Recently BR forum member @12poundbass & I started a Q & A deal in the PM’s regarding how, when & where to catch some Michigan Smallmouth Bass on inland lakes. It went on for a while and turned into quite a bit more than we both imagined. We talked it over and decided to share it here with the hopes it might help others to catch a few. Had to break it up into “Chapters”. 12poundbass ~ Good day A-Jay hope all is well with you and the Mrs. In case you hadn't heard Santa is coming next Tuesday! The only thing I've asked for is TW gift cards, which brings me to you. I have a healthy inventory of green bass tackle. I know a lot of the tackle work for both, but and suggestions and ideas are greatly appreciated. The only brown bass I've caught were on a small river using jigs and Senkos. I've already made one TW order that has a couple SK 1/2oz spinner baits, I'm ashamed to say I haven't used a spinner bait in probably 8-9 years.? I also bought a couple SK red eye shads, I had one before and loved it, but lost it. One smallmouth lure I've thought about was a tube. I've never 'really' used one before, so I'm as dumb as they come when it comes to them. What size is a good start, what's your recommendation for a particular tube jig head? I'm getting a good inventory on vibrating jigs, what are some good trailers though? I took your advice on a video and grabbed some SK Rage Craws this summer, the two seemed to pair well, the strikes were plenty, I can't say the same for the hook up ratio, we already discussed that previously. With the new boat in tow in 2019 I'm branching out and I'm going to focus on the smallmouth as much as possible, so if you'd like to help me spend Santa's money at TW I'm all ears! As always your knowledge, ideas, and suggestions are welcomed here anytime! Thanks again. A-Jay ~ Cool, give me a bit I'll put something together. Fair warning, I'm in the mood to type so this might be extensive! 12poundbass ~ LOL the days are short and the nights are long so type away! ? A-Jay ~ OK so here we go – CHAPTER I ~ First let's talk about what a smallmouth is & what it is not. Keep in mind - This is Smallmouth according to A-Jay - some of it may sound familiar, some will not as I've not shared this stuff - Yet. I may after this though. Since you'd like to focus on smb and before you spend Santa's money, let's start with what a smallmouth is - and I don't want to compare lmb vs smb, because it can get confusing IMO. Let's just talk about the smb as a different & separate deal; because IME - it certainly is. Thinking & approaching them like a different fish has enabled me to get a few decent ones. So what are their characteristics & habits? And I'm only talking about adult fish - because that's all I want to target. They prefer 'deep' water (relative to the body of water). They prefer cleaner usually very clean water. They prefer cooler water. They will go ANYWHERE in the water column to eat - including super shallow. The fish I'm targeting are looking for perch, crayfish & smaller panfish and in the bigger lakes it's GOBIES & crayfish with a few perch mixed it. I know this because the bigger fish I keep in my live well puke & poo this stuff out all the time (except for the gobies - I've not found one yet.) This is important because it tells me where to look for smb & bait and where to start fishing. SMB are big-time Sight Feeders. While they can & do feed effectively in varying levels of clear, colored & even tannic waters, there seems to be a preference for lower turbidity when given a choice. They have a personality that can be described as a mix between a green bass, and perhaps a trout. The bass part is obvious I think. They pull & jump and eat all sorts of aquatic things. The trout part revolves around how nomadic they are and how selective they can be when feeding. Not always but when they are 'on' a bait, like mayflies, for instance, good luck getting a bite on something else. So it pays to have a fairly wide selection of presentations & locations in mind as fishing begins because there is & can be a wide array of locals & possible baits that may have to be employed before contact. So fishing for smallies may not be like LMB, where you can go flip wood or docks and sling Senko's all over and expect to get bit. Works early season, pre-spawn bedding bass are suicidal - and guys who "Slay them' at this time of year, often struggle the rest of the season because those fish were easily found. And if one does not know how or is not willing to learn how, to locate smallies the rest of the season, (Especially on big water where the really big girls live) – season could be over. So there's that part of it. Now let's talk a little about baits & tackle. I use casting gear (with 10-20 lb flouro) to present most moving baits and spinning gear (10-20lb braid mainline) for most everything else including, topwater, tubes, drop shot obviously AND Jerkbaits. Jerkbaits work best in the wind, and throwing them on spinning gear allows for long cast straight into it (my favorite) without worry. I do use casting gear for swing heads & rage bug deal - 15-20 lb flouro. And worm,& tube hooks & jig head hooks need to be stout & sharp but not in the super line class - But 5 plus lb smb have incredibly strong jaws & crushers. So KVD EWG 1x strong 2x short trebles go on EVERYTHING that has treble hooks. Otherwise The One fish you're looking for may totally bend your deal and go free. In cold water (50 and below) smb 'wallow' when hooked. (sort