Fished a major river and did very well the past two days.  I primarily got them on jerkbaits, probably close to 100 in a day and a half.  

 

1.  Do you feel jerkbaits work better in large rivers with current vs lakes in the summer, or even all year round? I know you can use jerkbaits in the summer, but I just seem to have better luck in this river year round.  Maybe it's because it's shallower than a great lake and the fish are always in the jerkbait zone?  I can't say I tried it that much since jerks were working so well, but I only got a few on finesse tactics like Ned and dropshot.

 

2.  The surface temps were 72 degrees.  I was there a month ago and many were on beds then.  Do you think this was a post-spawn bite?  I've always done best with jerks in pre-spawn.

 

Also got a bonus Muskie, first one ever!

I can’t comment about question #1, but question #2 I would say yes, you are encountering a post spawn bite at 72 degrees.

 

While I do think jerk baits are traditionally most effective pre spawn in cold water, I have recently found them to also be effective in warmer waters too.

Smallmouth love jerkbaits all year long. Yes to question #1. Smallies will hang out much deeper after spawn in the lakes which makes them tougher to catch deep with most jerkbait presentations. That puts them more out the jerkbait zone than rivers. Prespawn for smallies is usually between post iceout up to around 60-65 degrees. Answer to #2 is post spawn. 

Jerkbaits are a go to smallmouth bait for me year round and I have no rivers with smallmouth here.

 

81* surface temp in an 11,000 acre reservoir, 91* day last week here in NE KS on a small jerkbait.

Nice job bluebasser. Just curious at what depths did you get them at?

17 hours ago, archman said:

Nice job bluebasser. Just curious at what depths did you get them at?

That one was in <5' of water.

5" jerkbait was on fire yesterday in river current from 2' to 7' of8 water.

Underweighted carolina rig.