Its important to me to annually learn (or relearn) a new rig or technique every year. I fish for river smallies and over the past season I think I got a lot better at reeling up slack while dead sticking on the river in current. I'm sure it helped me reduce gut hooking and I may have picked up 1 or 2 more fish each time I went and my average size was way up to around 2#.

I certainly felt like I went back to finesse basic and colours.

Applying some fly tactics to the drift, I like it 

Fly fishing for smallies is a blast but sometimes I just want to burn a crank too.

Its alot of fun to mix things up.

@PaulVE64if you think a crank bait bite is fun you need to try a jerk bait bite for smallies. But do some pushups before hand so your arms will be conditioned to what will happen next. 

@PaulVE64 in addition to what @Dwight Hottle said above, the topwater bite might be worth checking out as well.

@RipzLipz is right. Top water smallies are a blast. Probably one of my favorite ways to catch them. 

@Susky River Rat Truth be told, any bass on topwater is a blast. Smallmouth, though, hold a special place in my heart. Threw pretty much nothing other than Rapala X-Rap Props at bedding smallies last June on Rainy Lake & they did not like that one bit. Vicious strikes.

 

One of the top 5 hardest hits I’ve had was 4 lb SmB hit a skitter pop. Obliterated 

My PB smallie was on a 110  Wplopper in bone.

 It had barely touched the water when a 22" beauty dragged it down.

But that was like 5 years ago.

 

For jerkbaits I usually throw a soft plastic fluke. Northern pike like hard jerkbaits alot and I'd prefer to leave those savages in the river.

On 11/28/2023 at 1:29 PM, PaulVE64 said:

My PB smallie was on a 110  Wplopper in bone.

 It had barely touched the water when a 22" beauty dragged it down.

But that was like 5 years ago.

 

For jerkbaits I usually throw a soft plastic fluke. Northern pike like hard jerkbaits alot and I'd prefer to leave those savages in the river.

I’d prefer to keep those nice $ cost jerkbaits over a 20” hammerhandle pike swimming off with a mouth full of trebles. 🤣