Let's Talk Smallmouth Lures...

[Fredrick]

I have been using bobby garland swimmin minnows smoke color (clear black)in the creeks as well as the lakes around branson. And let me tell you would be surprised at some of the fish I have caught on the 2 inch. I spent a a evening on a spot towards the end of Indian point on table rock with a tourist waiding catching small mouth after small mouth it was wild we had a blast.I usally don't use a jig head but a small hook and a bb size weight. This rig makes it hard to cast but it swims like a real fish. My brother came down to visit from St.Louis. We were fishing the same rig and his reel started screaming (8 pound test with drag set at 2 pounds with scale) to bad he doesn't know how to set a hook the pig small mouth jumped in the air and threw the minnow back at us. I have been searching for the same bait in the 3 inch. I have looked every were I went down to Lilleys' Landing and we went thought the whole stock of swimmin minnows and they were out of it.I always keep them on hand and they work very well in the small waters and even the lakes.

[Stoneroller]

6. Soft plastics- Fluke. Senkos every so often. And, when things are tough, or I want (need) to get some action, slider worms or fish doctors.

the slider head with either a fluke or a worm used to be the go-to bait for so many pro anglers. it's really dropped off the map for a while now. I started using the slider head with a fluke last year and had some really good luck with it. especially on fish that aren't chasing or biting a hard jerkbait but are suspended. deadly.

[smallmouthjoe]

I may be in the minority here because I like to fish slow and methodically for the most part. But I do always have some fast moving stuff on in the summer.

1) Topwater: Buzzbait, 3/16 in black with a hint of yellow in the skirt. The Sammy knock -off that Academy Sports puts out in leopard frog.

2) Cranks: Rapala dt4 in their crayfish color. Norman middle N, baby N and crappie crank in their crayfish color. Bomber 4A Chartreuse and black (stained water).

3) Spinnerbaits: I like the same as everyone else, compact design, double willow and white with chartreuse.

4) Jigs: This is my bread and budder bait. I use a variety of silicon and rubber skirted bass jigs mainly. Even in the winter I still prefer to use them over hair but this last winter showed me the value of hair jigs. I use the standard commercial bass jigs: bitsy bug, baby booyhaa, in 1/16-3/16 mainly, but I have a fellow who is tying me some jigs and I love them and they have been getting used a lot lately. I will prefer PB&J in clear water and Ozark Crayfish in stained water. The Trailer is usually a chigger craw but I will sometimes use a beaver bait if I want a slower fall. Color of the trailor usally matches the jig: Green Pumpkin, Cinnamon, pumpkin with green flake, etc.

5) Soft Plastics: A 3-3.5" tube is a great bait anytime the water is clear. Fluke is just fun. Beaver baits in 3.5-4" are very good as well. A wacky rigged senko is still something I will use from time to time. In the winter I use a shaky head with a 4" green pumpkin finesse worm. A 4-5" grub is something I will also use from time to time.

I wish I could go into some more detail but I have to run.

[rps]

[RSBreth]

Topwaters - any walk the dog type - Sammy, Spit "N" Image, Gunfish (actually a hybrid, it walks and spits) the new 09 size XRap Walk. Also the Lucky Craft RC Wake bait in the smaller size.

Believe it or not, I don't use buzzbaits all that much - instead I'll wake or "bulge" a spinnerbait.

And on to spinnerbaits - I use compact spinnerbaits from about mid-March through October. Try them in Winter, but usually other things work better. I'm actually trying to get a custom hidden weight spinnerbait design going, but I've been working on other things. I like white, white/chartreuse, and firetiger.

Tandem Colorado/Willow mostly.

Crankbaits: Name one that dives 1-foot to 8-foot, and I probably use it. Well except those craw cranks everyone else likes. Love the Bandit 200 and Bomber 4A. The Strike King series 3 is a sleeper, like the Norman Crappie Crank.

Jerkbaits. Suspending models like the #10 Husky Jerk or XCalibur XS3 are what I'll use in cold water - but I'm surprised more people don't throw floaters in warm weather. I LOVE the new Rapala Flat Rap - I dress the rear treble like the XRap. Work it fast and erratic and in warm weather the fish crush it.

I like having a rod with plain 1/8 ounce weedguard jighead on it to use for grubs or what ever, and one with an EWG hook to rig Senko's or JerkShad on.

Jigs: Used to be Booyah Baby Boo's or Terminator Finesse, but this year it'll be my finesse jig I'm pouring myself. PB&J - Watermelon and Orange, and Pumpkin - matching or contrasting trailers.

[creek wader]

Everybody has their go to bait. Here's my top 5.

1. Senko type bait. Usually a 4" or 5" BPS version. Sometimes a 3" Yum Dinger. .. fished weightless, on a jighead, or with a split shot.

