never caught one, but Iam sure looking forward to it, but I could use some advice.  Iam from South Dakota and we are heading for Springfield, SD next weekend to camp and fish smallies on the Missouri River.  It sounds as though there are some channels that run inland off of the river.  How would you approach my upcoming smallie trip?  Where to fish, and what to use this time of the year?  Sure would be nice to hook a few.

Thanks-

Arlo

Where:

Gravel bars, the first and second break off the

bars; primary points; humps, ledges, boulders

and rock piles; mussel beds and any isolated

hard bottom; bluffs against the wall and follow

it down.

Tackle:

Rage Tail Baby Craw, T-rigged (no jig);

RT Eeliminator and Lizard, C-rigged; Strike

King Red Eyed Shad with a little chartreuse;

Swarming Hornet, LFT Live Magic Shad trailer;

Ledgebuster 3/4 oz Single Willow Blade

Spinnerbait (chartreuse); 4" Slug-Go on a

dropshot rig and Keiteck Fat Swim Impact

4.8" or GYCB Swimming Senko.

If the water is clear, Lucky Craft Pointers,

Sebile Koolie Minnow and Megabass Ito

Vision 110. Fred caught a 6-3 lb smallmouth

last week at Pickwick on a Bandit 300. He

caught many more on the same lure!

8-)

Coming from fishing the Juniata and Susquehanna region, I actually fished for smallies most of my life and about 2 years ago really started to target Largemouth.

A lot of the same things work for smallies and largemouth, but with smallies, it's better to downsize your baits. I normally use 4 inch luck e strike blue curl tail worms, Rapala Slashbaits (the next to smallest size, i forget the number), and of course, 3 1/2 inch tubes are magnets for smallies (natural colors work best).

Another thing to remember is smallies HATE mud. If they can get away from it, they will so target the cleaner part of the water first (I'm not sayin they WONT be in the mud though).