I live in Ma. I see people crush smallies in the winter. I’ve caught smallies in the winter but not many. Mostly largemouth. But man I love smallies. Has a smallie jump a few times last weekend. But it was the only one of the day. 

Blades tubes and hairs jigs are what I throw in the winter. Oh these are pond and lake smallies. No river bassing out in these parts 

Winter smallmouth are a complete unknown to me! 

I mainly fish s river but, I’ll use s tube or ned rig let it sit on bottom. Give it slight wiggle let it sit again.  It’s painful to do but works where I fish.

Winter smallies will still eat a walking bait here so my advice probably won’t help . But One thing I can’t help but say is maybe try a 4” plastic worm, I never go bass fishing without that 

 

Are you fishing from the bank and do you catch smallies thru the fall? 

Rage Tail Baby Craw, Menace and Structure Bug

GYCB Kreature

BPS Tender Tube (#71)

Bandit 200

RES

11 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

I mainly fish s river but, I’ll use s tube or ned rig let it sit on bottom. Give it slight wiggle let it sit again.  It’s painful to do but works where I fish.

That’s how I fish a tube, largemouth!

58 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Winter smallies will still eat a walking bait here so my advice probably won’t help . But One thing I can’t help but say is maybe try a 4” plastic worm, I never go bass fishing without that 

 

Are you fishing from the bank and do you catch smallies thru the fall? 

Yea I fish mostly from a boat, but have caught smallies from shore in December.  I’ve caught smallies all winter long, but not in the numbers I see other guys catchin. All I’ve hear is smallies are on fire in the winter!  Witch crazy bags 

7 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

That’s how I fish a tube, largemouth!

Yea I fish mostly from a boat, but have caught smallies from shore in December.  I’ve caught smallies all winter long, but not in the numbers I see other guys catchin. All I’ve hear is smallies are on fire in the winter!  Witch crazy bags 

Do they have live bait? Even a night crawler or frozen shad/minnow can get em 

 

I’ve caught some 19-20” smallies on my catfish rigs 30 feet down with a frozen shad 

13 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Do they have live bait? Even a night crawler or frozen shad/minnow can get em 

 

I’ve caught some 19-20” smallies on my catfish rigs 30 feet down with a frozen shad 

Oh yea. Plenty of bait around, I can get shiners and worms easily. I’m a lure guy tho. 

4 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Oh yea. Plenty of bait around, I can get shiners and worms easily. I’m a lure guy tho. 

I was just thinking maybe that’s how those other guys get them. Tiny fluke or gulp minnow on jighead would be next best thing to shiner 

Rig these on a drop shot and DON'T overwork your presentation. This bait is the 

closest thing to live shad and it's killer!

 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Berkley_Powerbait_Maxscent_Flat_Worm/descpage-CLF.html