I am going up to fish on the upper allegheny river in NW PA. I know most of you arent familiar with it but it is a great river. Last time i was up there was mid summer. we caught a couple 4 lbers. This rivers average depth is 5ft with occasional 7-10 ft holes. LOTS of islands, the river breaks up in 1-3 islands alot, lots of back channels and what not. Last time we caught a couple on spinners, and one on a tube. Tried poppers with no success. These smallmouth are average 1-3 lbers. The thing is i am not very good at fishing jigs/tubes in moving water. we caught our biggest ones drifting night crawlers right on the edges of currents. Will the fish be in shallow water looking for minnows and what not to fill up for winter? we will be doing a little tournament up there. we fish mostly from canoe. So what are some good early fall SM tactics, what are there patterns this time of year? thanks

Fall smallies eat anything you put in their face!

Actually, my favorite fall smallie baits are spinnerbaits, craws on jigheads, hair jigs, suspending jerkbaits, and small swimbaits.

I like using spider jigs and bandit cranks

Larger Mepps XD spinners.

Cast upstream, retrieve slightly faster than the current. Let it get past you and bring it back up stream to you. Basically a big "J". Try to orient yourself where the change of direction is just behind a boulder/rock or other cover.

Have fished the big A, did well with quarter ounce jigs tipped with minnow.

Large 1/2 spinnerbaits would be my no. 1 choice. Big smallies love them! Soft & hard jerkbaits would be my second. If that doesn't turn anything, then a reverse rigged Fat Ika. One of these will definitely get their gander up!

wow that was one rough weekend. lol. no body on the river during the tourni caught more than 5 bass.. many people went home with out one in the boat. i caught one dink on a spinner, my dad caught one on a worm. this tourni was multi species, so the guy that one had a 30 lb musky. Kind of disappointed but thats fishing. usually the fishing there is top notch, just nice being in the mountains though. we also enjoyed a nice 5 mile float while fishing. oh well get em next time.

Large 1/2 spinnerbaits would be my no. 1 choice. Big smallies love them! Soft & hard jerkbaits would be my second. If that doesn't turn anything, then a reverse rigged Fat Ika. One of these will definitely get their gander up!

My buddy and I were fishing last week and he was tossing a 1 oz spinnerbait... Never in my life would I have used that for smallies. He caught 8 or 9 over 17", I caught 4 around 7". You tell me who was mistaken

My buddy and I were fishing last week and he was tossing a 1 oz spinnerbait... Never in my life would I have used that for smallies. He caught 8 or 9 over 17", I caught 4 around 7". You tell me who was mistaken

Hmmmm, so sometimes bigger is better!!! I love shallow square billed crankbaits in slow moving water. up to about 5 ft deep!!! Favorite is the Rapala Fat DT 1 in bleeding olive shiner...many a smallie has fallen victim to this particular crankbait a few PBs

Square bills are all I throw on the river! Love 'em!