Tubes should be answer number 1 for everyone 

On January 31, 2016 at 9:20 PM, Up north fishing said:

Lakes middle to late spring and rivers spring and summer. Thanks

For the lakes i would fish slow using finesee baits or a jerkbait and in rivers try a bucktail jig they catch everything.

So far this year its been

Ned Rig

Ned Rig

Ned Rig 

Ned Rig

Ned Rig

In green pumpkin..

Here on St. Clair, my go-to Smallie baits are:

1-Crankbaits

2-Senko or Yum Dingers

3-Lipless crankbait

4-Spinnerbait

5-Beavers

Falcon

A tube, senko, "soft plastic hellgrammite," and a fluke are all I need to catch smallies year around in the waters I fish. I fish these baits in no particular order and stick with earth tone colors.

Jerk bait

Stick.bait

Tube

Grub

Spinner

I fish them in rivers primarily, and this changes seasonally/based on conditions, but the core stays the same. Tubes and grubs work year round.  Cranks/lipless cranks are great ways to cover water fast from spring through fall.  A good popper is excellent from spring to fall as well, and if I had to pick one more, it would be a light Jig/craw.  

I've only ever caught river smallmouth on the st Lawrence, so that's not really like a lot of other small mouth rivers being referenced here..

most of my smallie fishing is on lakes, my top 5 would in no particular order be:

dropshot 

tubes

jerkbaits

spinnerbaits

topwater 

obviously there are other great ways to catch em, but that's what I would use.. Also, with the exception of topwater baits I always fish fluorocarbon when targeting smallmouth.

I fish smallmouth on rivers and lakes. All baits I list are equally good in both. Top 5 baits in no particular order:

senkos (or strike king shim e sticks to save $)

zman TRD Ned Rig or Zingerz

Drop shotting Roboworms 

Drop shotting Strike King Perfect plastic dream shot (love the coffee salt scent of these baits. Can't say enough about how it takes the fish stink off my hands) fragile baits though I lose the tails off of them a lot.

drop shotting Jakall cross tail shad.

1. Perch jerkbait

2. Canadian mist tube 

3. Dropshot anything

4. Spybait

5. Bone spook

18 hours ago, DubyaDee said:

1. Perch jerkbait

2. Canadian mist tube 

3. Dropshot anything

4. Spybait

5. Bone spook

Canadian Mist tube? Forgive my ignorance but I never heard of that but it sounds like soaking a tube in Canadian whiskey!

It's like a gray color with purple flake. I think it looks more like a goby than a craw.

Rapala F13, Rapala Skitterpop, undressed brass Mepps, Senko, and pearl fluke.  

I don't catch that many smallest but on over cast rainy days.

Joesfly 1/4oz bass size, firetiger apache.

Joesfly 1/4oz bass size, glo tiger.

Spinnerbait, Indiana gold blades, Hot chartruese skirt, chartruese split double tail grub.

Mepps #3 Anglia gold blade, Brown dressed.

Mepps #3 Anglia silver blade, grey dressed.

On the river I fish I could get by with just a black buzzbait and a green pumpkin grub. However since its 5:

4 inch grub

Popper

buzzbait

ned rig

jerkbait

On 2/1/2016 at 6:08 PM, ww2farmer said:

On my lake, I target smallmouth early..........like the first couple weeks after ice out, then switch to largemouth for a while until the smallmouth hit the beds. I will bed fish for them a few times to get it out of my system, but I go back to largemouth once I get bored with it. Then just after the smallmouth pull off the beds, but before they go into there summer time stuff, I target them again.................Then it's largemouth all summer, with occasional smallies mixed in. In the fall I will fish for both, often in the same day, but in different places. In 2015 my top 5 smallmouth baits were:

#1 Yum Warning shot nose hooked on a dropshot 

#2 3" Havoc Pit boss on a 3/4 oz. biffle type wobble head

#3 4" wacky rigged yum dinger on a 1/16th oz. wacky jig head

#4  Chatterbait

#5 Silver buddy..........this was the first year I bothered to learn/use this style of bait, and it was eye opening.

What time do they usually migrate to rivers and creeks?

Early spring: Rapala DT in red devil craw colour. 

A jerkbait in  spring in clear water.

summer: black spinner bait or chartreuse chatter bait in dirty water

ANY TIME: Tubes and senkos.

morning and night: poppers 

 

4 inch tube

Hula grub

Robo worm drop shotted

Dual willow blade spinnerbait           CONFIDENCE BAITS

Normans Deep Little N

Super Spook

Jerkbait

Nightcrawlers

Nightcrawlers

Nightcrawlers

If you want to be fancy use plastic worms.  They do ok.

On 12/2/2016 at 8:13 PM, 12 others said:

Nightcrawlers

Nightcrawlers

Nightcrawlers

If you want to be fancy use plastic worms.  They do ok.

I think there are about 50,000 members here that could share the nickname "Fancy Pants", then.

Berkley flicker shad

strike king finesse jig with a yum craw chunk

senko texas rigged weightless

3 inch flutter spoon

drop shot with small finesse worms 

All have produced multiple nice fish for me in northern waters

5 hours ago, lecisnith said:

I think there are about 50,000 members here that could share the nickname "Fancy Pants", then.

It's a joke lol

In no particular order, GYB Senko/BPS Stick-o, Strike King 3.5" coffee tubes, drop shot(3"senko or kvd dream shot), 3/8 oz jig with a craw trailer, ned rig and mepps spinner. These baits caught several hundred smallmouth for me in 2016.

1. Spinnerbait/Jerkbait

2. Senko

3. Dropsot

4. Popper/Spook on overcast sprig/summer days

5. Squarebill Crankbaits

It's been a while, but here's what worked on the Smith's Branch of the Cumberland River is this:

 

Early Spring

Mann's stingray grub

Yum 3" & 4" tube

Smithwick suspending Rouge

finesse jig/spot remover

 

Spring-Summer

slider jigs w/ Slider worms, Slider grubs and Yum hawgtails.

Yum Tubes

Kalin Grubs

Heddon Torpedoes, Baby Lucky 13s,

Rapala and Rebel Floating Minnows, Rebel Jumping Minnow