Sallmouth fishing in reservoirs

[tkobermann]

Hey guys I am new to the forum.  I've grown up fishing ozark streams in southern Missouri.  Smallmouth bass have become my favorite species to target and I have gotten very good at catching them on ozark streams.  However, I have never really targeted smallmouth on reservoirs.  I am going to Bull Shoals lake the second week of April with my dad and brother in law to target smallmouth.  I am curious if anyone has any advice on catching smallmouth on reservoirs such as when do they spawn, where do they spawn (main lake, arms, shallow coves, next to tributaries, etc.), depth to catch them this time of year, etc.  We only catch and release smallmouth as I have too much respect for these fish and how long it takes them to grow.  We're just looking for the fight of a lifetime with a trophy bronzeback!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Sprint21fter]

I would fish around the dam area to the mouth of the Theodoshia River.  Fish islands, mainlake gravel points at the mouthes of spawning pockets.  All you need in my opinion for bait is a 3-4inch tube/gizit-what the locals call it.  Insert a jig head in the tube and cast or drag it 5-25ft of water.  Play with depths and you can zero in on them.  Favored depth is 10-12ft water in my opinion.  Carolina rigs, ned rigs, jerkbaits, and wiggle warts/rock crawlers will produce as well.  One problem could be how much rain the area around the lake gets, if we get some floods bull shoals holds all the water coming from the upper two lake west of there so the lake could be really high.  Good luck.

[fishdude]

I fish bsl often at that time of year in the buck creek and lead hill area.  do very well on keitech swimbaits and dragging rubber along the bottom. usually fish 5 to 15 feet deep.