Smallmouth Bass Fishing

Rigging Soft Plastics for River Smallmouths with Jeff Little (video)

In this video Jeff Little of Blue Ridge Kayak Fishing demonstrates some effective techniques for rigging soft plastics for river smallmouths. He shows how to rig a weedless tube (or should I say rockless?), a simple yet effective stick worm rig and a creature bait using Hawghead Baits soft plastic lures. Rigging Soft Plastics for River [...]

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State Records Smallmouth Bass Catches

State Weight Length Location Smallmouth Angler Date Tennessee 11 lbs 15 oz Dale Hollow Reservoir unknown 7/9/1955 Alabama 10 lbs 8 oz Wheeler Dam Tailwater Owen F. Smith 10/8/1950 North Carolina 10 lbs 0 oz Hiwassee Reservoir Archie Lampkin 6/1/1951 Ohio 9 lbs 8 oz 23.5″ Lake Erie Randy Van Dam 6/16/1993 South Carolina 9 lbs 7 oz LakeJocassee Terry Dodson 2001 Michigan 9 lbs 4 oz 27.25″ Long Lake W.F. Shoemaker 1906 West Virginia 9 lbs 12 oz 24.25″ South Branch David Lindsay 1971 Wisconsin 9 lbs 1 oz Indian Lake unknown 6/21/1950 California 9 lbs 1 oz Clair Engle Lake Tim Brady 3/20/1976 Pennsylvania 8 lbs 8 oz Scotts Run Lake Robert T. Steelman 1997 Kentucky 8 lbs 7.36 oz Laurel River Lake Coolie Williams 5/16/1998 Maryland 8 lbs 4 oz Liberty [...]

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Door County, Wisconsin: Spring and Early Summer Smallies

by:  Bill Schultz,  Smallmouths.com Contributing Writer Have you ever thought to yourself, “I’ve always wanted to fish for smallmouth bass in Door County. I’ve heard it’s world-class!” Then you think, “But I don’t know where to go, or where to stay, or where to launch, or where to fish, or what to use.” Then, [...]

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Creeks I’ve Never Seen

by: Jeff Little, Smallmouths.com Contributing Writer Exploring new water with a kayak and a fishing rod requires a few resources, proper planning, and a healthy sense of adventure. While sitting down to write this article, I decided to jot down all the different names of flowing water that I’ve caught smallmouth from. [...]

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River to Reservoir: Learning a New Game

Within a period of two years, several events occurred which put a crimp in my river smallmouth fishing plans. I had [...]

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Yakfish’s Rabbit Hair Craw Jig for Smallmouth Bass

“Tying your own” isn’t just for fly anglers any more. With the popularity of hair jigs for cold water smallmouth, many spin fishermen are learning tricks from their long rod brethren. While learning how to tie jigs, I sampled many different materials including round rubber, silicone skirts, buck tail, and rabbit hair. The rabbit hair [...]

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The Bronzebacks of Lake Powell

It was one of those glorious late October mornings. The brilliant sun that had taken the chill off the day sparkled against Lake Powell’s crystal clear waters and cast its rays against the pink and tan cliffs and buttes of Padre Canyon leaving those long shadows so typical of autumn. A heron was wading in [...]

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Post Spawn Smallmouth Bass

When the water temperatures reach sixty-eight to seventy-two degrees, you can really catch quite a few good sized smallmouth in the daytime even in bright sun. The small mouth move into two different patterns at this time and really smash top water baits such as Zara Spooks. They will either hold near the bedding areas [...]

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Spawn Smallmouth Bass

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 [...]

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Spring Smallmouth Bass

When the water temperatures start to reach about 45 degrees, here in the northeast that happens around mid to late March, we start looking for big smallmouth bass. Water temperature is critical this time of year, as just an increase of a few degrees can really turn smallmouth on. In the spring, in Maryland, and especially [...]

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