Your tactics for finicky smallmouth

[FishingNoob]

caught an episode of beyond the cast the other day, he was using wacky rigging, going to have to add this technique to the arsenal

A wacky rig is very successful for me! You'll love it for sure!

 

[Alfiegee]

Minnows under a float. That's all I can add and it always works. Anytime.

Alfie.

 

[apz245]

I got screwed and didn't manage to get up there this week, will add wacky rig to my arsenal, and alfie minnows are my go to bait, thanks again for all the good ideas!

 

[Multispeciesangler59]

Tube jigs always seem to produce quality smallies when they're lazy.

 

[apz245]

So I got up there, had 4 days of fishing, it was brutally hot and the fish were pretty inactive, but I still managed to get some good bass action on 2 of the days, though the fish were small. I fished the same shoal all 4 days (which was probably a big mistake).

started off using live bait on a drop shot rig, it got really frustrating because I was mostly catching rock bass, I mean every time i dropped my worm or minnow it wouldn't even make it to the bottom before a rock bass devoured it.

next day I started experimenting with tube jigs which I'd never used before, got my first smallmouth on one, around 12 inches, I kept fishing with tubes because they at least kept the rock bass off (all but 2).

wacky rig was working for me but it was also getting mostly rock bass.

I found the best way to use the tubes was to drift the boat along the shoal and drag the tube behind the boat, I got snagged a lot though and had to turn it around quite a few times

I have some pics I'll post later, highlight of the trip was a 5lb walleye that my friend caught, in the end i didn't manage to catch any big bass but had some fun with smaller ones ( around 25 bass between 12-15 inches in the four days) that were less than a pound probably one was big enough for some decent fillets.

I didn't spend too much time on the water, most days just from 6 am- 10 or 11 and sometimes for an hour or two at dusk

 

[apz245]

also thanks to everyone who gave input, i didn't get the chance to try everything because I didn't have too much time.

for now i've added tubes to my fishing arsenal, dragging them behind the boat was really working on these hard days, which were 30+ degrees, they got those finicky smallmouth biting

 

[ray6591]

Went to a lake in the Orillia area and the fish was not biting in many of the locations we found fish (LM Bass and Pike) in an earlier visit and the only thing that worked was a soft jerk bait made by Strike King – Perfect Plastic with a 4/0 weightless hook. This combo worked for a while before the storm started to moved in....caught two large size LM bass.

Also the guide caught a few pikes and a small Muskie.

Here is what it is called at Basspro - Strike King KVD Perfect Plastics Swim'n Caffeine Shad

 

[ray6591]

Sorry for not looking at the title more closely and ignore it is not related to SM Bass I see now.....

 

[apz245]

No worries man, the tubes I was using were the same brand, KVD coffee tubes and they worked well! And they smell good