Been fishing for LMB my whole life in east Texas.  Now i am in north Idaho reservoir.  First there is no hi definition lake maps for this lake.  At least not on navionics or lakemaster.  New lake and no map so i am really handicapped .  Lake is about 40 feet low and water is 51 deg.   So i figure we are looking for pre spawn fish and start running the lake to the north end.  I went up about 2/3 north of the lake.  In hind site i guess i should have gone as far north as i could.  Blue bird sky , no wind. Started out on main lake rocky points looking for flats in 10 to 35 feet of water.  Nothing.  Then went the back of a couple coves.  5 feet out to 25 feet.  Nothing. Again flats next to rocky drop offs.  Deep water thru swim jigs and swim baits.   Shallow thru texas riged worms and senkos.   What say ye.  Hiw would you have done different

51 is still pretty cold.

Try some hair jigs and jerk baits

 Might have been fishing them a little quick? 

Fish jerkbaits with long, long pauses. It would help A LOT if you knew where the spawning areas are. That’s where I’d be looking. 

Deep jerk baits?

Is the water clear? 

The conditions you described are rarely my best or even decent days.

Some wind will always help.

Fish in it - don't run from it.

From today.  

Cold, wind, rain & 44 degree water . . . 

Good Luck 

A-Jay

17 hours ago, A-Jay said:

The conditions you described are rarely my best or even decent days.

Some wind will always help.

Fish in it - don't run from it.

From today.  

Cold, wind, rain & 44 degree water . . . 

Good Luck 

A-Jay

@blanked, my advice would be to fish just like you would for largemouth in texas. They are different species but of the same genus and eat the same stuff. I’ve caught smallies with ribbit frogs over milfoil and flipping jigs into shallow brush 

51 is plenty warm for smallmouth. The no wind thing would be the biggest issue here. Smallmouth love wind, and when it goes away, often the smallmouth bite goes with it. Smallmouth are not largemouth, you're going to have to adapt to them. In the spring time for smallmouth, I usually have 2-3 rods with jerkbaits on the deck, a ned rig, dropshot, spinnerbait, and small swimbait like a 3.8 Keitech on a 1/4oz head. A lot of them have been shallow here lately but I'd suspect you should be looking for those flats near deeper water, the transition areas. 

Correct me if i am wrong.  But clouds, wind, barometric pressure, weather all that only matters for shallow fish.  If the fish are still deep staging, waiting to move shallow for spawn there deep enough that none  of this matters

Hey East Texas. Message me. Another Texas boy here, all about the LM till I got here a few years back. Been killing it with smallies so far this year. Ton of fun. 

6 hours ago, blanked said:

Correct me if i am wrong.  But clouds, wind, barometric pressure, weather all that only matters for shallow fish.  If the fish are still deep staging, waiting to move shallow for spawn there deep enough that none  of this matters

Not true at all. If deep fish were oblivious to all that and so much easier to catch, everyone would be a deep water fisherman. 

Blue bird skies and no wind = nap time ... I mean drop shot

16 hours ago, Dye99 said:

Hey East Texas. Message me. Another Texas boy here, all about the LM till I got here a few years back. Been killing it with smallies so far this year. Ton of fun. 

I'm an east texas boy I have yet to target smallies. message me

I have only fished for LM and Spotted

On 5/5/2021 at 3:55 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Not true at all. If deep fish were oblivious to all that and so much easier to catch, everyone would be a deep water fisherman. 

 

Hmmmm.  To me its easier to beat the bank than find fish offshore