I fished a lake in Ontario this week that I have fished a few times before for a derby with some friends. While fishing a point, I saw a ball of bait with fish busting on it on livescope and I chased them all over that pocket landing 6-7 smallies in the mid 3s and one in the low 4s. I found another one in a completely separate area later that day and caught another one before I figured I could replicate that pattern the day of the tournament. That was not to be on the day.

I haven't seen a lot of people talk about that as a pattern frequently, but I did see bait on sidescan several occasions and typically had fish harassing them, but man is it difficult to chase them all over the lake. Is that a common pattern at a lot of lakes for SMB or did I just seem to hit it right?

I have gotten into topwater smallies chasing shad many times, don’t think it has ever happened two days in a row on the same spot tho