Smallies and electronics

[blanked]

Before i relocated to smallmouth country the LMB expertise guys wouldnt even bother fishing unless they spotted LMB on the electronics.  Is this typical on large reservoir for smallmouth?

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, blanked said:

Before i relocated to smallmouth country the LMB expertise guys wouldnt even bother fishing unless they spotted LMB on the electronics.  Is this typical on large reservoir for smallmouth?

Not the large reservoirs I fish in. You can see inactive fish lots of times, and I usually catch fish where I don’t see them on sonar 

 

and our reservoir bottoms are rarely clean (most always rocks and logs and irregular depths), then there’s a billion non target fish also 

[Jig Man]

I rarely see smallies on my units.

[Tatsu Dave]

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Not the large reservoirs I fish in. You can see inactive fish lots of times, and I usually catch fish where I don’t see them on sonar 

 

and our reservoir bottoms are rarely clean (most always rocks and logs and irregular depths), then there’s a billion non target fish also 

Same here I search for active SM usually on points that come out of deep water. Trolling a craw tube or single grub usually finds them if active, the bottoms here are loaded with wood and stick-ups. 

[Dwight Hottle]

My experience on fishing Erie for smallies proved to me that most smallies we caught did not show up on the graph. Either the fish were suspended or moved out of the boats transducer cone as the boat moved over them. When we did mark smallies they were always tight to the bottom in numbers. Those fish we could & did catch with blade baits, jigging spoons & jigs or deep diving jerk baits or cranks. 
This movement out of the cone was in deeper water from 15-25 mostly. Fish tight to the bottom showing on the graph were almost always 20’ deep or deeper. So don’t be afraid to fish for fish you don’t see on the graph. 

[blanked]

So as an alternative.   Do you look for baitfish and only fish where the baitfish are graphed?

[Dwight Hottle]

8 minutes ago, blanked said:

So as an alternative.   Do you look for baitfish and only fish where the baitfish are graphed?

 

Yes when you can't find smallies on the graph & can't find them fishing where they should be always track the bait because the smallies will be close by.

[Dye99]

19 hours ago, Jig Man said:

I rarely see smallies on my units.

Yup, same here.

 

I just use my electronics to see structure, temps, depth and so forth. Smallies in my area move far to much many times during the year to be pinpointed and watched.

[gim]

35 minutes ago, Dye99 said:

just use my electronics to see structure, temps, depth and so forth.

Isolated boulders are magnets where I fish and I often mark those on my GPS and then come back another time, keep my distance, and cast to them.  Quite often, smallmouth relate to this kind of structure over and over again during similar times of the season.

 

I have marked what I thought were suspended brownies a few times and then caught a couple on a jerk bait.

[TnRiver46]

After reading this A few times I do remember once or twice seeing the “spaghetti” on my 2D sonar in the dead of winter. By golly it was smallies and guess who caught them dropping a tube straight down 

 

 

Her not me! Circa 2013

[cyclops2]

In bigger waters.  It is a assumption game. Most likely.  Should be. Best guess based on similar fish echoes.  I have had almost  ZERO hook ups with big fish all around the school of baitfish. IF IF the bait fish are not moving at all.  I can feel soft bumping. But no hook ups. Very frustrating.

Go bottom or none bright daylight times.  Had very dark cloudy day with random hookups everywhere.  Schooling fish are disciplined. 

 

Not like the LMB alone. They are always daytime hungry.

[cyclops2]

Almost forgot about that dark weather day. Windy, small white caps and NO females. All sizes of loose males only. The bilge pump was running most of the time.  I have 2 working pumps for fishing in white cappy weather.

  I like my smallies.   ?

[clawman]

Here in the northwest this time of year I first look for weeds knowing bait will be there. I fish outside edge with fast baits, burn spinnerbait, crawfish pattern square bill. You will get bit or at least see sm chasing those baits. When you locate fish throw green pumpkin tubes or Z-man ned finesse TRD rigs.

So, no, it is not necessary to see fish on sonar before fishing them, but it is important to find structure on your electronics.