Favorite Techniques for Shallow Rivers?

[Turtle Angler]

5 minutes ago, wvsmallie said:

Shallow rivers are mainly what I fish.  My top five choices would be a Rebel wee craw (usually worked slowly on the bottom), a rapala original floater, Panther Martin inline spinner (which I love to fish in riffles and swifter current), a light jig lead (1/8 oz or less) with a 3" grub or ned style stick bait, and some sort of top water (usually a tiny torpedo).  Naturally, these might vary with conditions.  I don't know that these are the best baits, but I am confident they are good baits and that if I put them in the right places most of the time they will catch fish.  (The wee craw and inline spinner are my primary search baits.) As a plus (for me at least) the first four are all great multi-species baits as well.  For example, I've caught a lot of drum on wee craws, a lot of channel cats on inline spinners and a grub will catch anything in the river.  One last observation, one reason a bait like the rapala works well because it can be fished in so many ways: cast and crank, slowly and with the rod tip high as a wake bait, worked agonizingly slowly with lots of pauses on the top, and as a jerk bait, either subtly or very aggressively. 

Any colors or sizes you especially like for that Panther Martin in-line spinner?

[Happybeerbuzz]

At the risk of sounding like a bad YouTuber, I plan on getting a Strike King Hybrid Hunter Shallow in the junior size just for fun.  After that, it's going to be a "MANN'S 1-MINUS vs THE HYBRID HUNTER in a LAST LURE STANDING SHOWDOWN!"  In less colorful words, ultra shallow crankbaits.  

[wvsmallie]

6 hours ago, Turtle Angler said:

Any colors or sizes you especially like for that Panther Martin in-line spinner?

I typically use a 1/4 ounce, silver blade and a bright yellow body.  I will sometimes use a black body in dirty water.  Don't know why the silver blade works better in my waters, but it does.  I used to use a 1/8 ounce and caught a lot more sunfish, but also gut hooked some smallies who would completely engulf it.  I also replace my trebles with a single hook when I get around to it, which helps with easy releases, although it may cost me a few fish here and there.  FWIW

[Spankey]

Small tubes, grubs, in-line spinners, ultra-lite Rapalas. These take Smallies on trout streams in my area. 
 

Not sure if others have noticed this in some of your creeks. Near me some creeks holding Smallies will not take anything but live bait (shiners). I’m pretty sure crawdads would work also. But you could throw lures all day without a hit. 
 

I generally don’t fish for bass with livebait. But if I want a quick trip down to the creek I throw on some waders and have a minnow pail. Smallies and nice size RockBass will hit. 

[river_rat316]

Got out on a small river near me for the first time after smallies in over a couple years, actually specifically targeting any bass in over a couple years and got humbled pretty quick. Ended up finding them where I didn't expect them but its also later in the year and shallower water then Ive ever had in this small river. They were all typical mid summer shallow and relatively fast water, they had to have some deeper water near by. Kinda figured out what they were keying on right away considering the number of craw fish I was seeing, I have never seen that many in this river and they were all over the place, so switched from a small spinner bait and swim bait to a tube and a jig and started picking up fish once I went to faster water then I normally have fished in this river. Im sure next weekend when I go back they will have something else on there minds and will probably have to switch to a top water in slow deeper pools or something. But the key to smallies is being able to change your game and adapt to what they are doing.

[corey90]

whopper plopper

[MGF]

All of the above at one time or another. Completely different from spring "high and dark" water to the low ultra clear water we have now. Fall is different yet again I love the river because I get some of my best action midday in the bright sun. When I float the river I get there when I get there. No fast motoring up and down in the low rocky water.

 

I'm almost afraid to tell my favorites for this time of year. I haven't seen it in the thread and I don't see it on the river. One favorite is what they're calling a "tiny child rig". It looks stupid in the water but you wouldn't even believe the number of big bass I've caught with it. Much better for me here than even a NED. Better yet, I find that it works just as well with a piece of a worn out senco or yum dinger as it does with a zman trd. Just put that stub of a worm on a number 1 worm hook with a little nail weight of some kind in the other end.

 

My all time favorite is a zoom finess worm on a split shot rig...a real split shot. The same number 1  worm hook. I'm going to try a 1-0 in both just becaus I have so many and I have to order the number 1.

 

In both cases I just drift it in the current and hang on.

[Standard]

Wake bait all day.  I fished a shallower section of river this weekend, and while I was able to get bites on most lures I tried, nothing got crushed quite like the wake bait.

[MassBass]

I think the consensus could be, any number of lures will work for the same river smallie, if they are presented in the right way.

[Scott F]

One of the great things about river fishing is that the only thing you need to consider about a bait is if it can be fished in the spot you are trying to fish. Heavy, sinking baits over rocky bottoms just get snagged. Fast current can make stuff like a crank bait hard. Even color doesn’t matter much. Current means fish don’t have much time to decide whether to eat or not. If they are hungry, they can’t afford to let a potential meal pass by. Get a bait, almost any bait, in the right place and you will have success. 

