spofford smallies

[dockman]

Hey I've been fishing Spofford lake in NH for a few weeks now and have only managed to catch very little smallmouths by the rock formation near pierces island. I've been using a drop shot with a night crawler and was wondering if I should be doing anything different to catch bigger smallmouths. These little guys are fun, but I want a good fight. Any tips on baits or tackle to get smallies?

[roadwarrior]

Two suggestions:

Rage Tail Baby Craw, naked on a T-rig or split shot rig;

or as a jig trailer

GYCB Fat Ika, weightless & weedless

8-)

[WanderLust]

Two suggestions:

Rage Tail Baby Craw, naked on a T-rig or split shot rig;

or as a jig trailer

GYCB Fat Ika, weightless & weedless

8-)

On Lake Champlain I've been catching a ton of smallies and LMB on the Fat IKA in Pumpkin green with black flake. #3 Gammy EWG on Floru or light braid.

I can't find the baby craw around here so I've been using a Net Bait Paca Chunk which has produced nicely on jigs.

[dockman]

Thanks guys. I think I need to work on my finesse

[fmoore]

Dockman...are you local? I live 10 mins away from Spofford. The smallmouth bite is on fire in the spring and fall with fish over 4 pounds not uncommon at all. It should be picking up shortly. They are very hard to pattern in the summer. I usually target largemouth in the weedbeds after post spawn passes by in Spofford.

Find the big bluegill schools with your graph and drop shot in the schools. I pick up some smallies in the summer that way. The like isolated rock piles as well. You just have to find them. As the water cools, they'll move up on the flats near their summer hiding spots. Look for them in 3-10 feet once the water temp dips below 60.

Here's a 4 fish 17.52 pound bag out of Spofford last May. I'm on the left. Both of those smallies were over 4.5 pounds. Everyone else was bed fishing, but we were on the prespawn bite 8-)