Went out in my new kayak while I was camping at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana with my family. Decided to go after some smallmouth for the first time. I kept it simple and only used 3 lures: A 4" Yum dinger, a rebel craw crank, and a heddon tiny torpedo. The fish were kind of picky but I expected that because sugar creek is really clear. The main pattern seemed to be the stick bait. I got most bites by throwing it into current breaks, such as rocks and trees. It was a blast and I can't wait to fish for them again.

 

Very cool. That looks like it was a lot of fun and I like your log anchoring system. 

Haha I would have gone crazy without it! I'm gonna have to make a makeshift anchor for it sometime soon. 

Smallies are very addictive,Welcome to the club.

very nice man!  looks like a really nice peaceful little spot there!

AWESOME video and great fish. You certainly gave nobody any reason to think you hadn't been catching smallies for years (apart from the title of the post of course). That's a fun bite isn't it? Don't mean to give advice you didn't ask for but... Couldn't quite make out what you were spooled with but it looks like braid. Lot of debate over line visibility but I personally throw braid with a flouro leader on almost everything. My home water is the Delaware where the bronze can be notoriously fickle, if you haven't already, might be worth giving a flouro leader a shot and see if it has any effect on numbers if the fish remain picky.

btw, are you familiar with Jeff Little's videos? He's got some terrific yak smallie videos too.

Anyhow really great post, thanks for sharing! 

Thanks for the input! Yeah I was using 8lb braid with a 10lb copolymer leader. It's just what I had laying around the house. Next time I'll probably switch to 8lb fluorocarbon for my leader. I'll definitely check out those videos! 

1 hour ago, mbtharp1 said:

Thanks for the input! Yeah I was using 8lb braid with a 10lb copolymer leader. It's just what I had laying around the house. Next time I'll probably switch to 8lb fluorocarbon for my leader. I'll definitely check out those videos! 

Forgot to include the link to his channel. Here ya go man, hope you enjoy his stuff!