What should i tie on tomorrow?

[Flysmallie]

My biggest smallmouth came out of Table Rock on a spinnerbait. The big ones like them. It was a white 3/8 Stanley Wedge.

[MOFishwater]

We had a great float, weather was spectacular and only one other boat on the river the entire day, can't beat that. 

Started off with a small bronze fish on my second cast about 10ft from put-in on the Whopper Plopper. I think I had 4 or 5 in the next 10 mins, no size to anything but action and fun. Put the WP down and tossed a big booyah buzz for a bit and caught another fish but it wasn't really getting much other action. Switched to a smaller tri-blade buzz in chart/white and started picking em up again rather quickly, but all small fish other than a chunk spotted bass. 

Came to a likely spot and flipped a craw colored ned rig (one of the mini zman trd baits) and got SMOKED almost immediately. Set the hook and had drag coming off the spinning reel...I was letting the fish play itself out a bit and still hadn't seen it but it was a dandy based on the bend in the rod. Put a little pressure on it to get it away from a downed log and the dang back-reeling switch on that reel is apparently broken. it made a big run and the reel spun backwards and gave him enough loss of line tension the hook popped out. Ugh! Never laid eyes on it but it made me sick. I lost a rather expensive rod/reel last year in a blowdown that sucked 3 of our canoes into it last year with no real way around so I started bringing some lessor rigs I'd be ok with losing and I paid for it with that missed opportunity. 

We made really quick time to our traditional lunch spot so we spent a good hour or so on the sandbar. The area got reshuffled with some of the heavier rains this year so the sandbar had shifted rather significantly. I fished some really deep, fast current and managed to only get a couple out of the spot while losing about 10 baits. I did manage to get my new coworker from Germany hooked up with a ned rig smallie, her first float and first fish ever, so that was exciting. 

Sun really came out near lunch and the remainder of the trip was pretty uneventful. I caught a couple on a spinnerbait in the shade but it was really slow so I generally altered whopper and small buzzbait the remaining couple miles. I bet i missed 25 blowups, the only really big fish was the one that came unbuttoned. 

River was beautiful, lots of bwteal screaming past us all day long. Beers were cold and work was avoided, all in all a successful day. No big ones but lots of small and feisty ones. Always a bummer to hit the take-out and enter reality when I'd love nothing more than to pitch the tent up and stick around to continue the day. Maybe next year. Sorry for the lack of pics, I just never had anything I deemed worthy of a photo. 

 

 

[Al Agnew]

I think I've caught at least 20 smallmouth over 18 inches in the last two summers on double willow War Eagle spinnerbaits.  They have been my best big smallmouth lure the last two years, even better than my beloved walk the dog baits.  My brother caught his personal best, as I reported earlier, this spring on a big double willow spinnerbait...21 inches, 4 pounds 11 ounces.  And that's just on Ozark streams...I caught a bunch of nice ones on the Salmon River in Idaho last summer on the War Eagles.  Just sayin'!

[Seth]

5 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

Probably because you haven't given it nearly the opportunity you have the War Eagle. A good spinnerbait will produce. My ignorant hang up on the War Eagles is the head. I've always had this hangup with the heads on spinnerbaits and it really makes no sense. 

It could be a blade configuration thing too. The War Eagles I have use larger willow blades than the Booyahs and most other brands of spinnerbaits. E-factor is a brand I haven't tried yet, but they also run over sized willow blades. I want to give those E-factors a try sometime and see how the compare. One thing I will say about the War Eagles is that they are not very hardy. If you're in a tournament, you better have several because the wire starts getting loose in the head and they are prone to breaking after that if you get a nice fish on. Smallies really play hard on them. I was up on LoZ tossing a 1/2oz War Eagle around dock ends and wave breaks yesterday and had a 2 pound largemouth break my spinnerbait in half when he jumped. It was already worn out though before I started fishing. I'll save the worn ones for when I'm just out fun fishing since it doesn't matter if it breaks then.

