What lures

[Brookie]

For my whole life I have fished brookies and the only lures I have used is a spinner and a worm. Im moving on to smallmouth bass this year and I need to know what lures would be best. I will be on the shore of lakes and ponds. I hear spinnerbaits work well and im wondering what colours would be best for those. I am also wondering how you fish those tube things as well because I bought some of those. Thanks

[tuxdaddy]

Well I've had good luck with spinners(roostertails), for smallies, mainly with the brown trout color pattern on streams and rivers, also white with silver blades is pretty good..

Hope it helps a little.. Best of luck to you !!

[Woody1]

There are several ways to rig a tube, my personal preference is with 1/4 to 3/8 jig head.  First I dip the head in smelly jelly or other attractant, this helps with the insertion, then I slide the head into the tube till the eye pokes out the top end of the tube, leaving the hook coming out the bottom.

You can also rig with head outside the tube, running the tube up the hook.  There are other ways, but those are the easiest to get started with.

Another fun way to fish for smallies is with Senkos.  Wacky style is very easy, just tie on a 2/0 or 3/0 hook, then fold the senko in half to find the center point and the run the hook thru the center, then cast and let settle to the bottom.  Jiggle the rod a litte and then let settle again, this can be very effective.

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

When fishing for bass, the first thing to do is figure what type of bait you are trying to imitate. Once you figure out what type of bait you are fishing, that allows you to narrow down your choices to color and sizes. Almost every part of the country fishes different. Try and figure out what type of bait the fish feed on and go from there.

I fish primarily senko's, fat Ika's, tubes, and sweet beavers (Soft Bait). Fishing senko's wacky rigged is a good suggestion, but I primarily fish wacko only when spot fishing. I would recommend a texas rigged 5" or 6" inch senko on the 2/0 or 3/0 EWG hook. You can also C-rig either of these three.

When I am trying to cover lots of ground a spinner bait is most practical. I know lots of people will fish the spinner rigged with a pig but I stick primarily with the the spinner bait alone. Early morning's when also trying to cover ground a buzz bait will work well.

I would recommend for you to first get used to is the senko. Once you have mastered the fine art of throwing, pitching, skipping, and flipping a senko, you will have enough control to throw your other baits.

[roadwarrior]

Idaho***er,

Did you forget to mention grubs or are they something that has not worked well for you?

Jerkbaits are my favorite class of lures, but not the most productive. I like to throw them and topwater in low light. Otherwise my suggestions are:

3 1/2" tubes, specifically Mizmo (Kent's Classic/ squash green)

Fat Ika in still water

GYCB 4" Single Tail Grubs on a jig jead

3/4 oz Ledgebuster Single Willow Blade

I want to dedicate some time to fishing a siver buddy, too.

[bpm2000]

Grubs/spinnerbaits have been the most effective for me.  Cranks, jerkbaits, senkos, finesse/shaky worms, all have worked but simply dragging a grub or pulling a spinnerbait seems to bring in the most fish where I am.  (I t-rig my grubs to avoid hangups, fishing from shore)

[MALTESE FALCON]

So far, this year my most productive lures have been #10 X-Rap in silver/blue and a 3/8 oz white double willow spinnerbait.

Falcon

[jomatty]

if your just getting started fishing for smallies get yourself some grubs, some tubes, and some jig heads and you will be in good shape.

[Jig Man]

We threw spinnerbaits, worms, jigs and tubes today.  We caught 1 smallmouth on a jig/beaver and 17 on tubes.  We were using 4" tubes with 1/8 and 1/4 oz heads.  The tube color didn't matter.

[basspro48]

The best I know of for a beginner smallie fisherman is a 3 inch grub on a jighead. Get some pumpkin, smoke, and smoke/purple colored grubs and thread em onto an 1/8 or 1/4oz jighead. You can swim it straight back to you, jig it slowly along the bottom, drag it, or yoyo it. It's a very effective bait that is also very easy to use.

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

Idaho***er,

Did you forget to mention grubs or are they something that has not worked well for you?

