Up here in the Midwest we've had smaller rivers open for a couple of weeks, but water temps are still hovering just below 40 degrees.. Any suggestions on slow presentations for these lethargic small mouth? 

Hair jig with no trailer

Try a paddle tail grub or a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper and fish it slow. In deeper water a blade bait like a Cincy Fisher or Silver Buddy.  Lastly fish a suspending jerkbait on say 6 or 8 pound test on a spinning rod. Crank it down and let it sit, then twitch it and pause again, give it pretty long pause and a quick twitch.

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Hair jig with no trailer

 

X2

Fluke on a weighted keel hook fished really slow.

On ‎2‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 2:24 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Hair jig with no trailer

X3

Spade tail grub.

Blade baits - Silver Buddies.

White double tail mister twister

Float & fly sitting still in an eddy.

X-rap and let it sit 

The deadly Nedly.

Underspin with a fluke or paddle tail swim bait. 

Basically, anything that can be fished with little/slow action in cold water.  You want to stick a bait where you can headstock is a lot of the time.  The problem is that current makes doing this tricky.  I like to fish for two groups of fish in those conditions. The first and most reliable are those sitting behind points/islands on the edge of wintering holes where I can fish the still edge of the eddy and keep a jerk bait, hair jig, etc in place without the current sweeping it 30 yards down stream between twitches.  These aren't always the most aggressive fish, but they're almost always there, and there are usually lots of them. If you have the patience to deadstick for most of the day, this can be really rewarding. 

 

The second group are the ones searching for warm, shallow rocks to warm up on and feed.  Look for flat rocks and higher water temps, especially on a sunny afternoon.  These are the areas where water above 40 degrees will see crayfish coming into play and much, much more aggressive (though still winter/early prespawn) fish.  In these stretches, basically everything comes into play and because of fish seeking the warmth/spring spawning cycle, it's not strange to catch bass, musky, or walleye along the same stretch.  This can be very, very fun fishing. I like any craw imitation, jerkbaits, shallow-mid depth crankbaits, and flukes.