I can't seem to find these things? Both Smith Mountain Lake & Philpot Resivor have really big ones in it . We get beat all the time at philpot with guys with a 5 fish limit. I run up on one every now and then with a brush hog or critter craw but that's about it. Please help

Try the ledges in deeper water. We killed 'em two weeks ago throwing

a 3" slender green tube in about 19' of water.

here in New England the males are making nests friend and I were trolling around. I used senkos and whacky since they strike at anything landing on their nests

Look for rocky bottom and big boulders or downed trees. lures to use would be: rattletraps, tube jigs, my personal fav is white Mister Twisters on an 1/8 oz. jighead, in stained water a Colorado blade spinner works great (especially Chartreuse/White)

I fished smith mountain so many times and have caught huge smallmouths but they are so random its hard to say exactly what to do different for them. ive caught them on swimbaits, jigs, crankbaits and spinnerbaits on that lake. if I was to target big smallmouths on smith mountain id find some deep rock or rocky contours and throw a dropshot around. but like I said I cant get a consistent smallmouth bite going there so when I make the trip to that lake I fish for largemouth