Smallmouth Bass Fishing

Time and time again over the years, we have listened to many anglers and clients express their frustration at trying to catch smallmouth bass. Most anglers don’t realize that these fish have their own set of behaviors that sets them apart from largemouth bass. The major differences between a smallmouth and a largemouth bass are as follows:

If you fish for smallmouth here in the northeast, especially in the Susquehanna river in Maryland, you will find that small mouth bass do not stick that tight to cover. This is even more apparent in some of our slack water reservoirs. Smallmouth relate much more to a sudden or rapid depth change than they do cover. When we fish for largemouths, we are all taught to fish brushpiles and thick weedbeds, but small mouth bass are more likely to be caught on a rock ledge that drops off quickly from about six to twelve feet.

When fishing in the reservoirs here such as Conowingo, or in the rivers like the Susquehanna, small mouths are sometimes caught shallow, but they are seldom more than 10-20 yards away from deep water.

Everywhere we go, we see the majority of bass anglers beating the shoreline, and as this may work for largemouth bass most of the time, if you are after big smallmouth bass, turn around and cast to the open water rather than beat the shore.

Unlike largemouth, smallmouth often group together by size. We found that if we were catching smaller fish, in the eleven to fourteen inch range, we rarely caught a big one in the same area. On the other hand, when we caught a small mouth that was above four or five pounds, many times there were several that size and even larger swimming right along with them. Big largemouth bass are loners, usually found by themselves on the best piece of structure, while larger smallmouth bass will often school together. There are several things that tell you that smallmouth bass are much better suited for strong current than largemouth. For one, their pointed noses and the sharp angle of their fins are indicators that they are more suited to current. They often get behind a rock or stump and rush out to feed. Largemouth can adapt somewhat to current, but are much more at home in slack water.

Locating and then catching big smallmouth is a real challenge. That is why it is so much fun. Hopefully by reading some of these methods you have gained a better understanding of where these trophy fish go and what they are looking for, and of course, this will hopefully get you the fish of a lifetime. Remember, get out early and late in the year and brave the elements, hit these prime areas with the baits we described, and remember most of all, you are after a completely different fish! “These are NOT Largemouths!”

Steve and Kurt vonBrandt have spent more than 35 years fishing the lakes, streams, and rivers of the United States in search of largemouth and smallmouth bass. They have guided clients to numerous trophy small mouth here in the northeast, and have entered enough trophy fish to be inducted into the N.A.F.C. “Hall Of Fame” in 2003.

By: Steve vonBrandt, Originally Published: Fall 2004