Does anyone else exclusively target smallmouth?

[Ohioguy25]

I don’t know why, something about largemouth is very boring and generic to me.  Maybe it’s because they’re everywhere, every body of water has them. Even the most stagnant, manmade cesspool has them thriving in it. I think this is where the term ditch pickle comes from. That’s not to say I don’t still like catching them more than any other species, I just greatly prefer smallmouth.

 

For starters, smallmouth are much prettier, especially river smallies.  The glistening green and slender, proportionate body leaping through the rapids is much more appealing to me than even the most frenetic top water explosion, although that is pretty amazing as well.  Something about stalking smallmouth down a wild scenic river and finding them in their discrete hiding places and tricking them into biting is very primally satisfying. I realize largemouth use structure and cover too but not nearly as stealthily as smallmouth. 

 

I think above all smallmouth are just harder to find and hook, so perhaps the challenge and elusiveness plays a big role. I think my fellow bronze back lovers all agree the smallmouth is the smarter, better looking cousin ?

[scaleface]

Some folks like Maryann others Ginger . I prefer Ginger .

[Ohioguy25]

9 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Some folks like Maryann others Ginger . I prefer Ginger .

You’d be a great wing man!

[dodgeguy]

Smallies aren't hard to catch if you fish where they are. I like both. But if I'm somewhere that has smallies I prefer to catch them.

[Steveo-1969]

From April through October I target smallmouth on every outing because the section of river I fish is predominantly smallmouth. If it was predominantly largemouth then that's what I would target. From November through March I'm targeting walleyes on the same river.

 

With that being said my favorite fish is a smallmouth bass because they just don't quit.

[Ohioguy25]

5 minutes ago, dodgeguy said:

Smallies aren't hard to catch if you fish where they are. I like both. But if I'm somewhere that has smallies I prefer to catch them.

I wouldn’t say hard, just more difficult than largemouth

[Finessegenics]

Well, I kind of have no choice so smallmouth is what I *exclusively* target. The river I fish has very few largemouth and the section I most often fish, has none at all. So naturally, smallmouth became my targeted species and my favorite fish. I need to drive a good hour to reach a body of water with good largemouth in terms of size and numbers. That being said when I do go to a lake with good lmb, I tend to focus on them just as a "change of scenery" sort of thing. Targeting either species is lots of fun and I don't see the point in having a debate about which are harder to catch (edit: I know this is not what your thread was about, but it is something I see often when people talk of smallmouth vs largemouth). Largemouth can be just as difficult to catch as smallmouth in certain situations. The elite series tournament taking place at chickamauga right now proves just that. 

[Spankey]

I use to. But there were largemouth also on the river. Mother Nature has disrupted my home waters. Practically in my own backyard. I moved to lake fishing for awhile. She’ll bring it back. I just hope I live long enough to see it. My best fishing moments were on the river. My personal best smallie came off the river. But my personal best greenie came out of the lake. I have the red butt over what happened with the river but that opened the door to fishing largemouths. My skills from the river set right in place at the lake. 
 

Hey dude you can respect and disrespect what you want to. Granted they are two fish. Slightly different but in the same family. I’ve been bass fishing a long time. Most likely before you were ever born. I like your posts. They are different and unique. And I don’t have or will ever have an issue with you. 
 

But, I think you are TOTALLY off base and out of touch with reasoning behind your post. 
 

You primarily for the most part fish all livebait. I think you would see it through a different lense if you fished artificial baits. 
 

Just take those crawdad for instance. I’d rather catch one 15” smallie on a Zoom or Strike King Craw then five 10” or 11” smallies on live bait. But I don’t care what anyone fishes with. I respect you as a person and fisherman. 