[fishinwrench]

I became a huge War Eagle fan about 4-5 years ago.  There's just something they have that all the other spinnerbaits don't.  I hate the hooks on them, wish they were bigger/better, BUT I don't think they have cost me any fish.  WE's don't last forever though, and if you fish them much you'll learn when it's time to retire one.

I cut some length off the clear plastic tube that separates the blades. Enough so that when hanging upright the blades overlap about 1/4".  A trick I learned while playing with one in the swimming pool.   Try it.  😊

[joeD]

Yes, if you were looking for validation on your lure choice, then you might be right.

Your float area and the fish said otherwise. 

It happens. But, you already knew that. 

Right? 

[MOFishwater]

? I was just looking for some new ideas to maybe try out in a spot that sees high traffic, and I'm far from well versed on river fishing. Our location obviously wasn't selected for blue ribbon fishing prospects...I'm generally happy to just scratch out a handful of dinkers while avoiding the office on the boss man's dime.

You toss what you're comfy with in most instances. I was also hamstrung by only having a few boxes of mediocre baits that I keep handy in my garage for the off chance I may find a minute to get on the water; I keep my main gear out at the property where I have time to fish and chase some big ones. Thanks for the good suggestions from some of you, I'll keep the War Eagle double willow in mind next year. I tend to downsize on the river, probably due to lack of confidence, perhaps I'll get weird and go the other way next time. 

[Al Agnew]

4 hours ago, MOFishwater said:

? I was just looking for some new ideas to maybe try out in a spot that sees high traffic, and I'm far from well versed on river fishing. Our location obviously wasn't selected for blue ribbon fishing prospects...I'm generally happy to just scratch out a handful of dinkers while avoiding the office on the boss man's dime.

You toss what you're comfy with in most instances. I was also hamstrung by only having a few boxes of mediocre baits that I keep handy in my garage for the off chance I may find a minute to get on the water; I keep my main gear out at the property where I have time to fish and chase some big ones. Thanks for the good suggestions from some of you, I'll keep the War Eagle double willow in mind next year. I tend to downsize on the river, probably due to lack of confidence, perhaps I'll get weird and go the other way next time. 

In my opinion and experience, downsizing is seldom necessary and usually not the best way to go when it comes to river smallmouth (or other river bass).  Many years ago when most of my fishing was done on Big River and the middle Meramec, I was intimidated by ultra-clear water like you find on streams like Huzzah and Black River, and thought I really needed to use very light line and small lures when I fished those types of streams, rather than my usual lures for the murkier water of my home rivers.  My results were uniformly mediocre to bad on the clear streams.  Finally I just decided, to heck with it, I'll use the stuff I knew caught big fish on my usual waters.  Not only my usual lures but also the casting tackle and 8-12 pound line.  Guess what--it worked.  Way, way better than the ultralight stuff and downsized lures ever did.  I came to the conclusion that river bass are the same no matter what kind of water they are in, the same aggressive fish looking large and easy meals.  They may be more wary of sounds and shadows and movement, so you can't approach them as closely,  but they are still looking for the same kind of stuff to eat.  

Then, I kinda got into a rut in thinking that certain lures STILL don't work in very clear water very well.  For years I never threw a regular spinnerbait in really clear water, just my homemade twin spin.  That didn't really change until two years ago, when I was on a smallish, very clear stream and the twin spin just wasn't working well, and neither was much else.  I don't know why I tied on the 3/8th ounce double willow War Eagle, just on a whim.  But all of a sudden I started catching fish.  Big fish, 18-19.5 inchers.  It was like magic that day.  Almost as good the next, on a different stretch of the same river.  And even better a few weeks later on another extremely clear stream.  Now, the spinnerbait is one of my go-to lures no matter what the water conditions are.

[evilcatfish]

I decided all this Spinnerbait talk was a good omen and am dedicating a setup to them tomorrow, got a good feeling