of like a walleye) In water over say 55 degrees plus they make you work - in 68 and above - THEY ARE MENTAL. I've had them ram the canoe many times - hold on my friend. THE SINGLE HARDEST ASPECT OF SMALLMOUTH BASS FISHING IS FINDING THEM- especially the big ones. Seems obvious right. But it really is that simple. But when you get behind the wheel of your shiny new rig, on some big body of water you've never been on - no matter what type of fancy electronics you may have - where do you start? More to follow - I have to go feed the dogs - Tucker is giving me the Stinkeye ! brb 12poundbass ~ Wow! There's quite a bit to process here. Way more than I was expecting, which I'm very ok with. Last Christmas actually I received a copy of Spoonpluging. I haven't read the whole thing, and it's actually in storage right now as we're in a rental waiting out the 30 days after closing (which was yesterday) before I can dig it out and start reading again. Back to my point, finding the smb. This is going to be a huge hurdle for me. There's a couple of lakes connected that I'm going to target this year. One is Blue lake, It's very clear, if I had to guess I'd say 10-15' clarity, sand/gravel bottom. The big lake Lincoln lake isn't as clear but has a lot of gravel and sand. I have a map card for my Humminbird and a map card for my Garmin. Hopefully both have 1' contours, if not I guess I'm mapping as soon as ice out. First things first I need to learn where to look. Enough for now, I'll wait for chapter 2. Thanks again! A-Jay ~ You're welcome ~ Chapter II OK so let me back up a little. What that first section was hopefully doing, was to help offer a kind of 'smallie mindset' - it's something that has served me well. But there's still quite a bit more to it. Let's talk more about 'location'. In an effort to try and make this as simple as possible, I’ll offer the following: IME- there are 2 'types' of places smb will hang around long enough for us to get bit. And this part is Does Not include bass on beds; that's a separate deal. BTW - I'd encourage you to not start 'depending' on bedding bass as your 'spring pattern' like so many do - you'll learn Nothing that will be of any use to you later in the season and is essentially IMO, a waste of time - now back to our regularly scheduled program . . Oh yea, locations. Smallies spend only a small part of their day actually 'feeding'. (I know not exactly new info - but work with me here) The rest of the time is spent pretty much just “chilling.” Feeding is done one place & chilling is done someplace else. I prefer to fish for feeding fish as they are always much more willing to bite. Chilling fish can usually be 'close' to where they feed - but close can be a relative term. Sometimes these buggers will go a long way to feed and then go a long way back to chill. Occasionally we catch a bass or two that is 'in transit' and we think we have found a new spot; only to find out after casting an arm off, that was not the case. Transiting fish are an accident and not worth 'fishing for'. Chilling spots are hard to find too - why? Well because the darn fish are chilling and not very catchable! More on that in a bit. So if looking to fish for feeding fish, and fish only feed a small percentage of the day, then being at the right place at the right time seems Very Important. We call those times "feeding windows" and they can & do vary in length. Early & late season they can last hours or even all day at times. Mid-season during warmer weather they may only happen super early or later in the day and only be 'minutes' in length - that makes it a bit tricky but it's do-able. A very important factor to consider when trying to 'predict' where to be & when revolves around what we think (or hope) the bass may be looking to feed on in that area. Again my deals almost always revolve around perch & crayfish. Sometimes that happens together but at least half the time, it's one or the other. So knowing at least some of the habits of both is pretty important & usually helpful. A good way to learn some of this (and it's something that has helped me recently) is using the live well. When & where the state regs allow - retain your catch for at least a while. Give them a chance to gag up some chow and show you what they've been dining on. It may stink to high heaven but it's worth it ! The only other way to know for sure what they've been eating involves a fillet knife and I'll have none of that action. So back to 'chill' locations. Are they even worth looking for? Can these fish be triggered into biting? - I'll say Yes - sometimes. SMB are seriously aggressive & competitive feeders but when they decide not to play - they don't. And if they are suspending over deep water - I don't even bother - I'm O and forever in that arena. One thing that I have capitalized on over & over again, in warm, cool & even cold water - is that SMB Love to Chase stuff. I mean they will often chase just to chase. Its one reason I am such a big fan of LONG CASTS - gives them time to chase and then eat. Short casts, you get the chase to the boat, but then they turn away. Long casts satisfy the ITCH! With the clear waters we fish - I can often see them coming a long way off - sometimes whole packs of them - it's pretty intense. So when looking for fish or when looking for chilling fish, because the bite has died in the feeding areas, offering a presentation that they can 'chase a while' before they eat it can be an effective approach. We need