What smallmouth bait can be worked through anything,anywhere,and anytime  and still catch smallmouth ?     Mine would be a jerkbait

I would have to pick a soft plastic.  Anything the right size, really.  There's 1001 rigs that all work for smallmouth, regardless of depth, cover, or current.

Jerkbait is great but can be tough to use around weeds.  Try 4/0 Owner Twistlock Light 3/32 oz hook with a 5 inch Caffeine Shad.  Works great as a jerkbait, but can also be fished anywhere including around cover, skip under docks, etc.  Most versatile/used lure combo I have.  

Rage Tail Menace

 

5” Finesse worm, or 4” senko nose hook, wacky rig, neko tig, texas rig. Pick tour poison

Smallmouth around here are more voracious than LM and aren't near as picky about what they will attack. 

 

My top choices are Jerkbaits, flukes, 1/4 spinnerbaits, zoom lizards and brush hogs.

The old school hair jig and pork trailer is also effective. 

2.5-3.5” tube no question, exposed hook most of the time and can be Texas rigged if your around cover 

For me it would be a fluke.

5 inch grub. I would say 4” but that would be hard to t-rig. The 5” can be texas rigged with a size 1 or 1/0 EWG, put on a jighead, a dropshot...options are endless. 

4" curly tail on a jig head

On 5/11/2020 at 10:16 AM, Finessegenics said:

5 inch grub. I would say 4” but that would be hard to t-rig. The 5” can be texas rigged with a size 1 or 1/0 EWG, put on a jighead, a dropshot...options are endless. 

 

1 hour ago, Captain America said:

4" curly tail on a jig head

Grub is my first answer as well.

 

My second answer is a lipless crank. Can be bounced off the bottom like a jig, yoyo retrieve, ripped off the bottom, straight retrieve, stop-n-go, burned at the surface above the weeds. Only issue is it can't be made weedless but with a stout enough rod you can rip it free.

A small swimbait on an exposed hook or weedless is hard to beat for versatility. 

 

Can throw in heavy cover, jig off bottom, slow swim or burn it near the surface. 

4 hours ago, Vilas15 said:

 

Grub is my first answer as well.

 

My second answer is a lipless crank. Can be bounced off the bottom like a jig, yoyo retrieve, ripped off the bottom, straight retrieve, stop-n-go, burned at the surface above the weeds. Only issue is it can't be made weedless but with a stout enough rod you can rip it free.

Yes my second favourite is lipless

 

Curly-tail grub

 

Roger

The last three inches of the tail end of a senko on just about any style of jig head.  If you want a more weedless presentation then put it on a slider head.

Keitech easy shiner or a swing impact on a 1/16th oz jig head has probably caught me more smallmouth bass than anything else.

4/0, 3/32 oz Owner Twistlock Light hook, with 5 inch Caffeine Shad.  Cast, let it do its dying minnow swim for 3 seconds, give it a twitch-twitch, let it do its thing for 3 seconds, rinse/repeat.  Done... best smallmouth lure ever..

On 5/8/2020 at 8:42 AM, Cantcatchbass said:

What smallmouth bait can be worked through anything,anywhere,and anytime  and still catch smallmouth ?     Mine would be a jerkbait

ned rig or shaky head. You can throw any soft plastic you choose on a shaky head so as far as versatility goes i don't know that there is a more versatile option

1/4 of jighead with 4” grub. Preferably an orange color during spring time and white in summer months. 

For small streams, hard to beat a number 3 Mepps or Vibrax inline spinner.  For lakes, and rivers, Hula Grub.

Not completely on topic but I think I found my new favorite drop shot bait. Bought a pack of big bite baits smallie smashers on a whim in the chick magnet color and tried them out today. My god did they look great and the fish destroyed them. They probably won’t replace my other favorite which is a 3” wacky rigged senko, but it is definitely an awesome bait. Probably will replace the jackal crosstail shads and strike king half shells I used.

Although I have caught more big smallmouth on jerkbaits than all other categories this crankbait caught my PB smallie & it's fair share of 6 pounders. Bottom bait a rapala tail dancer TD20 dives to 20' in perch color. 

 

Tube or Fluke

I would say, off the cuff, anything on a jig head. Tough to beat hair. But, that would preclude those times when the rig matters more. So, maybe a soft plastic, possibly a 4" finesse worm, or grub/worm thingy.

 

12 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Although I have caught more big smallmouth on jerkbaits than all other categories this crankbait caught my PB smallie & it's fair share of 6 pounders. Bottom bait a rapala tail dancer TD20 dives to 20' in perch color. 

 

Hi, Dwight. What do you like about the TailDancer?

38 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

I would say, off the cuff, anything on a jig head. Tough to beat hair. But, that would preclude those times when the rig matters more. So, maybe a soft plastic, possibly a 4" finesse worm, or grub/worm thingy.

 

Hi, Dwight. What do you like about the TailDancer?

Paul it floats at rest like most cranks. They make a dives to 15' and a 20' & a 30'. The action is like a typical banana bait, ie flatfish. The dive depth is true to its advertised depth. When you get it deflecting off bottom it can be killer. I used them almost extensively on Erie for one or two seasons when they were extremely effective with water temps over 50 degrees. The TD20 & TD30 were great walleye baits too. ?