Smallmouth

[Johnny_Canuck]

Please share your top three smallmouth bass presentations with us.

[Nick]

For Canadian lakes:  chartreuse spinerbait with willow blades cranked about as fast as is possible over vegetation and rocky banks, dragging a green pumpkin with purple and gold fleck tube on an open jig hook on rock piles, humps are near vegetation.

For rivers: buzzbait, smaller blade, white skirt around cover and current breaks. These are summer patterns of course.

[Phishn_Phool]

I used to have a float service on the Gasconade river in Mo and over the years the best smallmouth bait were in order 1 Stanley 3/8oz Spinnerbait in a discontinued color called "crawdad..2 a 4 and 1/2 inch Rattlin Rogue and color was good as long as it was silverLOL..Then a buzzbait third.  I think too many people downsize too much when they hear the word "smallmouth"  Can't tell you how many 4 inch smallmouth I have caught on a 4 1/2 rogue also how many 3 lber's : 8)

[Johnny_Canuck]

Great information -- keep it coming. Especially for Canadian lakes.

[tritonman]

Poor-boys gobies in black and pearl

tiny torpedo in clear

minus 1 in black and chrome

[squid]

Kickerfish Bait - wacky worm in bubble gum

Baby torpedo clear in color.

Poor Boys Baits - The Goby's in any color.

[roadwarrior]

ALL of my monsters have been caught on live shiners. I occasionally throw artificials and have had success with Gitzits, jerk baits (Lucky Craft Pointers, Rogues & Rapalas) and 4" lizards (Carolina rigged). You only ask for three but here's another: I think most guys have good luck, at least in numbers, fishing grubs. I have only caught one 5 lb smallie on artiificial bait. One final comment, on the advice of earthworm77, I'm going to give hair jigs a real workout next month. I'll post a report then.

[L.D.]

1) A 3" tube in the color of the day.

2) A Senko, rigged wrong with a lead head jig

3) A topwater Chug Bug, fished in a Spit and Pause fashion.

L.D.

[mathias]

excalibur - pop n' image

strike king - 3x zulu jerkbait floating, baby bass color

Fat salty tubes - white pepper

[Snag]

On Detroit River and St. Clair River I have always done well on green pumpkin, green pumpkin/red fleck or anything in a goby color. Venom has tube with a color I do not know the name of but it is a brown/rust color with orange and gold fleck. I'll look in my tube box and see if I can find the color.

Hook 'em hard,

Snag

[Danarchy]

#1: Fathead minnow on a 1/8 oz jighead... color not important. Nice long fatheads, prefferably 2 and 1/2" to 3" long have produced more smallies for me than any other presentation. I've caught them using minnows by swimming them in the shallows, under a slip float, 25 feet down, and just about everywhere in between. I've had 50+ fish days using minnows, and many were taken from the same spot, cast after cast.

#2: Senko... They are a crutch that I soon hope to break away from. These baits worked for me from April to November, rigged on everything from sledheads to T rigs. My biggest smallie to date was caught on a green/lemon senko on an ultralite rod.

#3: Swimbaits... I prefer the Walleye Assassin, by Bass Assassin lures, color is opening nite, a clear blue with silver flakes. Rigged on a jighead, these baits accounted for my first and last big bass of the year. I toss them into shallow bays and shoals in the spring for pre-spawn smouth, and again during the fall frenzy. They also worked well in the summer when I actually wasn't using a senko or a shad rap.