to select a bait that works with the water temp - meaning slower in cooler or cold & faster in warmer or hot. We'll cover the actual baits later. So by presenting a 'chase bait' to a chilling smb - or even better a school of chilling bass - we can sometimes trigger that chase button - and get them to strike - good times. Where exactly are these - feeding & chilling areas located? How do I find them? This is the tough part - it truly is. Because there so many factors involved with it that we have no control over and even worse - don't really know if our assumptions & speculations are valid; until we catch some bass. There are a few 'generalizations' that we can use to start us off; and again they revolve around the smb's food. Perch like to be in & around cover that holds food for them and offers some camouflage from predators. Crayfish are the same way. But each & every lake is different in its habitat, so there's going to be variances to that. Then there's The Big One ~ THE SUN ! SMALLMOUTH BASS LOVE FEEDING IN THE SUNSHINE - to disregard this statement will lead to many, many, many fishless trips - over and over and over again. Can they be caught on cloudy and or overcast & rainy days? - yes. But if you want to improve your chances of getting bit - At Least Some sunshine will always help. But what about the wind ?- Yup Wind's a Biggie too. All things being equal - wind is Almost as important as sunshine - especially in clear water and when the smb are shallow (say less than 8-10ft). Early & late season when the air is cooler or cold, the warmest part of the day with the bright sun are by far my most productive. Mid-season (summer) bite windows are often short-lived and completely over in shallower spots one hour after Daylight - notice I didn't say sunrise. The summer late day bite can be very brief as well - often the very last few minutes of sunshine on a spot - then it's done. There are often a few smb to be had after these times but as a man who has STAYED well past these times - for years - machine gunning the water to a froth, the number of bites does drop off quite a bit outside these windows. That's it for now - In Chapter III (coming tomorrow) we'll cover more on location. We'll go into what different types of structure to look for & why. We'll cover boat position - super important. We'll discuss how to present baits & why. If all goes well, we may even talk about specific bait selection . . . . . . This is great therapy for me - thanks 12poundbass ~ Holy smokes A-Jay this is absolutely awesome and way more than I expected (not that I expect anything from you or anyone)! Notes are being taken and I'll save my questions for the end, so I don't disrupt the momentum. I've never fished for bedding bass. I've pondered it over the years. Up until the last couple years when I joined this site and really started to get serious and expand my bass fishing knowledge, I was under the impression the only way to catch the real big ones were to target the fat and happy mommas full of eggs. I've learned since joining here that's not the case. There are a lot of habits I've developed over the years that I really need to break this year if I'm going to get serious and apply all these tools I've learned from you, this site, and Spoonpluging. The one you mentioned is the wind. I usually run for an area that has some protection from the wind. The reason I've done this is because of the TM and because I had a little 14' tin boat that would get blown around like a tin can. The TM I used on that boat was a wireless MG with a key fob. I had a foot control but it was a major POS! So anytime there's wind anything not weedless was a major PIA because I have to quit retrieving to adjust the TM to stay off the shore and stay on course. With my new boat and the foot controled TM this fear of the wind should be easy to break. Another bad habit is beating the banks. I believe this will be easy to break as well now that I have electronics. I've done a fair amount of research on both models I have over the years so hopefully the learning curve is shorter than most. The other is the d**n Senko. That is my crutch as I've mentioned many times before. I feel by breaking the other two habits I mentioned this one will easily be broken. The other two kind of helped create this one. Getting confidence in a lure is a hard thing to do, especially when your fishing time is limited to 4-6 hrs a week. I'm hoping and thinking that'll increase this year, especially since we bought that house on a lake, unfortunately there are no smb in my home lake. Again thank you so much for all of this! I never thought by asking for for a few lure recommendations would lead to this wealth of knowledge from you. I was cool with earning it like most, but I won't stop you, and if it's therapy for you that's great and I'm really glad we're both getting something out of this. Off to work for a bit. It's the week before Christmas and the ground is pretty frozen now so not a whole lot of work which leaves me time to kill. ? A-Jay ~ It's all good. I realize there's a ton of stuff here and more to come. As we go along I'm building you up to hopefully bring it all together in the end - I will cover the Wind and it's effects & how to make it all work in boat positioning. I'll go over beating the bank and how that's not a bad thing in a bit as well. All your hours of fishing a stick bait are going to serve you well - I'll tell you why & how soon. Don't work too hard & stay Safe.

