Will Wetline

A Duo Realis Spin Bait 80 and an unweighted Super Fluke Jr. produced both the greatest number and the biggest of the clear water smallmouth I fished for last year.

GYCB Double Tail Grubs have produced well for me.

Follow the advice of Crestliner2008. I'll mention the 3" Lunker City Slug-Go again. This little bait has been around for a long time but it's still as effective as ever. It's even better if you slather it up with MegaStrike. http://www.lunkercity.com/sg.html Another bait that works for me is Missile Baits Drop Craw.

A nose hooked Super Fluke Jr. was eaten by a 6 lb. 14 oz. largemouth:

I've been fishing GYCB Hula Grubs T-rigged for years. You will find many other ways to rig one here: http://www.insideline.net/weeklynews/2009/09-0216.html

On sunny, breezy afternoons in the early spring I like to throw jerkbaits for smallies. This big mama weighed 5.8 lbs. and ate a Pointer 100.

Let's see . . . Top water's a blast, Duo's Spin Bait 80 has been extremely productive, but I'll say walking a nose-hooked, weightless Super Fluke Jr. a foot under the surface is my favorite because I can see the smallies zoom in to smash it!

I believe that's a Duo Realis Pencil 110. You can walk it, pop it, make a ruckus with it to stir up smallies.

Tell him not to give up on a Spook (or whatever he's trying to walk). I remember my frustration learning how to walk this type of bait and finally realized the importance of slack in the line between twitches. Keep the rod tip low as reel ess says and coordinate your reeling and twitching with a certain amount of slack in the line. Same deal if you're working a Fluke. Practice, practice, practice. It's worth learning.

The OP said that he had heard that "using pork trailers in the wintertime makes a difference." That's why I commented on their use in the cold water period.

Doesn't worry me a lot since I caught a 4 1/2 lb. largemouth in 42º water early spring, 2012. I was working a jig dressed with a GYCB twin tail trailer very slowly. Last year I took a decent smallie on a bucktail jig dressed with a Z-Man Elaztech Split Tail Trailer from 47º water. The most important things to keep in mind fishing cold water are to work your bait slowly and to fish plastic that doesn't have frantic built-in action. You also might also consider a hair jig without a trailer of any sort.

For years the Original Gitzit in smoke with red and black flake has been my favorite tube for the very clear water I fish for smallies.

Haven't thrown them much since investing in LC Pointers, but I assure you that smallies will still eat a Bomber Suspending Pro Long A. They cost $4.99 in the '90s and, checking with a major online retailer, cost $5.59 in 2016.

Here's a very good video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uuuNVQNDfs

This topic got me searching for photos that go back more than 20 years! Let's start with the American shad, an anadromous fish and the largest member of the herring family. I cast for them below the Holyoke dam on the Connecticut River in Western Massachusetts. They're a hard-fighting fish in current. On to Quabbin Reservoir in central MA circa 1993 for a look at a big, bold bluegill that came off a bed to smack a Pop R: Peck, peck, peck . . . Peck, peck, peck . . . I was fishing a 4" spider grub at a depth of about 15' and expecting some smallmouth interest. I swung twice at the pecking pest and missed. Thought it was a bluegill. Third time I got it and never expected to see a landlocked salmon circling the boat just under the surface! Lake trout like to munch on hula grubs when they're shallow in the early spring but salmon are generally caught trolling. Ah, here we are on big, beautiful, bountiful and diverse Lake Champlain. The walleye, smallie and pike were all caught within a half hour from the same spot. And hey - if anybody has any 5/8 oz. Arbogast Mudbugs they don't want, you can send them to me. Thanks. We're in central New York now, on the Salmon River. I've been making yearly trips here in the fall and early winter since 1996. Have a look at a plump rainbow trout, a close relative of the steelhead trout but comparatively docile at the end of your line. They're strong and stubborn coming in but no where near as crazy as steelhead. If you burst into a tackle shop in Oswego, New York and yelled, "Hey, I just landed a 12 lb. brown from your river!" you would get blank stares. Maybe someone would ask if it was your first trip here. Boys, brown trout braggin' rights start in the in the high teens here. Oomph! We're back on the Salmon River now. In 2011 there were still quite a few salmon in the river at the time of my annual visit. I was fishing a size 10 fly at the end of a 7 lb. fluoro leader. I had 8 lb. copolymer filling the spool of my Stradic 4000 which was mounted on a 10 1/2' noodle, a slow action stick designed to wear down big fish and, in this instance, the fisherman. It took me at least a 1/2 hour to bring this king salmon to the net. The big, young guy helping me estimated it at 24 lbs. The scale at the smokehouse read 11.2 lbs. for this steelhead. It had been a long, slow day on the river and just as dusk was settling in, this fish took a size 10 Glo Bug. It then ran me 200 yards (300?) downstream and it was heading for a pool I couldn't negotiate - I was already waist deep and having a hard time seeing my next step as dusk deepened. My netman said, "You gotta stop it." So I put more pressure on the noodle rod, bending it into the shape of a "C." The line held and here's the picture: January 5, 1999. I was in my totally obsessed phase of steelheading. Why else would I be standing in a 33º river in Red Ball waders which old timers remember as being made of canvas. If you're fishing the Great Lakes region this time of year you shouldn't be surprised by a few flurries (more commonly known as a "lake effect snow" or, even more serious, a "whiteout"). It's weather your mother wouldn't want you out in. But hey, I was afflicted, had to be there. Hah, it was worth the pain! Now, understand that I love Quabbin smallies, but if you twisted my arm and said, "Pick a fish!" I'd have to say the fastest, most unpredictable species I've fought - steelhead trout. [screenshot from YouTube video by Aaron Holmes]

The 6.0 lb. smallmouth in my signature pic ate a wacky rigged 4" Slim Senko, color #297.

Here are a few bucktail jigs with Wapsi's Krystal Flash. I use the flash material sparsely, 4 strands per side.

When you're wacky rigging any brand of soft stick bait, it definitely helps to use an O ring. Even better, invest in a Wacky Saddle kit.

I prefer the R bend for the same reason as smalljaw67, because the line sometimes get caught in the coil of the closed eye style. I've been buying Barlow's painted spinnerbait heads for years now and assemble them. The wire diameters run heavier on these than other brands - .035 on 1/4 & 3/8 oz. and .040 on 1/2 oz. I've caught enough big, feisty smallies on these to know that they are quite capable of bending these heavier wires so I do not plan to lighten up any time soon!

I mold, paint and dress jigs, organize tackle and rearrange the tackle room.

Great day. You do know how to catch 'em!

Very interesting. Thanks for putting this together and posting. I too have a hydrodynamics testing tank in my home and use it for observing the action of the hair jigs I tie as well as bathing.

I've had consistent action with the original Spin Bait 80 for the past two seasons in very clear water for smallmouth. Here's the setup: 7' ML Rod 2500 size spinning reel 6 lb. fluorocarbon You must have patience to fish this bait properly; reel slowly with the rod tip low to the water. Do not add any extra action. There is already quite a bit of info on BR about this bait. Search "Duo Realis Spin Bait 80" and "spybaiting." And there's more to be found on a Google Search. So . . . if you can stand a boringly slow retrieve and fish clear water, spend $14.00 and you may be amazed at your results with this unconventional lure/presentation.

I particularly like the marabou with hackle and the buck tail with rabbit.

That is a grand finale with which to end your season, A-Jay. I'll be looking forward to more video fatties next year.