I go with tube. I have other baits that will slay smallies in different conditions but a tube will work anytime of the year in any condition.

Three baits cover it all. No plastics needed.

1-suspending jerkbaits

2-luhr jensen hot n tots

3-hairjigs

Three baits cover it all. No plastics needed.

1-suspending jerkbaits

2-luhr jensen hot n tots

3-hairjigs

 

I'm assuming you troll the Hot 'n Tots?

 

 

oe

Skirted jig and trailer near rocks.

belive it or not the daredevil spoon has been a vary good lure for smallmouth it was used to catch the sm in my profile pic 

Tubes, tubes, tubes.

That's it !!!

Lucky lady 3" red and black twitch worms run wacky on 1\32 slant head or weightless. Small presentation that kills even when the fish have lockjaw

I use 3" power grubs on a 1/8, 3/8 jig.  when its colder i do not use a spinner and when its warmer i use a spinner.  The smallies in the little miami and surrounding rivers love these.  i have also found this year that my coffee vasaline attractant really seems to help when coated on the lure.

If I could only take one lure, it would have to be a green pumpkin tube.

weightless 5" Zoom fluke. 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. Killer

Snack DaddyLures elite tube!

Rage Tail Baby Craw

Baby Craw has probably been eaten by more smallies than any other bait in my bag. The Grub is a close second.

Baby Craw has probably been eaten by more smallies than any other bait in my bag. The Grub is a close second.

 

Fat Ika is another suggestion.

It kind depends on the lake. If you said Erie or Ontario, I'd say a small plastic on a drop shot, most times of the year, since they are out deep. If it's a Finger Lake, I might pick a spinnerbait or a fast topwater. Lakes up in the ADK, I'd probably say a grub.

Some baits are better in certain circumstances. Getting bit is more about using a bait that gets to the fish, and through any cover

Dropshot. None better.

For me, I always reach for a 3-4" crayfish imitator like a chigger craw, or hair jig. But, last year I started favouring a shaky head with 5" worm, which is what fooled this beauty.

For the biggest smallies, I like to fish rocky dropoffs at night with a 3/8 oz. sinle spin - black blade, black skirt, black trailer.

The fish in the pic is one of my better Missouri stream Smallies which I caught on a GYB creature bait. In fact most of my bigger smallies have came from the GYB. Don't get as many numbers but I'm usually the one out of the group who's got the biggest fish by the end.

Now my personal best smallmouth it was on a Rebel crawdad crank bait when I was fishing a 20+ mile 2 day trip in a southern MO stream.

It was late into the afternoon of day 2 and my buddy and I beach the canoe on the downside point of a small gravel island. Beautiful spot where the left and right channels of the stream merge back together and a good rapid forms. I catch several little smallies from the right and left side while wading in the middle. I toss my Rebel crawdad crank one last time to the right side channel and it gets slammed, rod buckles over and drag starts screaming on my Shimano Sahara as the fish bolts downstream. My buddy runs over and right as I'm saying how I think it's a catfish, the Smallie makes a huge jump at least 50 yrds downstream and my heart stops! My buddy grabs the net and I manage to fight her all the way back up stream, only to watch her dart through my buddies legs, and instincively right into the swift right side channel and back downstream again. Somehow I get her back upstream, and she breaks for the left side channel and back downstream once again?!?! For the third time I fight her all the way up the rapid, buddy nets her while toppling backwards in 3 ft of water, and all I see is his hand sticking up out of the water holding the net up with my fish in it! She was awesome! Lotta girth and had to be hovering around 4.5 lbs. We high five, take some nice pics with my phone, release her and finish the float. Fast forward to that evening, I'm nodding out in the passengers seat when buddy pulls over to the side of road to adjust the canoe on the roof and I hop out to help. Get back in car and a few miles down the highway he asks if I got my phone? I tell him it's in the middle console and he says that he had grabbed it thinking it was his and tossed it in my lap while i was sleeping... Well there's still a Blackberry cell phone on the side of hywy 44 in the weeds with pics of my trophy Smallie on it. I had marked the length on my pole and it turned out to be just over 22''. And I gots nothing but a story and an eyewitness!?!? By far the greatest bass fish fight I've ever had.

Moral of the story? Just because you catch several little smallies out of a spot it doesn't mean there's not a hawg under there that's not as fast as the little ones. And don't drop your phone that has the only pics of your personal best in the weeds!!!

For sheer numbers of smallmouth, it would be an orange F13 Rapala, which casts far, can be seen in the chop, and is most likely to trigger a strike in the first three twitches, although I have seen them hit the water and go straight down. Other than Senkos fished wacky style, which I use to follow-up a missed surface strike, I don't fish soft plastics much. On certain days, plain Mepps number 3 spinners in brass will catch fish after fish after fish.

If there is one lure that will always produce for me, its a 4 inch watermelon grub rigged on a 1/8 oz ball jig head. I simply cast it to the river bank (I fish the Columbia a lot) and simply hop it off the bottom and swim it a little.

Tube

What do you guys like using specifically around rocks? thanks

It seems I'm missing out because I don't fish tubes that much but I've always been able to get them on a hula popper or a jitterbug in the morning and dusk an a curly tail grub when they are real finicky

I don't think I have ever fished a senko around smallies and not caught them.