Sphynx

Hard bottom, current breaks, and drop offs, particularly on a point if you can get one, for lures, I'd probably take lipless cranks, paddletails, tubes and jigs, poppers and walking baits this time of year.

Couldn't agree more, each has strengths, each has weaknesses, the part that gets folks in trouble is trying to throw 5 casts with a squarebill from the bank with one area available to fish and saying "Nope, no fish" or conversely spending 8 hours fishing a spot with every lure in your tackle box instead of trolling down the bank with the aforementioned crank or whatever. I hold my own, but I certainly am not half the angler that plenty of folks on this board are, there are many of them that have been fishing better than I have for longer than I've been breathing, take the advice of the usual suspects around here seriously, they WILL make you a better angler, that's the biggest shortcut I have found to date.

Good advice so far, how experienced are you with smallmouth in general? Are you just looking for lure recommendations, or are you looking for the full breakdown of catching smallmouth on a river? Either way the stickied threads in this subforum are a freaking gold mine, if you have the time it's well worth reading them.

I don't know that I can say I "like" it, but I definitely recognize the value of it, and how much time being organized saves me, and how much less likely I am to forget the gear I need to be successful on the water. The other benefit of being extremely organized does for me is it allows me to track trends in both what I am using most, which baits I am replacing most, and which baits never really get fished...there's also the part where regular inspection and maintenance on rods/reels/line etc will prolong the lifespan of the stuff I paid good hard cash for, and that's probably the most sensible reason as far as my family is concerned.

Fishing from a boat is massively different from shore fishing for 2 big reasons, number one your looking at everything backwards. Number 2 is you haven't got a trolling motor to get you quickly into areas with willing fish. Your going to have to really slow down, and try to get the absolute most out of every area you DO have access to. When I find a spot that looks promising I go through a little checklist mentally based on environmental conditions, I need to fish all 3 levels of the water column unless I get lucky and get right on a pattern. I need to move at a "fast" and a "slow" speed, and I need to fish all obvious cover, the specific offerings might change based on wind, temperature, cloud cover, water clarity etc, but I have something to cover all of those bases in most conditions. If your specifically targeting smallies from the bank, I would never leave home without poppers/walking baits, tubes/jigs, and paddletails/lipless. I have also had pretty good luck with lots of "rigs" and soft plastics. All that said, if the fish aren't holding in areas that you can get to to fish, it isn't something that you should take personally, that's just the way it goes sometimes when your a bank angler.

These were new to me as of last year and man I sure was missing out, I got my PB smallmouth at a little over 3lb on a RI Sweet Beaver in whatever that green pumpkin top chartreuse bottom color is on the back of a football jig, after that I started fishing them more and they have been solid producers in nearly every way I've used them.

I dunno man, I fish a lot of T-Rigged Dingers and it's full on combat fishing a lot of days, kinda like jig fishing except for I catch more fish, even if the size is smaller in aggregate.

Depends on how bad it bothers those around me.

I don't think it is quite that simple...bass being where you are is a precondition, no fish it doesn't matter what lure you throw...once you locate fish, you gotta figure out if they'll eat, lots of studies posted here I'm too lazy to look up that give the percentage of bass that will bite lures under various conditions, so "locating fish" is an over simplification. I'm also not convinced that "catching fish " is functionally any different to "locating fish" given that the only way we know for sure which kind of fish we see on our graphs etc is to put a lure in front of them and see if they will eat it.

You guys spell VileBug funny... In all seriousness, I don't think it makes a ton of difference, just buy the one that's on sale lol.

This forum (and possibly others like it, this is the only bass fishing forum I belong to so I couldn't say) is the closest thing I can think of to having a direct tie to other anglers equally (or more) passionate about the sport as you are. It's sort of like having an out of state cousin or uncle or something to bounce ideas off, then you go try some of those ideas using the experience you have as a guide of when something isn't likely to work. Prime example, fishing smallmouth on the Columbia is about the worst environment ever for a frog in my experience, but I go to AL or FL to fish with friends and I absolutely destroy them on a frog. Your question about shakeyhead fishing is a prime example, when I was stationed in TX we used to fish T-rigs and shakeyheads with big old 7-10in worms, often in colors like junebug or black/insert color but where I'm at now it's way too clear to use colors that bold or worms that large. Fishing a 4.5-6in worm in green pumpkin or watermelon with a bit of chartreuse on it? Buckle up because they will rip the rod out of your hands. You will learn these kinds of things quickly if you put in time on the water.

Ned rigs are too light to effectively fish in the Columbia River, and they get snagged in rocks a ton which is very obnoxious...as a final point, I will outfish a Ned with a tube for both size and numbers. I've used Dry Creek Outfitters Double Dipped Tube's the last few years, and the 60 degree Tube jigs, but this year I have been playing with the BioSpawn VileTube and I am really enjoying it.

Our kids are grown, and the more attractive half has recently been displaying more interest (and even some initiative!) To go fishing with me...long way from selling the empire we've created to chase bass exclusively, but a man can dream right?!

Glad to hear that you whacked them good!

I can't agree with the first part, I like catching and eating trout...but the second bit? You smoked that one, going going gone, goodbye baseball!

This is a fact, d**n bronzebacks give as good as they get in my experience.

I like a bit smaller spinnerbaits for SM, and I almost always go with dual willows, and a pretty speedy erratic retrieve, they travel a long way to smash them and you'll know when they do, they sure aren't shy about it.

Ledges and bluff walls can be money too, they'll sit in the deeper, cooler water and ambush things along the lip. Dragging jigs and plastics off the ledge is usually pretty productive, cranks and jerkbaits fished parallel to the ledge can be a bunch of fun too

Heavy rains are great times to hunt the water/land line, lots of fresh food pushed in, new cover submerged, great times if fishing dirt shallow is your game

I have a good friend in Florida who fishes in the gulf with his Kayak, admittedly he's not getting anywhere near "offshore" territory, but I don't know many bodies of water much bigger than that and he wears out everything from mangrove snappers to trophy sized tarpon and redfish daily. It's entirely possible he's just plain nuts, but the size of the water body doesn't seem to be an impediment to him at all.

This is the year I finally am going to get off the bank, and the reasons you named sum up my reason for looking into (and probably settling on) a kayak pretty well, I will be towing with a 77 K5 Blazer, and storage space includes the roof of the aforementioned K5, it isn't as fast, roomy or as cool as a boat, but it gets me off the bank and able to fish previously unavailable water.

This is a really good point, in this sport you can do everything right and be the best bass angler in a tournament on paper and still come up with nothing to show for it, because the fish simply weren't playing by the rulebook that day. That's no indictment of an angler either, fishing not catching!

I've had a few guys take me out on boats to favorite spots, and they outproduce me every time. An enormous part of why is because they already know where the specific pieces of cover and patterns those fish are on, and given enough time at the spot sure I could work it out, but typically we are moving on about the time I put the puzzle together, that's just the way it goes in the back of the boat though.

I'm completely convinced that putting the wrong lure, tied with the wrong knot using wrong line spooled on a wrong reel mounted to the wrong rod in the right place will catch infinitely more fish than the right lure, etc thrown in the wrong spot. I enjoy having a billion lures not because they are the only thing that will work in a given spot, but because I enjoy the variety the provide.

I fish flukes primarily on spinning tackle, 7'1"MF St. Croix Mojo Bass, 15lb braid to an 8lb mono leader, 4/0 Owner offset round bend worm hook, I have had several very, very productive days with this setup, it's also much simpler to skip with this than a baitcaster.