[gimruis]

54 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Get a bait, almost any bait, in the right place and you will have success. 

I'm fully convinced that just about any lure or presentation will work as long as its presented in the right location in the river I fish.  The spot I need to hit is about the size of a dinner plate.  Too far and it gets hung up.  Too short and they don't bite.

[casts_by_fly]

Growing up along a major river, the medium creeks around us would fill up with smallies every spring when it flooded.  There were also a bunch of resident fish.  We also have a cabin up north with a TON of smallie creeks that we'd fish all summer.  You could grab an old plastic rat'ltrap box and have enough lures for the day.  Two panther martins (I liked the 1/8 oz black/yellow gold blade), a zara spook mini (not made anymore, 2" lure) in both white and clear, a couple maribou jigs in 1/16th and 1/8th, and a couple 3" pearl sluggos rigged with hooks.  I'd have a couple #6 or #8 hooks and a couple split shot in case it was a tough day and I had to grab live crayfish.  All of that fit in one pocket of my shorts.  I'd have a pair of forceps clipped to my shirt instead of pliers.  5' or 5'6" ultralight with 4 or 6 lb test.  That's a solid fun day of fishing catching 8-16" smallies, rockbass, fallfish, and the leftover trout.

On 6/24/2023 at 11:32 AM, Happybeerbuzz said:

At the risk of sounding like a bad YouTuber, I plan on getting a Strike King Hybrid Hunter Shallow in the junior size just for fun.  After that, it's going to be a "MANN'S 1-MINUS vs THE HYBRID HUNTER in a LAST LURE STANDING SHOWDOWN!"  In less colorful words, ultra shallow crankbaits.  

 

the hybrid hunter JR is still a pretty big bait.  It might only list at 3" but its wide top to bottom and side to side.  And I don't think that includes the bill.  Its a bit bigger than anything I'd be throwing in a small stream.  The tiny bombers and rebels are a great size.  

[IcatchDinks]

You've already been given tons of great suggestions, but since my local rivers here in Michigan sound similar to yours, and since I'm also limited to where my own two feet can take me, here's the lures I use: 

 

Topwater: Rebel Pop-R (or any popper of your choosing. They all work)  whopper plopper (the small one) 

 

Crankbaits: pretty much exclusively use the Rebel Wee craw in shallow water. If the water gets more than three or four feet deep, the Rapala Fat Rap or the WeeCraw's bigger, meaner brother the Rebel Big Craw (they really do have a very creative naming scheme going on here) have both been productive for me. 

 

Plastics: in shallow or slow moving water I use a weightless Texas rigged senko. If it's deeper water or current, I'll put a bullet weight on it. I usually use the four inch Yum Dinger. Or the four inch Gary Yamamoto. I've never understood the need for these massive 7-8" worms everyone uses. The four inch works great for me. 

Curly tail grubs on a jig head with an exposed hook always work for me. And I've caught almost as many fish as I have snags with a Ned rig. 

 

Spinners: various Mepps inline spinners have caught countless smallies for me in shallow rivers. You gotta fish them against the current, though. They have trouble spinning when fished with the current, and tend to sink to the bottom and get snagged. 

 

Also, if you're not wading, you should. It's loads of fun, keeps you cool on hot days, and you can reach so many more fishy-hidey-holes than from the banks. 

 

Happy fishing!

[JN94]

I'm in Tennessee and fish creeks and rivers for smallmouth exclusively. Throw a lot of walking topwaters, squarebills, 3-4" paddletails, finesse jigs (swim and pitching), Ned rigs, mini max chatterbaits. Occasionally will throw flukes and drag football heads with small creatures

[MGF]

Once in a while in early fall I can get some action on a fluke or even a double fluke rig. You would think the fluke would work well just about anytime when the water is low but I haven't found that to be the case.

 

Contrary to what some here have said, I have found that some lures work much better than others at any given time.

 

I sort of have two classes of baits/presentations. Those I expect to produce the most or biggest fish and those that I just enjoy fishing. The baits that  catch the most for me in the river are those you just cast and drift down in the current. It's fun catching a bunch of fish but sometimes I just want to skip a jig or watch surface blowups so that's what I fish for.

[PaulVE64]

Hand tied size 1 stinger with a fancy of fur, feathers and flash.

Add wt. as required, your results may differ.

[Susky River Rat]

I use choppos, Ned rigs, rapala DT, flicker Shad’s and spinners. I haven’t had any luck on T rigged stuff yet but, that was new for this year.

[Bdnoble84]

On 6/21/2023 at 3:30 PM, Fishingmickey said:

Beetle spin used to work wonders for me. I preferred the white with red dot towards the head.

FM

Yes but with a 3” curly tail or paddletail. If you want to get really creative switch out for a painted white or chart blade. I was hammering them last week on a bfiahin moxy (i think thats what its called) in green with a white painted indiana #4. The water was murky for the rain though so i needed the extra thump.