Last year my family bought a place on Big Sandy Lake in northern Minnesota. The lake is primarily fished for walleye and crappie and there is a large population of small pike. I know there are smallmouth in there but there are not many of them as I can tell from surveys (Bottom Link). But after catching a couple and one even up to 4.8lbs this weekend while crappie fishing I really want to try and target them this year. The one I caught this weekend was on a bobber with a tiny crappie minnow off of a island in 6ft of water with a sandy with some rock bottom. When the fish got to the boat either 2 or 1 others in the same weight class also came to the surface with her. Another 4lber I caught last year was in about 7-10ft of water off of a rocky bottom point with a square bill in mid to late fall. And the last fish i caught was 3.5lbs and was off a point with hard bottom in 10ft in the summer on a jighead and swimbait. Problem is the lake is very different from what I think to be traditional smallmouth waters. Most offshore structure tops off at 10ft and the lake has bad water clarity. Where should I start? What should I throw? The the top link is a map of the lake if that helps. Thanks

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/lake.html?id=01006200

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=01006200

 

 

look at changes,, shallow to rapid drop offs, weeds giving way to wood or rocks, any current ?
If ur catching 3lb smallies ur doing good. If it was me Id get up butt early and throw a cear chug bug on light line far as u can cast it.