AJ, having just plowed through this fantastic tutorial, I have to say you are an amazing teacher! And your writing style reminds me of some of the greats of all time. I’m not sure what you did in the coast guard,(maybe ran the whole service?) but you missed your calling as a college professor teaching hundreds of eager students…soaking it all up. You, sir, are the modern day Buck Perry of smallie fishing! And I meant that with all sincerity. It’s time for me to start again on page one of this thread and see all the tips I missed the first time through. Thanks again for all the time and knowledge you have passed along!

BROWN BASS TOOLS ~ Questions & Answers

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August 31, 20223 yr

Author
Super User

Big fan of refreshing my more 'seasoned' spinnerbaits. This special bait has accounted for a redonkulous number of very respectable brown bass; including the only 7 lb smallie I've ever seen. No exactly sure why but I do know that retiring it was simply not an option. Couple of minutes of TLC and this hero is once again fully operational.

Fish Hard

:smiley:

A-Jay

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Replies 304
Views 60.1k
Created 7 yr7 yr
Last Reply May 27May 27

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September 2, 20223 yr

Author
Super User

This has been me the past week or so on two different lakes.

And it should get better the rest of this month

Release the Kraken ~ Spinnerbait Brown Bass ~ Late summer Brown Bass ~

Fish Hard

:smiley:

A-Jay

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September 2, 20223 yr

Super User

On 8/31/2022 at 7:19 PM, A-Jay said:

No exactly sure why but I do know that retiring it was simply not an option.

I know the feeling. Trust of the wire wears out though. That bait look fine, though.

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September 3, 20223 yr

Definetly some yellow perch vibes there

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2 weeks later...

September 14, 20223 yr

Author
Super User

When I'm checking the wx forecast (Chapter XIII)

(something my bass fishing lives by and I do several times a day)

I'm always looking for what I like to call (and Hope) are 'good big fish days'.

Several factors go into it.

Wind speed, direction and duration, sunshine or clouds, air temp trend up, down or stable.

However, Pre-frontal opportunities are almost always pretty decent,

especially this time of year here.

So I'm eyeballing that Thursday, Friday and perhaps even the Saturday morning bites - HARD.

Fish Hard

:smiley:

A-Jay

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September 14, 20223 yr

Super User

This ^^ 100%

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September 14, 20223 yr

Likewise, plus tides here at home. Ontario next week, been eyeballing the weather forecast for that at least twice a day! ?

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September 17, 20223 yr

I'm in Ontario.

Weve just had the first colder night temps this week. It follows the full moon and the bass have been triggered to feed up.

Good luck.

PS - are you fishing lakes or rivers?

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September 18, 20223 yr

I hit up Simcoe last night for a little topwater bite, I wish I had since Ajay's post and gone in the morning. Only managed rockbass on the dropshot.

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September 18, 20223 yr

I'm fishing the Thames River in London.

Having a blast.

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2 months later...

December 2, 20223 yr

New to these parts... Just wanted to remark on the quality this entire page as been. Got back into fishing 4 years ago, and seeing as I live not 5 minutes from some prime river smallie habit, predictably became a river rat. I am now realizing how entertaining gin clear highland reservoirs, and yet challenging they can be. I'll be re reading much of this numerous occasions over the off season in preparation for April. A-Jay clearly knows a thing or two regarding smallies, and funny enough I had already been following his youtube page.

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December 2, 20223 yr

Author
Super User

Hello @cvaicunas69 and Welcome to Bass Resource.

Thank you very much for the kind words and the support.

I certainly appreciate it.

Best of luck during this coming season.

:smiley:

A-Jay

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December 2, 20223 yr

Super User

Where did you get this weather summary? I've been looking for something like this all year but not found quite what I want. This is perfect.

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December 2, 20223 yr

Looks like the 10 day from Weatherunderground

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December 2, 20223 yr

Author
Super User

@padlin Nailed it.

I can not and will not make any claim regarding forecast accuracy

because IMO, this one's no better or worse than the other three I follow.

But I'm going to use something to see the weather besides my tarot cards,

and this one offers a decent look at 'the big picture'.

Sometimes it's pretty close.

A-Jay

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December 2, 20223 yr

Super User

Thanks guys!

