Smallmouth at ice out...

[DitchPanda]

So I don't have alot of smallies available locally but I do have one small lake about 2 minutes from my house...what I call my local...that has gotten a small population of smallies from flooding over the past 3 years. Last year I only caught a couple but the year before I caught probably 20-25 mixed in with largies..had several in the 2-2.5lb range. My question is I've never targeted small mouth at ice out but it is my understanding that they are reading to roll pretty much as soon as the ice is gone. Where do you target them at ice out? What baits should I focus on?

[slonezp]

I'd start with hair jigs. How deep is the lake and what kind of structure?

[TnRiver46]

The waterways of the north country never cease to amaze me . Floods moving smallmouth around? That’s pretty cool! Here in the mountains $(@“& just rolls down hill and all creeks and rivers flow into the Tennessee and the smallies are in all of it. 
 

I have no “ice out” experience but it seems water warms very fast in small northern lakes. A lot of times guys on here from MI, MN and IL are posting water temps higher than mine in the spring time.  How big is this lake you mention? If it’s already getting to 40+ by the time you get out there, the smallies will be ready to eat just about any lure. I like gulp minnows, tube jigs, hair jigs or blade baits/spoons under 45-47 degree water.  Once it’s above that, they will eat any lure. Under 40 degree water, I haven’t encountered that much but i would throw live bait if I did. 1/2 night crawler on a jig head 

[Bluebasser86]

Our smallmouth start up much slower than the largemouth. It's the LMB here that are ready to go as soon as the ice is gone. Smallmouth don't become dependable until the water temps hit the mid to high 40's.

[DitchPanda]

1 hour ago, slonezp said:

I'd start with hair jigs. How deep is the lake and what kind of structure?

Max depth is about 16-20 ft depending on year. This past year we had no flooding and actually experienced a pretty bad drought so its on the low end. The north end of the lake is sand and rock with riprap on the shore the rest of the lake is fairly standard stuff just a few lay downs and manmade brush piles.

 

59 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

The waterways of the north country never cease to amaze me . Floods moving smallmouth around? That’s pretty cool! Here in the mountains $(@“& just rolls down hill and all creeks and rivers flow into the Tennessee and the smallies are in all of it. 
 

I have no “ice out” experience but it seems water warms very fast in small northern lakes. A lot of times guys on here from MI, MN and IL are posting water temps higher than mine in the spring time.  How big is this lake you mention? If it’s already getting to 40+ by the time you get out there, the smallies will be ready to eat just about any lure. I like gulp minnows, tube jigs, hair jigs or blade baits/spoons under 45-47 degree water.  Once it’s above that, they will eat any lure. Under 40 degree water, I haven’t encountered that much but i would throw live bait if I did. 1/2 night crawler on a jig head 

oh its a very small watershed...more of a big pond...maybe 10-12 acres of water tops.

 

25 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Our smallmouth start up much slower than the largemouth. It's the LMB here that are ready to go as soon as the ice is gone. Smallmouth don't become dependable until the water temps hit the mid to high 40's.

that's weird ...opposite of what I've always heard.

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

Max depth is about 16-20 ft depending on year. This past year we had no flooding and actually experienced a pretty bad drought so its on the low end. The north end of the lake is sand and rock with riprap on the shore the rest of the lake is fairly standard stuff just a few lay downs and manmade brush piles.

 

oh its a very small watershed...more of a big pond...maybe 10-12 acres of water tops.

 

that's weird ...opposite of what I've always heard.

Gotcha. So I’m going to imagine its warming fast after ice out. On the sunny increasing temperatures they oughta be coming out of those deep haunts and creeping uphill, that would be a good time to bounce a spoon or rattle trap in front of them. Also using a tiny crappie jig might be a good option, since you’ll be fishing close to ice out they might want to eat ice fishing type lures.  The crappie guys here get a little upset about the big smallmouth snapping off their jigs in winter 

 

if the largemouth start biting first................... just reel them in too! 
 

What kind of little fish live in the lake? Perch pattern blade bait by Johnson is excellent in perchy places for me, I think it’s called the thinfisher 

[A-Jay]

9 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

So I don't have alot of smallies available locally but I do have one small lake about 2 minutes from my house...what I call my local...that has gotten a small population of smallies from flooding over the past 3 years. Last year I only caught a couple but the year before I caught probably 20-25 mixed in with largies..had several in the 2-2.5lb range. My question is I've never targeted small mouth at ice out but it is my understanding that they are reading to roll pretty much as soon as the ice is gone. Where do you target them at ice out? What baits should I focus on?

Ice out you say ~ How about when there is still Ice on the lake ?

This clip is from a few seasons back.

Ice often 'goes out' over night or all at once, but this particular year it took a couple of days.

That was all I needed.

Yes, Brown bass will be ready as soon as you can get at them, especially if there's some sunshine.

A-Jay

[DitchPanda]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Gotcha. So I’m going to imagine its warming fast after ice out. On the sunny increasing temperatures they oughta be coming out of those deep haunts and creeping uphill, that would be a good time to bounce a spoon or rattle trap in front of them. Also using a tiny crappie jig might be a good option, since you’ll be fishing close to ice out they might want to eat ice fishing type lures.  The crappie guys here get a little upset about the big smallmouth snapping off their jigs in winter 

 

if the largemouth start biting first................... just reel them in too! 
 

