on the first one, it refused all the plastics.  But nailed the Pop R.  Might take a small one along.

[canada mike]

Everything mentioned above is good. Should have a couple spinnerbaits as well.

 

[Brian Martalus]

I like smaller stream fishing for both trout and Smallmouth. It is a lot easier to find the fish as they almost always will be where they are supposed to be. In a large river or lake, you can have an idea where the fish might be based on structure, weather, season, time of day, etc., but sometimes it takes longer to key in where they are. Also I enjoy hiking around in the woods, even if fish are smaller, but that is just a personal preference.