2. twister tail grub - with a 1/16 oz., or 1/32 oz. head.

3. soft crawdad imitations. ... Fished weightless, jighead, or with a splitshot.

4. Rapala floating minnow, sometimes with a splitshot. Doubles as a top water or a crankbait.

5. Spinnerbaits with a trailer.

Honorable mentions: Teeny Wee Craw, Sammy(BPS version), inline spinners, beetle spins.

Like everybody. I have a whole arsenal of lures that work. I just feel more confident in these.

[Gavin]

I dont fish for them in the winter, but here are some of my favorites

Topwaters-LC Sammy 100, LC Gunfish 95, Accent B-2 buzzer, Spook Jr., Strike King Triple Buzzer...Have a couple poppers & prop baits but they dont get used very often.

Floating Lures: Floating Super Rouges, Jointed Rapalas

Mid Water Column: Zoom Super Fluke in pearl or glimmer blue, or a LC Slender Pointer 112 or 97

Spinner Baits: 1/4 oz double willow, or a 1/4oz twin spin

Cranks: Wiggle Wart, Norman N, Wee Craws...I dont fish these much

Bottom: Zoom Fat Albert Grubs, 4" Chompers Hula Grub, 3-4" Tubes, 6" Trick Worm, Eakins Jig & Zoom Super Chunk Jr.

I usually have a casting rod rigged with a walk the dog bait or a buzzer, a spinning rod rigged with a fluke or a slender pointer, and a spinning rod rigged with a bottom bait, plus a fly rod in the canoe

My fly selection is pretty minimal..

Topwater: Leroy Brown (my blockhead variation), Gaines Sneaky Pete, Coffey Grinder.

Mid Water: Muddler Variants, Shenks Minnow variant, & Pearl Sparkleminnows.

Bottom: Brown, Olive or Black Sparkleminnow

Heres Leroy...

[Al Agnew]

I think one thing we're seeing here and will continue to see is that a very wide variety of lures will work. Everybody has their own favorites. Personally it always kinda shocks me when somebody does NOT use topwater lures in the summer. As Gavin said, nothing is more fun...and the topwaters will work most of the time when the water temps are above 60.

I believe water conditions and characteristics have a lot to do with it, though. On lightly pressured streams or even on the heavily pressured streams when you can fish them during the week, topwaters are almost always my FIRST choice in the summer, and I seldom have to go to my second choice. But on the bigger rivers that are often fished by the jet boat--tournament crowd, topwaters are not as consistently effective.

Thing is, though, that on all but the biggest rivers, the active fish will always be within reach of surface and near-surface stuff during the summer. And I love seeing them hit, so I'll be using something high in the water column 90% of the time. My homemade crankbait runs a couple feet deep at most, never out of sight. I fish my twin spin just under the surface, fast and bulging the surface in clear water.

On the other hand, slow, deep stuff like jigs and soft plastics will work then as well, because if the fish are active, they usually aren't picky. Only thing is that in very clear water, I don't like using something slow because the fish have the time to really examine it. I'd rather fish some kind of fast reaction bait that they don't have time to "think" about, just whack it on instinct. That's why I like walk the dog topwaters, fished very fast and splashy, in clear water, and why I use the twin spin fished very fast and just under the surface.

Like RSBreth, I've never been a fan of the crawdad cranks. Don't ask me why...just never got into them.

As for the various weighted soft plastics, I've tried them all, with varying degrees of success. Finally decided that most of the time it really doesn't make a whole lot of difference which you use, so I decided to stop carrying several pounds of soft plastics of all shapes and colors, and just carry a bunch of tubes for most of the bottom fishing soft plastic applications. Except for the colder water forays into fishing finesse worms and small Senko types weighted to stay on the bottom.

Except in the winter, nearly everything I fish is...not small. I'm fishing for bass and not wanting to continually unhook various sunfish species. Which is why I don't fish stuff like Roostertails, 2 inch Rapalas, etc.

Joe, I know what you mean about fishing fast because I can. I'm a lot more tired after a day of fishing than I used to be. But...it's a good kind of tired.

[aftersh0ck]

hell ya,

the tiny craw was killing them compared to the normal size in the shallow and deep running.

Al, like you were saying about the summer and top water, 85 percent of all those ive caught on top were in the summer

especially early in the morning on the outer banks by the bass grass where deeper water hits.

i still fished them during the day but the size of them goes down. if you get overcast or rain coming in tell your gf or wife sex can wait.

[snagged in outlet 3]

if you get overcast or rain coming in tell your gf or wife sex can wait.

Don't you mean wife AND gf???

Teeny craw, half ounce jig and pig, 3/8 oz spinnerbait, flukes and senkos, and hard plastic top waters.

I prefer working from the top down. But size matters and I'm like Al, hate catching all those sunfish.

SIO3