Smallmouth Season Starts Tomorrow

[roadwarrior]

First weekend of fall, Hurricane Rita on her way, cloudy skies, temperatures in the low 80s, falling barometer, water temperature down 8 degrees (79) and projected water release 40,000cfs. Well, it doesn't get much better than that!

I hope the fish are hungry.

Ya-hoo!

Here we go!

[Nick]

Save some for me!

[roadwarrior]

Every bass we catch will still be there for you in November, Nick. We just want to exercise them a little, maybe take their picture and make sure they're happy and healthy.

I wish everyone that fishes the Tennessee River the best of luck. You are welcome to keep all the catfish you catch, your limit of whitebass, Kentucky and largemouth, but please...

Carefully release all my pet smallmouth.

[Minuteman]

I've had to do a lot of bank fishin since my son is back in college and the fishing pressure has been tremendous at the easy to reach spots on the lakes.

I'm hiking out to some spots on  the  Schuykill river for some Smallies next week and taking my 12 year old daughter out this weekend at the local ponds and lakes. I'll get her up to speed and next year hope to get her out on the boat.

[basser89]

Cool deal! Tear them up Roadwarrior and minuteman! I've love to see some picks! Smallie action has been slow for me this year! The last one I caught, I was actually fishing for musky and a little smallie blasted my jointed Rebel minnow.

[BD]

Yep. It's time for jigs and slow fishing senkos.

We are still a tad warmer than I like, but I'll be checking out my secret small mouth honey hole VERY soon.

[roadwarrior]

We ended up catching a variety of fish including thirteen smallmouth, three over 5lbs with the largest coming in at 22 1/2 inches or just under 6 lbs. The bass are on the hunt and the featured entree is yellowtail (threadfin shad). As water temperatures drop, the fishing should just get better.

[huskertko]

Do smallmouths generally live in moving water like rivers and streams?  I have never caught one in any of the smaller lakes I fish.  Then again if they require a different type of lure or bait than LM that could be a reason i have never caught them either.

[TWP]

Baits that go with smallmouth or baits you here people talking bout more with smallmouth than largemouth are

1). 3 or 4 in. grubs-never smallmouth fished but my fav. grub is the Zoom fat albert.

2) Spinnerbait usually smaller spinnerbaits and they also like the spinner baits with colored blades- also inline spinners.

3) SENKOS! i heard of alot of people catching smallmouth on senkos. Try the 3 and 4 in. models in various colors and see which one produces.

4) Like i said i have never fished for smallys but i would try my go to bait for largemouth on em'. The Zoom Finesse Worms

5) Another bait you hear alot with smallmouth are tubes. 3 or 4 in. tubes.

Also i hear alot of smally fisherman say smoke is a good color when they use grubs or tubes. See i never smally fished but i know a few things, these fellow smally fisherman could tell you a bit more on baits and techniques. Good luck

[basspro48]

Just one small missing link.

Crankbaits and suspending jerkbaits, the best smallmouth baits EVER

[Upnorth]

Just one small missing link.

Crankbaits and suspending jerkbaits, the best smallmouth baits EVER

Unless you fish up here in the Great Lakes, then the best bait ever has to be a tube.  But they sure will smack a jerkbait come spring!

[FlyRod]

Season? Season?!?!

What is this "Season" of which you speak?

We know of Dove, Quail, Deer, seasons but on our planet we know of no fish season.

We must be *blessed here on Planet Texas (Fourth Rock from the Sun).

Catch a big 'un! Be safe!

F.Rod

*Well, to be fair, there IS the occasional hurricane.

[roadwarrior]

Flyrod,

We are lucky here in Tennessee, too. Except for a few bitterly cold days, we generally fish year around, but some "seasons" are better than others. I fish year around for largemouth in ponds and a few lakes, but April through August I'm pretty focused on stripers on the Tennessee River. September through March is what I refer to as "smallmouth season". We sprinkle in a littlle sauger, white bass and crappie, but for the most part it's brown fish.

[Smalliehunter48]

I live in Indiana, and I just had the best morning of Smallie fishing in my life.  A couple Sundays ago I hiked in to a hole a mile from anywhere and found a small bottleneck in a typically wide slow river.  I was fishing my river go to bait. An 1/8 ounce strike king white w/ #2 Colorado.   Exept I changed the blade to #5 deep cut colorado.  Anyway I caught a 12" Smallie and a 16" Catfish and was feeling dumb for hiking all the way into this hole when the biggest smallie I have ever seen blasted a minnow topwater and came clear out of the water.  When I got down there to where the bottle neck open out to slow wide river, I made my first cast w/ spinner and snagged terribly.  Broke the swivel and was fixing to tie on another when I noticed I had just bought a berkely frenzy popper the day before.  And it just happened to be white.  Hmm I thought, Why not.  So I shot it out to the last known topwater slam and sure enough two pops later Wham....19" 4+lber.  Had a mouth almost three inches wide...I was jazzed to say the least.  Then I thought maybe another?  Wham! Another..uh huh...All told in one hour I landed 12-15 fish that size.  One big momma actually had the entire 2 3/4" popper in her mouth sideways hooks in.  I am a smallie chasin fool now.  Sadly though,  An hour later it was pouring down rain in buckets.  So my river flooded three feet high and muddy as chocolate milk... > But thankfully a week and a half later its almost back to normal....Funny thing is..I caught a 6 lb. Largemouth a couple weeks ago 22" long monster and he fought like a little girl compared to the four pound smallies...Anyway, good luck this "season".

[roadwarrior]

Jsutton6,

Great outing, great fish!  You might want to try throwing a jerkbait, too. That's my favorite technique fishing artificial lures.  

[Smalliehunter48]

Speaking of jerkbaits... I have a silver husky jerk, and a new x-rap rapala...problem potentially is that in this river I am mostly fishing in 2 foot of water or less....and I am afraid I'll just drag bottom. This is why I decided my 1/8 oz spinnerbait was the goto lure of choice. The larger spinners and crank baits dive too deep. Maybe I need a Floating Rapala that only dives a foot or so. You think? Also what would you recommend for stained water presentations.

[roadwarrior]

Floating Rapalas and floating Rogues might just be the ticket. Two feet of water is certainly too shallow for a regular jerkbait. Stained water, particularly that shallow, should not be much of an issue. I think stained water is easier to fish than clear water anyhow.