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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.
»
Spring Smallmouth Bass
»
Spawn Smallmouth Bass
»
Post Spawn Smallmouth Bass
»
Summer Smallmouth Bass
»
Fall Smallmouth Bass
»
Winter Smallmouth Bass
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