Dark Sky is my usual and I find its pretty good, especially with 24-48 hours outlooks. BUT, 1- apple bought it and integrated it into apple weather but took out a lot of the data and details that I use and 2- the air pressure is always in MB and I prefer to read inHg. Separately I use windfinder to look at wind (its excellent at that). This looks like its all tied up in one place with everything I'd use in a format I like to see. I'll be exploring it.

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December 2, 20223 yr

I’ve been using Windy but after checking out Windfinder, I like that one better.

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1 month later...

January 8, 20233 yr

Author
Super User

SUNSHINE vs The SMALLMOUTH BASS

Back in Chapter II of this deal, I penned the following paragraph . . .

“SMALLMOUTH BASS LOVE FEEDING IN THE SUNSHINE - to disregard this statement will lead to many, many, many fishless trips - over and over and over again. Can they be caught on cloudy and or overcast & rainy days? - yes. But if you want to improve your chances of getting bit - At Least Some sunshine will always help.”

That was in December 2018.

At the time, I believed in that philosophy very strongly as so much of own brown bass results (or lack of) seemed to conclude this was mostly the way to go.

Well, after 4 more season on the water and quite a few plus sized brown bass later, I am singing a different tune.

Besides some nice smallies, these local lakes are home to big trout, deep water walleye, pike & muskie. About half the water’s I fish regularly have largemouth as well. The green bass seem to populate the skinniest water, perhaps out of self-preservation. And when I get a few LMB, there’s rarely any brown bass mix in with them. This is sort of what discouraged me from even looking for SMB shallow very often. Shallow in these instances means less than 5 feet or so.

While First and Last light have been eternally productive, I’ve still slipped my Frabil under plenty of good ones with the sun shinning very brightly; all be it usually deeper than 5 feet. As a retired human, I can pretty much pick & choose when I am and am not on the water. Once I got over my ‘cloudy skies phobia’, there has been at least as many brown tanks on the scale hooked with a decent layer of cloud cover or even no sunshine at all. In fact cloudy might even be better for big bass.

Either way, the more it happened the more it made me rethink my approach and in a big man way. As I did, I realized that I needed to adapt my presentations, timing & mostly locations to fit the conditions. The biggest factor has to be that, almost like night fishing, I started finding bigger smallies much shallower than I would have ever believed.

So the cloudier it would be, the shallower I would fish. Dark bottom area’s turned out to be just as key as when the sun was shining. Stealth & long casts became even more important.

Admittedly, none of this is exactly rocket science.

But it has opened both my eyes as well as my own big brown bass fishing opportunities quite a bit. Especially when one considers ALL the cloudy/overcast days I spent on the beach when I could have been yanking on trophies. Frankly, I’m a little embarrassed by the whole thing. #knuckhead

But that’s how I learn sometimes.

Pop Max Mutant ~ 6.54 lbs. ~

Fish Hard

(Rain or Shine)

:smiley:

A-Jay

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January 8, 20233 yr

Global Moderator

Love a cold rainy day for smallies but we had one today and I only Got two dinks. It was pouring though, had to retreat. still drying out

51-E6-BF06-54-D7-4-A41-9-C0-B-9-BD2-BDBB

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1 month later...

March 6, 20233 yr

I believe the philosophy that cloud cover prolongs the early morning bite. No need to put away the walk baits or poppers if the clouds hang around. Unless it's a sour East wind.

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March 6, 20233 yr

(pirate voice)

Eeiiii, a nor'easter! (/pirate voice)

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1 month later...

April 24, 20233 yr

Author
Super User

Clouds & Snow yesterday . . .

large.5_30BR.png.d3e8df675fe5a7baff136ae71751db52.png large.5_66BR.png.f1a211c44a2caf050f5b4644006157a6.png large.5_98BR.png.0164305b69567305172d8448309eed1b.png

:smiley:

A-Jay

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April 24, 20233 yr

Global Moderator

11 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Clouds & Snow yesterday . . .

A-Jay

Turkeys didn’t cooperate yesterday, glad to see the smallies did! Nice work.

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April 29, 20233 yr

Author
Super User

And sunshine today ~

Wish these fatties would make up their minds !

:smiley:

A-Jay

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April 29, 20233 yr

Super User

If I may add to the sunny versus overcast question regarding the smallie bite window.

This fish was caught in the first week of May in 20-22 fow on a bright sunny day.

The next fish was caught the first week of May many years later in 20-22 fow on a rainy highly overcast day. Both fish were caught around the same time mid day. The moral of the story is just get out there when you can regardless of the conditions as long as it's safe.

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