I just caught my first 2 smallie yesterday. Thank God! I was impressed about the fight everyone says they put up. I'm looking to catch more this weekend. Any tips? I caught mine on a kvd 1.5 fishing shallow clear water. I live in northern Illinois.

this was my second one

my first one

I've been tearing them up lately with a Shad Rap crank......

Yesterday it was an umbrella rig on Oneida. 

weightless fluke

one lonely kicking 4 inch swimbait, the rig is just not cool....

Traps, spinnerbaits, and walking baits. 

soft plastic crays, tube jigs, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, lipless cranks,

Small 1/4 or less jigs.  Tubes are killer.  Jighead and twin tail grub. 

 

the rig is just not cool....

 

Only two limits weighed in Sunday.....guess what those two guys were throwing?  You don't have an umbrella rig on Oneida in the fall, you lose.

My favorite way is definitely tubes. I like throwing topwaters too though

Tubes,drop shot & hair jigs once temps drop into the 50's

Bangin a deep diving crank in the gravel!

Only two limits weighed in Sunday.....guess what those two guys were throwing?  You don't have an umbrella rig on Oneida in the fall, you lose.

It isn't like "dragging a net" like I hear all the time either. You still have to find the fish and present it correctly or you'll just be wearing yourself out tossing a big, heavy rig all day for nothing. It isn't the best option a lot of the time either, but when it's on nothing else comes close. Great thing about fishing, if you don't like it, don't fish it! If it's working I'll be fishing it though! 

thanks guys im looking to go back this saturday and try the same spot again. its a old gravel pit turned into park/lake. the water is super clear and the the only good shallow part is the only part with vegetation too. everywhere else in the lake is steep drops from 5ft then down too 20ft+ its fall here already so im aiming the shallows. caught those 2 smallies a largemouth and a pike on a kvd1.5 sexy shad. im thinking of trying a jerkbait and other squarebills. i love to flip so hopefully theyll be agressive. 

the largemouth and pike from the same day

the black jitterbug is dynamite for smalls

Just got back from a week on Northern Champlain.  We found the most effective smallie lures were tubes and curly tale grubs in natural colors, in the gin clear water areas the watermellon/orange/copper/red senko's worked well and the most productive were 3.8'' Keitech Tenn. Shad swimbaits on the 1/8oz, 2/0 or 3/0 tungsten jig heads.

I just caught my first 2 smallie yesterday. Thank God! I was impressed about the fight everyone says they put up. I'm looking to catch more this weekend. Any tips? I caught mine on a kvd 1.5 fishing shallow clear water. I live in northern Illinois.

Congrats! Try tubes. I caught two yesterday on these, the day before they were hot for wacky-rigged senkos, last week it was cranks. Looks like you've got things under control

I see a lot of posts naming lures that will catch smallies in the fall but the bigger part of the puzzle is where do you look for smallmouth when the water cools? How deep do you fish? In natural lakes, do you find fish on points, submerged islands, deep flats, shallow flats, wood, weeds? 

 

I have fished a Northwoods lake where we get loads of smallies in the spring, but when I go back in the fall, they are nowhere to be found. I've called every guide in the area but none of them can tell me they have a good reliable pattern for fall smallies. Anybody have a fall pattern for location (not lures) that works for them?

I've also wondered that Scott. I can usually find them in a river during fall, but in a lake, I'm lost. When I have found fish in lakes, they've been on shallow flats and they've taken buzzbaits and shallow cranks most of the time.

I like catching them right on the end of my left thumb

 

This Fatty ate a jig & craw a couple of days ago.

 

A-Jay

 

1. 3 1/2 tubes

2. 3" Yum Dingers

3. Homemade football jig

Winter time favorite time.....then early spring

i went back to the lake this past sunday. no wind or clouds got skunked. i seen a couple had 2 bites on a 3/8s oz football jig but they didnt take it. its tough fishing that lake. found a shallow rocky area that will be the **** during the spawn. but thanks guys il keep trying for smallies and use yalls tips.