Cranks or Soft plastics

[Andrew Coleman]

i fish in a weedy area that i know has plenty of smallies and some largmouth( actually it has catfish and some garpike too )

everytime i go there i use worms since i just started and havnt really worked on getting lures

this is the area i fish most of the time and would like any tips on a place like this

Weather: mostly sunny with very little cloud cover

Water color: fogy like and only 1-2 feet of visibility

Temp: dont quite know the temerature of the water but the air is usually in the high 60's

[Triton9]

if your going to go samllie fishing anywhere, you need to get yourself some tubes. they are like the gold standard for smallie fishing.to me this pond sounds like a great place to rip a rat-l-trap out of the grass for a reaction bite, and when doing so you will catch both largies and smallies.other good baits could be spinnerbaits, another great smallie bait.jerkbaits are also deadly for smallies.tube colors you  should purchase are dark colors mostly(like green pumpkins,browns)or any other color that resembles a crawfish.but you also want to pick yourself up some white ones and some chartreuse ones, at times these are deadly.as far as jigheads go you should pick up ones anywhere from 1/4 oz to 1/2 oz, maybe 3/4, because sometimes fall speed makes a huge difference.good rat-l-trap colors are blue/chrome,craw patterns or any baitfish pattern, and do yourself a favor with these traps, repalce the hooks, beacuse the stock hooks are terrible.you might want to also repalcee the back treble with a Sureset hook, you'll get more hookups.if you have any more questions just shoot me a PM ;)hope this helps

[smallieking]

yea try tubes  if the smallies are real active try some trigged flukes  keep switching baits til u get comfortable bass fishing weeds

if it is shallow try some topwater too   smallies love spooks and poppers

[Tokyo Tony]

I know it's not too popular of a bait on this forum, but I'd also recommend a chatterbait.  It has great attracting qualities, especially since the water is stained, and you can work it anywhere in the water column, or even work it like a jig off the bottom.  You can try a black/blue color and if that doesn't work, a white or white/red should work.  Give it a shot  

[Tin]

Tubes, flukes, and spinnerbaits.

[Yakfish]

Nothing gets me smallies like plastics. Tubes, senkos and grubs. Cranks were so-so for me last season, even for largemouth, but I fished jigs more often than not.

[fishnaddiction]

yea tubes and finess worms    i like drop shotting alot too

[Danarchy]

What do you mean by worms Andrew? Live worms? In all of my years of fishing live worms have done just fine for smallies, also live minnows. I fish minnows on a split shot rig or on a plain ol' 1/8 oz jighead. If you want to get into using lures, like yakfish said, grab some tubes, senkos, and grubs. You'll find that depending on the size, grubs will catch you just about everything that swims. Some good colors to have are green pumpkin, smoke, or watermelon. I personally have about 20 different colors in about 4 or 5 different sizes and I don't go fishing without them. I'm not too partial to tubes myself but they do work well, and with the senkos, try the same colors and just cast and let it sink - it should do the rest for you. If you are fishing from shore, try to work every square foot of the water you have access to, at all depths, and always experiment with the way you retrieve your lure. If you try these lures or the live bait and thouroughly cover the water available you should catch smallies, if they are there.

[Davis]

All of my biggest smallies but one have come by using the 7" Berkley Power Worm. My best colors to use in my creek are:

Black with a Chartruse tail

Motor Oil

Sometimes I rig them with a med sized split shot about 10" up and let the current take it.

Going to fish tubes for smallies for the first time this spring. Before I came on this board I was fishing for smallies with what worked for me. Nobody taught me and I never watched fishing shows. Been using power worms and spinners my whole life. Can't wait to try the berkley tubes out.

[brushcutter]

Tubes are a given. they work everywhere there's a smallmouth that's hungry. Many have said get comfortable fishing those weeds. This is true. I like floating worms on a stand up jig head. Swimming a skirted jig works well too. Xraps might just do it also. Good fishing!

[Ontariobassin]

Davis you might want to try a tube (not berkley) enpregnated with heavy salt because they work much better than powerbait tubes here and those smallies might know that powerbait scent pretty good after being caught so many times with  those 7" power worms.

Andrew, tubes work great but stay light ( 1/8 oz) unless you're fishing deep - 20'. If there is a lot of weeds you will have to texas rig your tube and use a light bullet or inserted weight.(1/16-1/8) Everything else mentioned works good also but start with working tubes slow and when the water warms up pick up a couple top waters like a pop r, skitter pop, or torpedo and work them with a slow popping action, hold on and have fun.

[meanmuskie]

tube jigs in natural colors are my go-to baits.

[MALTESE FALCON]

Like Tin said, tubes, flukes, and spinnerbaits. I'd also give X-Raps a try.

Falcon