[TnRiver46]

Well in Tennessee, if you’re targeting one you’re targeting the other. There’s literally nowhere that’s ONLY smallmouth. Sure you can go places where it’s mostly smallmouth, like near my house. But I still catch the occasional largemouth right amongst them. 
 

now I suppose you could target only largemouth but you would have to do it in a cow pond 

[Ohioguy25]

3 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I use to. But there were largemouth also on the river. Mother Nature has disrupted my home waters. Practically in my own backyard. I moved to lake fishing for awhile. She’ll bring it back. I just hope I live long enough to see it. My best fishing moments were on the river. My personal best smallie came off the river. But my personal best greenie came out of the lake. I have the red butt over what happened with the river but that opened the door to fishing largemouths. My skills from the river set right in place at the lake. 
 

Hey dude you can respect and disrespect what you want to. Granted they are two fish. Slightly different but in the same family. I’ve been bass fishing a long time. Most likely before you were ever born. I like your posts. They are different and unique. And I don’t have or will ever have an issue with you. 
 

But, I think you are TOTALLY off base and out of touch with reasoning behind your post. 
 

You primarily for the most part fish all livebait. I think you would see it through a different lense if you fished artificial baits. 
 

Just take those crawdad for instance. I’d rather catch one 15” smallie on a Zoom or Strike King Craw then five 10” or 11” smallies on live bait. But I don’t care what anyone fishes with. I respect you as a person and fisherman. 

Thanks brother! Yeah I am interested in transitioning into artificials, much more strategy and variety.

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Well in Tennessee, if you’re targeting one you’re targeting the other. There’s literally nowhere that’s only smallmouth 

River LMB bigger there?

[Mike L]

I’ve read everything there is to read about how great SM fishing is. 
How hard they fight and all that. 
 

But staring at a screen all day trying to catch a 2lb fish by wiggling a worm in its face in 20 fow with a spinning rod and 8 lb test line just doesn’t do it me. 
 

Personally, Give a H/F BC with 80lb braid trying to out smart a 10lb beast buried up in a 2 ft thick mat, or matching wits with 8 lb mama on a bed for an hour. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Thanks brother! Yeah I am interested in transitioning into artificials, much more strategy and variety.

River LMB bigger there?

Well, the ones in the TN river get up to 15 lbs and the smallies get up to 10 lbs 

1 minute ago, Mike L said:

I’ve read everything there is to read about how great SM fishing is. 
How hard they fight and all that. 
 

But staring at a screen all day trying to catch a 2lb fish by wiggling a worm in its face in 20 fow with a spinning rod and 8 lb test line just doesn’t do it me. 
 

Personally, Give a H/F BC with 80lb braid trying to out smart a 10lb beast buried up in a 2 ft thick mat, or matching wits with 8 lb mama on a bed for an hour. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

I caught a 4 lb smallie on a frog in milfoil with 65 braid the other day not far from my front door . The 2019 classic several 5 lb smallies were caught burning cranks in muddy water 

[roadwarrior]

I target smallmouth on the Tennessee River and the various lakes, but we still catch largemouth

at the same spots and with the same lures. Everything else that swims are other options that come

along with every trip. Last week I caught a MONSTER buffalo on a Baby Rage Craw. 

 

[Spankey]

4 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Thanks brother! Yeah I am interested in transitioning into artificials, much more strategy and variety.

River LMB bigger there?

For the record I don’t have a problem with live bait fishing. To each his own. This whole site could switch to live bait but I’m gonna fish my way. 
 

You let us know when you make that transition. It ain’t easy. And if you bring livebait and lures to the river at the same time that will be even harder. If you but your mind to it, you can do it b

[Finessegenics]

6 hours ago, Mike L said:

I’ve read everything there is to read about how great SM fishing is. 
How hard they fight and all that. 
 

But staring at a screen all day trying to catch a 2lb fish by wiggling a worm in its face in 20 fow with a spinning rod and 8 lb test line just doesn’t do it me. 
 

