Smallies!!?!?!?!

[shwatec]

I need some help with some begginer tips for smallmouth fishing. I have been a majority largemouth guy since I started fishing as a kid. Recenlty I have fished more lakes with an equal population of both large and small and would like to catch more smallies but dont know the tricks.

Deep water smallmouthfishing?
Shallow water sand rocky bottom?

Where do they hang out and What do you need to rig up to catch them.

Thanks

sean

[Southend517]

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1145/scan1.th.jpg (http://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scan1.jpg)

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1145/scan1.jpg

[wecker20]

Smallie fishing is my favorite. On unfarmiliar lakes, it's difficult to find them. If you can find gravel or rocks in 4 to 6 ft of water with a good drop nearby or a weedline, you should find smallies. They'll move from the drop, to the shallow stuff at anytime of the day. I've always had good success using tubes and wacky senkos. The deeper stuff for me is a little harder to target. It's hard to tell if it's hard bottom if your not really farmiliar w/ your fish finders graph. There are big smallies to be had on the deeper drops(20-30ft)

[shwatec]

Fished Orchard Lake today for Smallmouth and got a few but nothing with size. I havent caught anything of any size on orchard and fished it hard 4 days this week. I think I coverd every weed edge and drop from 5 to 20 ft.

Tried Cranks, plastics, spinners,........

Not sure but beggining to think that orchard lake isnt as good as a lake as I have been told or it has too been taken by the south east michigan bass disease.


sean

[dtg]

I just got back from Ontario and was catching quite a few 14-16" Smallies. Up there you look for Rocky points with a drop from 8-10' and some of the smaller bays right in the middle in about 8-10'. We were using big crawlers and dropping them to the bottom and bringing the worm up 1-2' from bottom. I haven't done a lot of smallie fishing down here, but am planning a trip to Croton pond in a couple of weeks.

[wecker20]

Shwatec, finding them big smallies is tough in the middle of summer. I can always find them in the spring but once the temps go into the 80 and 90's they vanish. I'll catch a 3lber here and there but not like I do in the spring. The drops and weedlines you were fishing, did they have gravel and/or rocks nearby? If your looking for smallies, gotta find the structure.

[pikedevil]

If you have little smallmouth experience you may want to try to find a stream or small river that hosts a good summertime smallmouth population. It is a great way to observe the fish and their reactions and catch a good number of fish because the fish are in fairly obvious spots (deeper slow rocky holes or log jams) Wet wading and spot fishing smallmouth in streams is one of my favorites. Live bait fishing crawlers or better yet, crawfish is a good bet but those stream bass will hit jigs and stickbaits like floating raps as well. Some trout streams have good population of smallmouth in july and august so you can have a combination trout and bass trip. Just yesturday I fished a UP stream and landed 2 17 inchers, as well as several 10-15 inch fish.

[DaveW731]

If you have little smallmouth experience you may want to try to find a stream or small river that hosts a good summertime smallmouth population. It is a great way to observe the fish and their reactions and catch a good number of fish because the fish are in fairly obvious spots (deeper slow rocky holes or log jams) Wet wading and spot fishing smallmouth in streams is one of my favorites.
:yeahthat:
August + streams/rivers = Smallmouth! Once the lakes slow down for largemouth, I switch over to fishing smallies in rivers and streams almost exclusively. In my experience, smallies seem a bit less welded to cover than are largemouth, but you still want to look for structure like pikedevil mentioned. I have done best by wading and drifting a swimming worm rig, almost in the same manner as a spawn bag for steelhead. Last night, caught and released 8 smallies out of one "honeyhole" in a little less than an hour.