Turkey sandwich

How stained is the river? Smallmouth rely very heavily on sight and can be really, really tough if the water starts to get into the chocolate milk realm. If the water is slightly stained/tannic/algae stained, natural colors with some fluorescent colors (chartreuse, fire tiger, etc) mixed in can be productive. In lightly to moderate stained water, I like willow blades and flash. Similarly, you might also be able to keep your finesse presentation by adding rattles to your tubes or jig/craw combos. Rattle traps and cranks can also be really effective. From moderately stained to muddy water, I prefer dark colors, thump, and sometimes a larger sized presentation. Rattle traps (if I can fish them slower without hanging up in the current) and black Colorado blade spinner baits are good choices. I also like adding either a grub or small swim bait trailer to the spinnerbait for a larger profile and more vibration. Probably the the best option is simply to move. Try to find a creek or channel with clearer water and fish the seam where the two water colors meet. Often, creeks running into the river will clear up faster than the main river itself. When this is the case, you can usually fish a creek mouth pattern and follow it all along the seam where it joins the main current. This can be a very productive pattern when the main river looks like chocolate milk.

8000 acres is plenty big for bass to school, especially smallmouth. I think a big part of schooling behavior, though, has more to do with the type of forage available than anything else. If there is a large shad, perch, etc population, you're going to have schooling fish.

Sounds like post spawn weight loss.

On tiny pieces of tippet, I'll use a clinch/improved or a loop for really finicky trout. Outside of fly tippet for spooky trout, I don't think I ever use anything that fine.

Wow. There are some interesting posts on here, but in favor of not reading in depth about the intricacies of all variables in a particular species of fish's eating habits to control them exclusively to color, I've decided that I'm simply going to dye all of my lures methiolate, the king of all colors.

I'm seeing Veritas gen 2 winch series on eBay for $80-$99. For what you're looking for it's such a good inexpensive rod.

I'm mostly a St. Croix, but for small through mid-depth crankbaits, I have a 7' Veritas 1 Med Winch series that's excellent. You can probably find one used for super cheap.

That's an incredible catch! I have family tha's vacationed there. I had no idea that Flathead was that strong a smallmouth fishery. It seems like an incredible place to fish for lake trout and rainbows.

Water clarity and light do impact this. The book is really worth a read.

@makelures Had no idea you had an account here. Thanks for the follow up. The information about seeing lures at distance, different water colors, and the use of fluorescents is really interesting.

I have. They're slowly mailing the pieces out. It's frustrating that while it seems that they're trying to make this better, it's taking forever.

Find current breaks on fast water and you'll find fish. When they're feeding over the summer, they're very easy to find. Look for riffles. And Austin Kayak has been pretty awful to deal with. They refunded me a bunch of money from the Lure 13.5 I bought, but it had a ton of missing parts, notably stuff like a drain plug. this is now a week and a half of awful service no replies to emails.

Nice! Any size? I've been pulling my hair out dealing with Austin Kayak screwing up an order for the past month and haven't been able to get out.m I'm pretty jealous. There are some basic summertime patterns for river smallmouth that tend to be pretty consistent. Generally speaking, they tend to move shallower and towards more fast moving water (though eddies and seams still play a huge role). Look for transitions in depth above and below riffles. That fast current through shallower sections of river can be full of feeding fish taking advantage of the current dislodging helgramites, crayfish, sculpins, madtoms, etc from the bottom. If these areas border deep water access, even better.

For keeping track of running depth, just write it on the bill with a fine point sharpie. As as for my tastes, I still like a lot of the classics. I still throw the entire Fat Free line and the old Fat Raps. Both of those are actually still some of my best producers. I still throw a bunch of Bandits and Normans, too. I also have quite a few DT series that I like. I think most crankbaits can be pretty productive if you learn their actions and fish them properly. The biggest mistake I think most anglers make is that they're afraid of banging them into things, or snagging and either ripping free or allow the bait to float free.

Most rivers become wadable come summertime, so a pair of old shoes and shorts/bathing suit/light pants do the trick for wet wading. Learning to read a river will pay off for you very quickly. There are also a ton of threads on here about seasonal movement and where/how to find fish.

I think color matters, but every single fisherman that's ever bought a pack of plastic worms has made it more complicated than solving a d**n Rubix cube.

Curl tail grub, jig, and woolly bugger, sized appropriately, will catch almost anything.

Heat, water, and light can all take their toll on line. I can tell you a dozen stories of my dad losing fish on dry rotted line. For how cheap mono is, it's worth the $10 just to get a new spool.

Sometimes they just have red eyes.

Well, there you have it. That's probably the most comprehensive tube "how to" I've ever read. Thank you @mod479! As for "when"... Tubes are nearly a year round bait and can be fished effectively in 85% of conditions. They belong in mention with a skirted jig or t-rigged worm as far as versatility and effectiveness, especially for smallmouth. To simplify, if you match the basic size and colors of forage, you can catch both size and numbers.

It almost makes up the pain associated with being a Bills fan.

I have a hard time keeping to 4, but here's what I carry on the river depending upon the techniques I'm fishing. 7' Med Fast spinning (tubes, jerkbaits, senko, and kind of an all around Rod) 6'9" ML XF spinning (tubes, grubs, drop shot, light poppers) 7'1" MH F casting (jigs 1/4oz and over, spinnerbaits, large walking baits) 6'9" M F casting (tubes, T-rigged plastics, light jigs, jerkbaits, flukes, etc) 7 Med crankbait/moderate (Crankbaits, lipless cranks, most treble hooked lures) 6wt Sage VXP ( streamers/wooly buggers, poppers, mouse patterns) i tend end to spool them all with braid and then run a variety of leaders based on technique. The North Branch of the Susquehanna is a pretty big river and offers a lot of conditions, so I fish all of those set ups pretty regularly... Except the fly rod, that's the new toy for this summer.

If you don't have a boat, that can limit presentations, but a drop shot can be excellent. Also a jig with a stiff weed guard or pegged T-rig can work as well. If you have aerial pics of the river, that might help with suggestions, too.

Great day! I need to suck it up and make a trip to Erie. Erie smallmouth are so fat!

Baby steps, my friend... But congrats on getting her a solid first fish!