Personally, Give a H/F BC with 80lb braid trying to out smart a 10lb beast buried up in a 2 ft thick mat, or matching wits with 8 lb mama on a bed for an hour. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Fair enough, but that is an inaccurate representation of smallmouth fishing as a whole. Like LMB, there are the "shallow" fish and those that feed offshore. SMB may not live in heavy cover the way LMB do but they still feed around it. In fact, I don't think they live anywhere, they're always moving. 

 

It just seems like it's trendy to "video game" fish nowadays but it's not the only way to target smallmouth. I'm far from an expert but I think the experienced smallmouth anglers on here will agree with me. 

[Ohioguy25]

19 minutes ago, Mike L said:

I’ve read everything there is to read about how great SM fishing is. 
How hard they fight and all that. 
 

But staring at a screen all day trying to catch a 2lb fish by wiggling a worm in its face in 20 fow with a spinning rod and 8 lb test line just doesn’t do it me. 
 

Personally, Give a H/F BC with 80lb braid trying to out smart a 10lb beast buried up in a 2 ft thick mat, or matching wits with 8 lb mama on a bed for an hour. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Why are you describing lake fishing smallmouth? Most smallmouth fishermen mostly fish rivers which doesn’t involve fish finders or 20 fow at all, so that is not an accurate representation. Smallmouth fishing involves significantly more finesse and action than Largemouth fishing.

[Spankey]

5 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

I target smallmouth on the Tennessee River and the various lakes, but we still catch largemouth

at the same spots and with the same lures. Everything else that swims are other options that come

along with every trip. Last week I caught a MONSTER buffalo on a Baby Rage Craw. 

 

Great post. Way more than once while river fishing, fishing a lay down from the tree top back to the bank did I pull a smallie off of it first only to catch a greenie closer to the bank. And vise versa. Just river fishing. 

[gim]

There's just more bodies of water with LMB here than SMB.  The SMB bass reside in only a few lakes and most rivers, but LMB reside in almost every lake, big or small.  I like targeting them equally.  I just have more opportunities to target LMB.  If I could target more SMB, I probably would.  I think SMB out of a river put up a harder fight than lake residents too.

[Spankey]

5 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Why are you describing lake fishing smallmouth? Most smallmouth fishermen mostly fish rivers which doesn’t involve fish finders or 20 fow at all, so that is not an accurate representation. Smallmouth fishing involves significantly more finesse and action than Largemouth fishing.

I don’t know about that. 

[GReb]

I’d love to find out. Closest smallmouth to me is 6 hours north 

[NYWayfarer]

1 hour ago, Steveo-1969 said:

From April through October I target smallmouth on every outing because the section of river I fish is predominantly smallmouth. If it was predominantly largemouth then that's what I would target. From November through March I'm targeting walleyes on the same river.

 

With that being said my favorite fish is a smallmouth bass because they just don't quit.

This is pretty much the same for me except the Walleye part. Not that I wouldn't like to target the Walleye during those month its just that I never have.

[Mike L]

23 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I don’t know about that. 

Ditto

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Ohioguy25]

31 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I don’t know about that. 

What part?

[roadwarrior]

48 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I don’t know about that. 

The vast majority of smallmouth fishing in the Mid South is on the lakes, not the river, 

and I would like to keep it that way!

[BassNJake]

50 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Why are you describing lake fishing smallmouth? Most smallmouth fishermen mostly fish rivers which doesn’t involve fish finders or 20 fow at all, so that is not an accurate representation. Smallmouth fishing involves significantly more finesse and action than Largemouth fishing.

Location is important here.

I live near Norris Lake, it is made up of 2 rivers that come together and are dammed the Powell and the Clinch rivers.

The small mouth fishing is great but most all of the time it is in water deeper than 12 feet.

 

I never saw the study that showed most smallmouth fisherman fish rivers, so that might be a reach.

When I lived in NE Ohio for every guy that was fishing for smallies in any of the rivers up there; there were 10 times that many chasing smallies on lake Erie.