Every July, my extended family takes a trip to Maine and rents a house for a week. We fish a very deep (120+ ft) and very clear (15-20 ft visibility) lake. In the past, I have found that the smallies are located on dropoffs in about 25-30 ft of water. Wacky rigged senkos have caught good fish for me, but it is a very innefficent way to fish because it takes so long to sink to the desired depth. Does anyone have any experience in this kind of situation, and if so, what do you usually throw? Thanks.

Try a drop shot rig.

 

A SK Rage Craw Tex-posed on a 3/0 thin wire EWG hook works well for me in the conditions / situation you've mentioned.

 

A-Jay

Try a drop shot rig.

A SK Rage Craw Tex-posed on a 3/0 thin wire EWG hook works well for me in the conditions / situation you've mentioned.

A-Jay

Second for the drop shot. You could use a wacky rig stick worm on your dropshot if you wanted too.

Drop shot with a tube would work very well and get it down there quick.

Carolina Rig a (Speedcraw/Rage Craw/Fluke/French Fry/Keitech). 

1/2 oz or 3/4 oz jigging spoon or blade bait worked vertically should work well.

1/2 or 3/4oz football jighead with a 4-5" paddle tail trailer...a skinny dipper is what I like to use. Keitechs too, they have a different action and more pronounced kick of the tail, but don't last as long. Let it go to bottom and slowly crank it back, keep it close to the bottom and ticking the rocks and kicking up some sand.

 

X3 for the dropshot... can use whatever color/size senkos you like on that and it will get down there fast with the right weight.      

 

1/4 or 3/8oz tube will get down there quick enough. drag em, hop em, swim them. try a rattling internal jighead too...smallmouths are curious of sounds and will come to investigate.   

Just because the lake is deep does not mean you should overlook the shallows/bank! 

First of all, make sure you are targeting good structures (points, humps, or channels) that you can see bait fish around (on your sonar). Then it would be hard to beat a drop shot, especially with a longer dropper (2' - 4') to keep the plastic more visible. Also, if you can fish two rods per person, you might want to rig one rod up with a Senko, suspended under a bobber (see "Sticky" above).

Carolina rig with a baby brush hog.

Just because the lake is deep does not mean you should overlook the shallows/bank! 

 

THIS! You might find fish deep, but I fish a lake that has areas over 200 feet deep and I sometimes find smallies in as little as 1-3 feet of water in the middle of the day during bluebird hot sunny days. Know the forage and fish where they are. In my case, it's small sunfish and crawfish.

 

If you determine that the fish aren't shallow, I share the same suggestions as above, using a dropshot rig, a jigging spoon/bladebait/rippin' bait or the plain ol' jig and trailer.

I fish the St. Lawrence River with the exact conditions. I have always hammered them with a dropshot or a tube. Try a hair jig(preacher jig) also.

I'd be throwing tubes and swimbaits.