Lures For River Smallmouth

[VikingsFan]

Hello everyone. I'm very new to fishing smallmouth, caught 6 in total. I first starting fishing with nightcrawlers on the bottom, mainly for suckers, catfish, etc. However on one outing I actually caught a few smallmouth. So the next outing my dad and I decided to try some lures to see if we could catch more of them. Well between us we netted 12-15 in total in just 3 hours. Wow what a fun fish to catch. The lures that were working included a silver Rapala floating crankbait and a chrome/blue DT-4 crankbait.

It is a decent sized river, shallow water, with a moderate current. Oh and we fish from the bank. Besides the crankbaits I have no idea what would be good baits to use. Would a smallmouth hit a surface lure?

Sorry for the rambling. If anyone has recommendations on what lures to try please let me know. Any other tips you could provide would also be helpful. Thanks.

[roadwarrior]

Spend a little time browsing through this section.

There are at least 50 threads, several recent,

addresssing your question.

BTW, Welcome aboard!

8-)

[mrmacwvu1]

well i just started posting again and RW is right just read the board and you will find all of the info that you need

as far as hard baits go any floating minnow is a good choice such as the rapala however there are countless others that offer different actions

the pinns minnow from yozuri, bps makes a good floater, lews speed minnow, and blaze tackle company makes a good one as well

if your river is a little deeper you can use lucky craft pointers, rapala x-raps, husky jerks, rattling rogues

i always carry spinner baits both inline and regular buzzbaits spooks

as far as soft plastics go plastic worms senkos tubes and craw imitations work as well

just remember that because they say small mouths does not mean that you have to throw small baits throw some larger baits as well

you may not catch as many but hold on to your rod when the big ones hit

[X-Rap]

This time of year your cant go wrong with little 1/8 ounce spinner baits.  Those are really all that i've been fishing lately.  I also do good either swmming or jigging a white grub on a jig head.  Texas rigged craw fish imitations are killer drifted weighted or weightless through holes.  Ive even had luck drop shotting craws in deeper holes when the water is low and clear.  Just experiment and have fun with trying different techniques and baits.  Good luck!    

[MNGeorge]

For soft plastics, also try fluke type baits.  We do very well on them in the upper Mississippi here in MN.

[wisturkeyhunter]

Hard to beat northland tackle slurpie grubs, swim shad, swim shiner. Also there mimic minnow is a great bait. Alot of single and double tail grubs are good too. Senko's also will get the job done.

[raystownangler]

i really like anything that looks like a real crawfish like the yum crawbug or bereky powercraw.  Lately i've been using the yum money minnow and im catching alot of bigger bass on it.  small panfish grubs work really well too for numbers, no quality but fun fishing

[Darth_Wader]

Yes they will hit a surface lure=)

Large spinnerbaits with white skirts and silver blades work very well also...and keeps the dinks off  

[brgbassmaster]

i fish a river back home basically of what you described.  well me and my friend would use white spinnerbaits with silver blades,chartreuse 1/8th ounce buzzbaits, poprs exclusively usually firetiger or shad colors, shallow diving crayfish colored crankbaits and thats about it. those worked really well for us.

[MarVaBC]

Learn to fish a tube - you will catch an insane amount of Smallies on them and it will become your go to bait.

-3.5" tube in a green pumpkin variation

-1/8 oz. jighead with a wire weed/rock gaurd

-Fish slow crawling along the bottom like a crawfish, or let it tumble down swift water.

-You will lose a ton of them at first, but get better at getting them unsnagged.  It will take almost a full season to really get a feel for them and detecting bites....but well worth it.

[roadwarrior]

  Quote

Learn to fish a tube - you will catch an insane amount of Smallies on them and it will become your go to bait.

-3.5" tube in a green pumpkin variation

-1/8 oz. jighead with a wire weed/rock gaurd

-Fish slow crawling along the bottom like a crawfish, or let it tumble down swift water.

-You will lose a ton of them at first, but get better at getting them unsnagged. It will take almost a full season to really get a feel for them and detecting bites....but well worth it.

3 1/2" tubes are big producers, probably the #1 producers for smallmouth bass. However, don't overlook the grub. I fish 5 1/2" GYCB Single Tails, mostly clear w/ silver flakes or smoke on a 1/8 oz jig head.