What kind of little fish live in the lake? Perch pattern blade bait by Johnson is excellent in perchy places for me, I think it’s called the thinfisher 

Pretty diverse forage supply honestly between stocking and relocation from the river that borders it during flood scenarios. I've seen shiners and various river minnows,bluegill,green sunfish,crappies,some small perch,shad and a couple types of crawfish.

All that said I've got some small blades baits and hair jigs I will try. Also some finesse tubes.

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Ice out you say ~ How about when there is still Ice on the lake ?

This clip is from a few seasons back.

Ice often 'goes out' over night or all at once, but this particular year it took a couple of days.

That was all I needed.

Yes, Brown bass will be ready as soon as you can get at them, especially if there's some sunshine.

A-Jay

Cool video. Guess my biggest deal is I'm shore bound...don't really know how shallow they get right away.

[A-Jay]

3 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

Pretty diverse forage supply honestly between stocking and relocation from the river that borders it during flood scenarios. I've seen shiners and various river minnows,bluegill,green sunfish,crappies,some small perch,shad and a couple types of crawfish.

All that said I've got some small blades baits and hair jigs I will try. Also some finesse tubes.

Cool video. Guess my biggest deal is I'm shore bound...don't really know how shallow they get right away.

Perhaps look for sheltered water, closer to some deeper water, that has the sun on it.

 Stuff facing SE late morning, S mid day and SW later in the afternoon.

Mid to late afternoon is often a good bet super early season;

once the shallower stuff has a chance to warm up a bit.

And don't ignore dark bottom areas as they might be a tick or two warmer,

which is often just enough to pull a few fatties in. 

Good Luck

A-Jay

 

[ironbjorn]

21 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Ice out you say ~ How about when there is still Ice on the lake ?

This clip is from a few seasons back.

Ice often 'goes out' over night or all at once, but this particular year it took a couple of days.

That was all I needed.

Yes, Brown bass will be ready as soon as you can get at them, especially if there's some sunshine.

A-Jay

I love how that water is so clear that you can see her swim off to our right and your left.

[PourMyOwn]

I use three main lures at ice out, and usually there's still some ice left on the lake.

 

Jerkbaits worked way too slowly, a football jig with a creature bait, and a hula grub. 

 

Wind and sun are really helpful to making jerkbait fish turn on. 

[Kev-mo]

Al Linder did several shows over the years on ice out smallies. believe a couple were on the same lake. he liked his xraps, especially pink (er uhh i mean bubblegum). the two same lake shows i remember best were all about flats that were a transition from deeper water to shallow spawning areas. believe they had boulders and there was also talk of sun, maybe a chop

 

so.... if you buy into any of that (aside from the pink xraps) i would look for areas like that or a reasonable facsimile in your water

[JLBBass]

On 2/14/2021 at 11:13 PM, slonezp said:

I'd start with hair jigs. How deep is the lake and what kind of structure?

^^^THIS^^^....slowly crawled along the bottom?

[MGF]

Whether permitting I might get out this weekend. I have a few dams on a few different rivers where there shouldn't be any ice. I'm fishing from the bank this trip so here's what I'm thinking...a tiny child rig for it's NED like effect and snag-less nature and/or Texas rigged grubs. The grubs could of course be swapped out for other plastics. 

 

Brown bass, walleye, white bass and stripers are all possible below the dam this time of year. Another presentation that's popular is a jig under a float. It's not what I'm in the mood for but it can catch fish.

[Bird]

On 2/25/2021 at 11:08 AM, JLBBass said:

^^^THIS^^^....slowly crawled along the bottom?

 

Hair jigs with pork trailer was the #1 bait for smallmouth growing up.

Then fishing became electronic and science based and found myself intimidated into using " cool baits ". Lol

[bowhunter63]

Hair jigs or a weightless fluke. 

[cyclops2]

4 pound braid, a BB split shot way ahead of the 1.5" to 2" perch pattern Rapala.   Just above the bottom.  Everything picks on that anytime.  From a large Gobie  to a big pike. I have had anything on it struggling.  Than a pike grabs the fish.   Life goes on.

[TnRiver46]

On 2/26/2021 at 6:24 PM, Bird said:

 

Hair jigs with pork trailer was the #1 bait for smallmouth growing up.

Then fishing became electronic and science based and found myself intimidated into using " cool baits ". Lol

Fish become conditioned to anything, they will still eat the hair n pork. The winner of the elite tournament today said the smallies wouldn’t eat his ned rig, that’s because every body has been dragging them through there for 3-4 years straight. The fish will adapt and overcome anything thrown at them. Don’t throw out your old “non cool” baits, they will cycle back around! Haha

[BigEyedF11sh]

I got on a few this week on a smaller pond in 12-15 feet of water on a small 1/5 oz black with red flash bucktail. Slow rolled near bottom with some rod twitches. Couldn’t get any bites on bigger reaction bait type stuff even though I knew they were in the area.

[FryDog62]

Hair jigs slowly across the bottom, or jerkbaits worked with a couple twitches, let it sit 10-15 seconds... rinse/repeat.  Painful at times but works -

[Glenn Brown]

If clear water, 4” (or 6”) Berkley Powerbait lizard in cotton candy color with a chartreuse tail, rigged texas style on a 1/0 Trokar worm hook and a 1/8 oz. bullet sinker.  Drag it very slowly, or let it tumble on a current edge near a flat.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Glenn