I'm somewhat new to bass fishing. I've just in the last few months started to do well with LM. I do have an older bass boat but everything works well.

I'm on the central Oregon coast and lately I have had a lot of people telling me to go SM on the Umpqua River. Not only have I never caught a SM, I've never seen one. Some of the guides around here are telling me to go up from the mouth of the Umpqua about 20 miles to the town of Scottsburg, drop the boat in and fish the bank. Other than telling me to watch out for shallow rocks, they say that I should catch a gozillion of them this time of year. Unfortunately, they didn't tell me what to use or how to fish for them.

And that brings me to here.

           

         WHAT DO I DO????? lol.

Do I fish them like LM???

What would you recomend???

If the water is clear, stick to spinning tackle and 6 or 8 pound line.

My favorite baits for smallmouth are tubes, spider jigs, Luckycraft Sammy, spinnerbaits and suspending jerkbaits.  Grubs, crankbaits and baby brush hogs are also excellent smallmouth baits.

Once you catch a few river smallies, I'm pretty sure you will want to catch more.  Best of luck.  

If the water is clear, stick to spinning tackle and 6 or 8 pound line.

My favorite baits for smallmouth are tubes, spider jigs, Luckycraft Sammy, spinnerbaits and suspending jerkbaits. Grubs, crankbaits and baby brush hogs are also excellent smallmouth baits.

Once you catch a few river smallies, I'm pretty sure you will want to catch more. Best of luck.

That's some good advice from a man that knows!

8-)

BassChump,

There are at least two local (oregon based) fishing forums that can better address you for the great Oregon fishing around you. If you don't already know the names of those two forums, send me a PM and I'll send you the links.

The reason I bring this up is that while the info you will get here is great and applicable, the other two places might provide a little more insight in both the smallmouth and largemouth bass in Oregon.  

As a fellow Pacific Northwesterner, our smallies seem to be real suckers for the drop shot and 3" senkos rigged texas and wacky style just to get you going. ;D

If the water is clear, stick to spinning tackle and 6 or 8 pound line.

My favorite baits for smallmouth are tubes, spider jigs, Luckycraft Sammy, spinnerbaits and suspending jerkbaits. Grubs, crankbaits and baby brush hogs are also excellent smallmouth baits.

Once you catch a few river smallies, I'm pretty sure you will want to catch more. Best of luck.

What he said!