Smallmouth will spawn when the water is about sixty to sixty-five degrees, and they like to do it on gravel flats, clay points, humps, and protected bays. They spawn anywhere from about two to six feet deep here, but most of the time they are too deep to see on their beds.
When fishing for bedding largemouth, where it is allowed, such in Delaware and Maryland, the largemouth have to be finessed into striking many times. This is not true for smallmouth, as these fish are very aggressive. It is really very simple to catch large bedding smallmouth by swimming a smoke or chartreuse colored Yamamoto grub across their beds. We always practice catch and release, and if you want to continue to enjoy this type of fishing, releasing them right away after they are caught is crucial.
By: Steve vonBrandt, Originally Published: Fall 2004
May 26th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Try a nest robber rebel craw crank bait across the nest. works for post-spawn also.
May 27th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Congratulations on the first comment on the brand new Smallmouths.com blog. That article was written in 2004 by guide Steve vonBrandt (RIP) as noted. While I don’t advocate fishing for spawning / bedding bass, I can’t stop those that do it legally. I can however at least encourage them to release them as quickly as possible if they do, just as Steve did in his article.
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic ( I would guess yes). If so I would be happy to have you submit a constructive article on why people shouldn’t fish for spawning bass and I would be glad to post it.
Thanks for visiting!