singingdog

Yep, if you can see them, you are probably snookered. Back off and make the farthest cast you can to them with a wacky-rigged senko or a fluke.

In shallow water topwaters will often produce all day: the fish don't have to go far to hit them!

I rarely fish cranks straight downstream for some of the reasons already described. Across or quartering makes it much easier to get the bait down. I focus a lot on seams and eddylines. For larger bank eddies, one of my favorite tactics is to cast perpendicular across the eddy line, far enough into the eddy that the crank gets down, crank it out to the eddy line then let it sweep downstream right along the line. For midstream eddy lines, I will quarter a cast into the main current, then bring the crank across the line and into the eddy. Try hitting the eddy line both high and low. Often the big ones will hang at the bottom of the eddy. Last, but certainly not least, don't overlook the eddy in FRONT of big rocks: that's often where the big ones hang out.

Don't be afraid of weight. For a long time, I considered 1/4 oz heavy, until I started fishing deeper. You want to maximize both your feel of the bottom and the time that your presentation is down there. Tubes, grubs, worms....whatever you're comfortable with, use it on a heavier weight and get it down there on the bottom.

I'll take a tube over any of the ultra-realistic craw-baits out there any day. Getting it in front of the fish is waaay more important than how realistic it looks. Look at many of the most productive baits in existence - senkos, and spinnerbaits for example. They don't match anything, but catch tons of fish.

I find buzzbaits an "all or nothing" lure: they are either hitting them like crazy, or not at all. The good thing is that you find out pretty quick if the buzzbait bite is on, especially in water that shallow. Time of day? Again, if the buzzbait bite is on, it doesn't matter. If you are getting skunked sometime, in bluebird skies and high noon, try the buzzbait!

Smallies are much more mobile than LM bass. They can be in 3' of water one day, pounding topwater lures and shallow presentations. The next day they can be in 18' hugging the bottom and taking jigs as lightly as a trout. I don't target them in the summer much deeper than 20' because I don't have the expertise to defizz them and release them safely.

I would make the decision based on the other techniques that you already feel comfortable with: what style of presentation are you missing currently? Search baits? Finesse? If you don't have a good search bait in your current arsenal of presentations, look at adding the crankbait. Be careful about heading down that path: the number of variables can be mind-numbing. Cranks are tough to beat for covering lots of water and targetting aggressive fish. If a finesse presentation is what's missing, look at the Ika.

Nice fish!!

If you are a grub fisherman, think about bumping up the weight of your jigheads and fishing them like cranks: lots of contact with rocks/wood. I have gone as high as 3/4 oz, even on fairly shallow water. The more it hits structure, the better.

Yep. Compare the cost/fish of a LC jerkbait to a senko and you will realise that the LC is a very economical bait. I have a LC Slender Pointer that has caught me well over 50 SM by now. How many senkos/tubes/flukes would I have gone through to catch those bass? Russ said it well. I will use the LC jerks, very little else from them. If you get the urge to splurge on a Sammy, by yourself 2 spooks instead.

You should check out the Riversmallies forum. Lots of folks over there that specialise in (drum roll) river fishing for smallmouth. I tried to post a link, but apparently I am on probation. Topwater can work for smallmouth in fairly cool water. After about 50 degrees, it gets to be a low-percentage presentation, but always fun to try! Some favorite river topwaters: spook, floating rap, buzzbait.

Go for it. I think the shakey head is as good a finesse technique as anything out there and often fish it instead of a dropshot. Most articles reccomend worms. They are good, but don't overlook other baits like tubes, craws and flukes....especially flukes.

Smelt are spring spawners. Lots of lakes in my area have smelt in them, as well as smallies. Generally, smelt stay very deep, as they have a low tolerance for warm water: lower even than lake trout. I believe their preferred temp range, at least in Ontario, is about 6-15 C.