going small mouth fishing, help!

[fishingkidPA]

ok well im fourteen and have been fishinng for small mouth for about a year now. i always use mepps or roostertails on my spinning reel. but now i just got a new bait caster reel and i put on a carolina rig with a half ounce weight and 5 foot leader with a zoom baby brush hog witha color of like green pumpkin or something. now i am not confident at all with soft plastic!!!!! i need as many tips as i can get on rod movement, how fast and how to move the bait!!!or do you guys think i should just put on my storm shad 3 inch swimbaits?? suggest something to me that youve caught many smallies on before like rapalas, spinners, live bait, i have senkos but not sure if they will work beneath a dam, also i have zoom horny toads!  please help cause im going in the mountains friday!!!!!! ;D

[MMan16]

I've never thrown a C-rig for smallies. Usually a tube, weightless fluke, shakyhead worm, and craw crankbait work for me. What is your baitcaster set-up (rod,reel,line)?

[fishingkidPA]

i got a field and stream rod/reel combo

6'6 rod medium action

12 fluorocarbon

[RandySBreth]

I'd suggest since you have confidence in spinners like Mepps maybe try spinnerbaits on your new casting rig in the same spots you'd normally use those Mepps on your spinning rig.

[fishingkidPA]

yea my spinning reel is rigged up with a 1/8 ounce blue flox vibrax spinner, most of mine are too light to cast on my bait caster. but i think im gonna end up putting on a 3 1/2 inch rattlin rapala with a trout pattern since trout are native there i thought the smallies may feed on them, what do you think? or should i put on some storm plastic 3 inch shad swimbaits?

[RandySBreth]

The swimbaits wouldn't be a bad idea. We don't want you to shy away from learning something new, but I think the Carolina rig is kind of out of place for most of the type of Smallmouth fishing you're talking about. Not that it couldn't work, it's just that other things are probably more efficient.

[fmoore]

I would get a chartreuse spinnerbait (or a color that will match forage) and just keep throwing it. Smallmouth are aggressive little fish, and although you may not catch as many as you would with the spinner the fish caught on the spinnerbait will be bigger on average.

I'd note the places where you catch fish on the spinnerbait and go back and throw texas rigged senkos in that area.

If you do decide to fish the carolina rig, shorten the leader up to around 2 feet or so. I think for below a dam, though, a carolina rig isn't necessarily the best presentation.

[fishingkidPA]

i have a an offset spinner bait with a black skirt and head and silver blades? is that ok? thats my only offset. but i have a big 3/8 ounce white roostertail, white seems to never let me down.