8-)

[S I G M A]

I've had a lot of luck lately with a 1/4 oz red (or whatever their fancy name for it was) sonic rooster tail... I've only seen them at Bass Pro Shops, but definately worth a try

[VikingsFan]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, really appreciate it. I will pick up a few different baits and give them a try.

[justfishin]

After over thirty years of fishing for smallies on the rivers in MD and PA I have to agree with MarVa and RW. Lots of baits catch smallies, jigs, spinnerbaits, etc,etc but day in and day out a 3.5" tube in GP or a 5" grub are absolutly the best in my opinion. Green Pumpkin/Red Flake tubes and 5" grubs in Pearl White, Clear/Silver Sparkle and my favorite- Bluegill color ( smoke/gold,blue and black flake ) are just hard to beat. You can adapt these two baits to almost any given situation, deep, shallow, fast, slow, winter, summer and in between. For tubes I like a 1/8 or 1/4 jighead in which I pour my own on a 3/0 hook. I also add a home made rattle most of the time. Does the rattle help?, I don't know, but, I always add a rattle. Good luck and I hope you fall in love with those brown bass as I have over the years. Remember, catch and release after a little kiss on the lips !!!!

[Tom Hull]

Hey there and welcome. I can only share from my experience here in Virginia, and the Rebel Wee crawfish have never let me down. Neither have small inline spinners like Joe's Flies, etc. Rooster Tails are great here also. Recently I've discovered that the Trout Magnets work well. For fly fishing I use nymphs (yep, the smallmouth like em'), Clouser Minnows and the Clouser Crawfish, all of which I enjoy tying myself. Just what works for me. May be worth a try there. Take care.

[Davis]

Plastic crawfish (any kind really) with a bullet head in front to stir up the bottom (looks very real).

5" GYCB Grubs in Green Pumpkin were monstrous for me this past week. Weightless worked better than putting a jig head on them.

For some nice sized smallies and to get rid of the smaller ones you could go with 7" Berkley Powerworms.

Plastics are such a big producer for me in my local creek that I'm not sure hardbaits would be worth it.

[bronzeback88]

New member here...One lure I didn't see anyone suggest in the other threads is an in-line spinner.  A 2,3 or even a 4 mepps with a hair tail is deadly.  Especially later in the summer when the water gets skinny.  They have the necessary triggers (flash, thump) You can cover a ton of water and it is hard for a river bass not to hit them when they burn by.  I think the hook rate is a bit higher than spinnerbaits.  Just my two cents.  I came upon this sight recently and it is very nice!!.  You guys seem to really want to discuss fishing and truly help each other catch more fish...

[garry77]

The rebel crawdad in various colors,single tail grubs(I liked bluegill color),smoke purple fleck tubes were some of my good smallie baits.And if your river gets high and muddy a 1/2 oz chartreuse spinnerbait with colorado blades.

[bigfruits]

alot of the time i use 1/8oz or 1/4oz bitsy bug jigs with tiny chunk trailers. if youve never used a jig before, cast it out, let it sink and slowly drag it by slowly moving your rod tip about six inches at a time (you will develop a feel for what the jig is doing) and pausing for a few seconds. give it little hops for time to time. practice this a few times in shallow clear water where you can see the action of the jig.

ive found large smallmouth love crawfish imitations and i use jigs about 75% percent of the time. good luck

[River Rat 58]

Just go to your local sporting goods dealer and get an assortment of mepps spinners and regular spinners and youll be set to catch smallies all day

[Cyork]

My favorite are brown or dark green gitzit tubes.  I do a lot of river fishing for smallies up here in Maine.  I had a spot in one river I fish (slow moving water around the backside of an island) that had tons of cover and was about 15 ft deep, in about 2 hrs I could haul in 20-30 fish in the 2-4 lb range.  Also try mepps spinners, a #2 or #3 would work good.  

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

A lot of people don't know how good

the smallmouth fishing is in Maine.

That's a great deal for you guys!

8-)

[Cyork]

Well places like the Penobscot river are somewhat known, but my "spot" is in the Androscoggin river.  Very underfished due to the fact that it used to be really polluted but the water quality has greatly improved to the point where trout can survive.  

[moby bass]

What color jig heads do you guys prefer for the grubs, or does just plain unpainted lead work?  

[roadwarrior]

Unpainted are fine, but if color makes you feel better

it doesn't hurt a thing. Buy them ready to go or paint

them with nail polish if you're looking for something simple.

8-)