Inline Spinners For Winter Smallmouth - How To Please

[mic]

Last time I thought I had a simple question about winter smallmouth it turned into a 4 page thread, so hopefully this won't be as bad. The one thing everyone seemed to agree on is smallmouth (and I was told by locals in St. James, Google Eyes) move up into spring fed water. So lets say: I'm fishing the red ribbon areas outside any of the four major springs/parks...and...I'm using inline spinners for trout (1/8 oz Panthers), can I use them to also catch bass? If yes, what is the best techniques.

For trout I would fan cast using three techniques:

1. I start with a cast upstream and burn the spinner back to me trying to get reaction strikes.
   
2. As I start to work my way to quarter stream I slow down and reel back into me crossing the current.
   
3. As I hit cross stream, I slow way down start swinging the spinner down stream of me and then back upstream.
   
4. I then extend the fan out or move down stream and start all over.
   

Will these work for winter bass? I would think action be to fast? However, last weekend I wasn't catching crap on the upper Meramec and a guy came down on the other side of the river and within 10 minutes caught a smallmouth and trout on a Rapala minnow.

How far downstream will it work on these specific areas?

[sms_alum]

If you are fishing the upper Meramec the two spots I would focus on are right outside the park and further down stream where another creek comes in. Those spots usually hold smallmouth and trout in the winter. I have caught a few goggle eye in those areas, but not really targeted them. Along with you spinners and rapalas, you may want to pick up some hair jigs and work the bottom.

Also, I would beef up your normal trout gear for winter fishing there. You have a decent chance of hanging into some really nice smallmouth, but you did not hear that from me.

[Blazerman]

Years ago, back when I fished the upper Meramec below the trout park during summer, I used to snorkel in some of the deeper holes to see what was in them. I was stunned to see the size of the fish I saw.

Right where the Dry Fork creek comes in there was a deep hole with a ton of big logs and rootwads. When I got down where I could see under these I saw big Brown and Rainbow trout plus some huge smallmouth.

The rest of the year I spent a great deal of time trying to catch them. One thing that worked some was letting a Mepps spinner sink into the hole and then jigging it so that the blade would barely rotate in the current. They would shoot out and grab it as it was hovering in the current.

Never caught the huge ones but I caught a few 2-3 lb rainbow and some really nice smallmouth.

I finally went back later in the fall with a Husky jerkbait and caught a Brown a little over 4lbs. Did the same thing- let it hover in the current alongside a tree with a deep hole and the fish shot out from under the tree and grabbed it.

The key thing was wading to a spot where you could work the bait so that it would sit in one spot and hover in front of the holes.

If you tried to fish these holes from the opposite bank you were always pulling your bait away from the cover and they wouldn’t come out to get it.

[mic]

you may want to pick up some hair jigs and work the bottom.

How do you fish them? I tried it with Marabou jigs. I would cast upstream and let the current bounce it along the bottom. I kept getting the line wrapped around a rock. I gave up after a few snags in a 15 minutes or so.

[Gavin]

So let me get this straight....You are fishing with an inline spinner and catching nothing when somebody walks up and catches two in quick succession on a jerkbait. Think I'd be asking about jerkbaits, not in-lines and jigs.

[exiledguide]

How do you fish them? I tried it with Marabou jigs. I would cast upstream and let the current bounce it along the bottom. I kept getting the line wrapped around a rock. I gave up after a few snags in a 15 minutes or so.

If you are getting hung up on rocks you may be fishing with too heavy of a jig. You may need to go lighter I very seldom fish more than a 1/8oz jig and most of the time a 1/6 or 1/32 oz jig head in the streams I fish Like the James. My idea is to fish a bait heavy enough to get to the bottom but light enough to prevent it from getting hung up on the rocks. I do this because I wade when I fish.I have been buying jigs made to my specs from jig makers on E Bay because I can't buy what I want in stores and the guy I used to buy from who lived on the west fork of the Saline River, in the words of a mutual friend, had givev up on jig making because he had got him his first ever girl friend. If you want I can look up the name of the jig makers I use and post it here.

[mic]

So let me get this straight....You are fishing with an inline spinner and catching nothing when somebody walks up and catches two in quick succession on a jerkbait. Think I'd be asking about jerkbaits, not in-lines and jigs.

Sorry, I was throwing a box of flies at them with my fly rod. Next time I'm leaving it at home.

[Wayne SW/MO]

For me jerk baits have been the best producer. My present favorite is the X Rap. I use a braid for them for two reasons, they jerk better without the stretch and the take is often a slight tic while the bait is at rest and you'll miss that more often then not with a mono.

Don't over think the spring water, it's still cold water.

[Mitch f]

My 2cents:

If the small hair jig you are using doesn't have a weedguard, go buy some with weedguards. As exiled guide says you might be using too heavy a jig or too light of a rod. Use a med or at lightest a med light. Also, regarding the jig, I've always had a little push back with guys that use "slow fall" jigs thinking because it's wintertime you want it to fall slow. My question to them is how the heck do you fish them in slight current? It will never touch the bottom.

As far as jerkbaits are concerned, a great finesse jerk bait for the Meramec is a Yozuri 3D Fingerling, both bass and trout love them.

[Al Agnew]

Mic, lures are simply tools, and some lures are better tools for a given situation than others. In my opinion, in-line spinners are simply not good tools for winter smallmouth except in a few rather rare cases. For the most part, for winter smallies you want something that is easy to keep in one place for a while. The only way you do that with spinners is to cast them downstream and let the current work the blade. But, winter smallies don't tend to be in current fast enough to work the blade. Winter smallies are also usually either in cover, or on the bottom. They will come up some for a jerkbait or suspended jig like on a float and fly rig, because it's just hanging there in one place for a while, but they won't usually come up for something that's moving very much. Which means, with a spinner, you have to get it down on the bottom and in the cover...which means you'd be losing spinners all the time.

Now...if you're fishing right in the 55 degree spring water, you might get some to take the spinner simply by reeling it fairly slowly. Those fish in that temperature of water might be active enough to chase down something moving like that. But in cold weather, the temp drops pretty rapidly below the mouths of the spring branches. I've checked temps during fairly cold weather on the Meramec right below the spring branch, and within a few hundred yards it had dropped below 50 degrees. That was when there was a fair volume of water coming down the river that was considerably colder than the spring water; when the river is very low it'll stay warm a little farther downstream.

But basically the in-line is not the best tool for winter smallies.

Marabou jigs should get you some fish, but like Mitch said, you need weedless ones, and football head jigs are better in the rocks than round head jigs like most marabou jigs sold for trout or crappie. And although smallmouth like small jigs in the winter, small is a relative term; the size marabou jigs sold for trout are probably too small to maximize your chances at catching smallmouth. Jerkbaits will catch both nice trout and smallmouth, and are good in 45-55 degree water, so they are one of the better "tools" if you're wanting to catch both trout and smallies. But smaller trout won't go for them very well, so you probably won't catch many trout on them in waters like the Meramec.

Pretty much, you almost have to target one species or the other. I've caught some very nice trout while fishing jerkbaits and crankbaits for smallmouth. Can't say I've ever caught many smallies while fishing spinners and even streamers for trout. The last time I fished below one of the big springs in the winter, I carried along a fly rod and a baitcaster, and when I came to places I thought held smallmouth I'd fish the casting rod with my usual smallmouth lures. Otherwise, I fished the fly rod for trout. But it was a real pain to carry one while fishing the other!