Well, I kinda forgot, only because I don't use them very much.  I haven't really gotten into a good sized with one yet. I don't fish many baits under 5" in the plastics. I just have figured the bigger the better and I haven't been skunked one day this year yet. When you have 11"-12" fish chasing a 5"-6" senko I think bigger bass don't have a problem with the bigger size. I usually fish a tube instead of the grubs.

[mbailz23]

I have fished quite a bit this year, mostly in no deeper than 12ft and as shallow as 2 to 3 ft. of water.  I know there are smallies in the stream and lakes I have fished but I have yet to hook one.  I've used various sizes and colors of spinnerbaits, 5" super flukes various colors, worms, grubs, cranks, lizards, etc.  Only catch larries and I'm getting somewhat frustrated.  Really looking to get into some smallies this year.  I caught 1 or 2 smallies all last year, but i hooked largemouth after largemouth last year and this year... Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong...

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

I doubt there is much of a smallmouth population where you are fishing. All of those baits should work for more than an occasional hook-up even if you're fishing for green bass.

[mbailz23]

I've been told by many that there is a high population of smallies in 2 of the lakes I have been fishing.  I've never targetted smallies before this year.  The 2 I caught last year were random.  On one of those lakes I fish, my father told me he has many days where he catches mostly smallmouth and just a couple largemouth.  Maybe I'm not fishing the right areas of the lakes...

[fish finder.]

Well I've had good luck with spinners(roostertails), for smallies, mainly with the brown trout color pattern on streams and rivers, also white with silver blades is pretty good..

Hope it helps a little.. Best of luck to you !!

i am baginner tel me how many kinds of fishes r live in dame water>?

[fish finder.]

Idaho***er,

Did you forget to mention grubs or are they something that has not worked well for you?

Jerkbaits are my favorite class of lures, but not the most productive. I like to throw them and topwater in low light. Otherwise my suggestions are:

3 1/2" tubes, specifically Mizmo (Kent's Classic/ squash green)

Fat Ika in still water

GYCB 4" Single Tail Grubs on a jig jead

3/4 oz Ledgebuster Single Willow Blade

I want to dedicate some time to fishing a siver buddy, too.

would u like to explain that wat is bass fishing???i dont know about bass

[roadwarrior]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallmouth_bass

If you don't know what fishing is, you have stumbled onto the wrong website.

[tbone31]

Jerk bait, spinner bait, Tube jig, tube jig , tube jig. Did i say tube jig!!

[grimlin]

Tubes jigs are definely a favorite here as well.Another bait i've been catching smallmouths with is the berkley sabertail bug...Hook it up with a jig cast out let it sit for a good 2-3 minutes(if you don't get a bite before then) then slowly jerk the rod to hop the lure back to you.

Another thing i like to do is if you have heavy current cast you jig up the current and let the current drift your lure...you'd be suprise how well that works.  

[snakesandarrows]

A buddy and I plan to fish for smallies in some of the lakes in northeast Minnesota in a couple of weeks.  I'm kind of at a loss as to which baits we should use.  He caught a couple on spinnerbaits last year in one of the same lakes we plan to fish this year.  Should we buy live crawfish?  I've thought about getting a couple of Dance's Craws, but I've never had a lot of luck period on plastic craws.  Any suggestions?

[thunderstruck]

With four years of having to fish for either smallies or sunfish, my favorite bait has been Slug-go minnows.  The hook size varies by the size of the bait, but I find a hook that is 1/3 the length of most rubber minnows is fine.  You don't really need to use a Texas rig, because you most likely won't be casting very far.

My best advice is to look in the soft plastics section when fishing for smallies.  They aren't extremely precautious, but they aren't stupid either.  Anything that is showy and moves like an injured minnow/grub/snake etc. is fine.  But be careful not to have too much action.

Phoebes also work but I tend to get more pickerel than smallies with those.  Spinnerbaits also work well, and there is a lot of customization to do with them, too.  

Soft plastics are the best, in my opion though.  I feel like I outsmarted the fish when I customize baits.