Catching Pre-Spawn/spawn Smallies

[fishingkidPA]

Hey im making a trip up to a couple rivers/streams to do some smallmouth fishing this weekend. On either slippery rock creek or mahonning creek. Slippery rock creek is a small stream, ranging from 5-15 ft deep on average. Alot of rocks, rapids, and pocket waters. Mahonning is a shallower probably about 2-10 ft deep on average. About 70 yards wide with some fast moving water and slow stretches. i have never fished pre-spawn-spawn smallies. What are there patterns? do they move up shallow? what lures are best? i know pre spawn are very aggressive. thanks for the help

[Lund Explorer]

To begin with, I think you could find bass spawning anywhere in those streams as I've seen smallies bed in water at least 10' deep before. To narrow down your search, consider that these rivers have moving water, so look for current breaks where they can make a spawning bed in the slack water behind them. Large rocks, a tree branch, or an eddy or bend hole will all be prime spots to search for beds.

Once you have located the fish, you'll need something that you can get close to those beds while taking into consideration the current. If you're fortunate, your smallies will be a lot like the ones I fish for as they will easily come off of their beds to hit a lure washing by. Just about any soft plastic rigged on a jighead in the 1/16th oz to 3/16th oz size should get a good drift depending on the amount of current. If you are around a lot of wood, then a T-Rig keeps the snags down. Just get the bait close to the bed, and the fish should attack it. Another option I like to use under conditions like you described is to use a floating Rapala as a twitch bait. Toss the lure upstream of the target and let the current carry it down to the fish. Then give the bait a sharp tug to get it to dive down on the downstream side of the obstruction.

Hope this helps.

[fishingkidPA]

thanks. My dad said his overall most productive lure for smallies was a rapala original floater as you stated works well