Smallmouth Rookie Question

[bonefish]

I know from many articles I've read and posts on here that a jig/grub combo is a smallmouth staple. My question is, what kind of Jig? I've seen pictures of grubs on ball-head or walleye style jigs, but I was wondering if they were too small when using lighter jigs?

[Craigums]

Im not much of a smallie expert but mushroom head jigs work well. A Northland Lip-Stick jigs with a Zoom Fat Albert Grub is a good smallie "Jig and Grub" example

[Cecil]

Yeah, no need to get too hung up on make or model. The big thing is the hook and the weight of it. The heavier the longer you can cast, but you want to make sure its not so heavy that you get hung up on rocks. The hook is crucial since you will be making longer casts and a not too heavy hook is needed to stick em on the end of a cast. I know RK uses a long rod as well. I use a 7'er and I think he uses a 7.5'

[RK]

Hiya -

A jig/grub combo is on at least one of my rods at all times when I'm fishing smallies, and that's true pretty much year-round. It's not always my first choice, but it's almost always my second...if that makes any sense. Point is I'd catch far fewer smallmouths without them.

Jighead selection does matter here. As Cecil correctly pointed out, one of the things that makes a jig/grub so efficient is the ability to make long casts, especially in clear water. I also use light line - 6# mono. With a long cast and light line you really need a jig with a high quality hook. You also need a hook that's big enough for a 4 or 5" grub, which kind of narrows the selection down some, especially in the lighter (1/16 or 1/8 oz.) weights. A lot of the jigs out there have size 1 hooks on 1/16 and 1/8 oz heads, and that's too small for a 4" grub, IMHO (much less a 5").

For lighter weights mushroom heads like the Northland ones are great. I do use 3/32 oz Northland heads with grubs sometimes.

90% of the time though I use an Owner Ultrahead Ball Head. They're pretty much the only ball head I carry anymore. The 1/16, 1/8 and 3/16 heads have a 2/0 hook, and the 1/4 and 3/8 have a 3/0, and they're nasty sharp. The Gamakatsu Series 26 ball heads are ok too, but the 1/16 and 1/8 oz heads have a 1/0, which is a little small for me. 30 bucks should set you up for a season's worth of jigheads - you do break off a few on rocks now and then.

I don't know what you have or plan to use for a rod, but for what it's worth, I do think a long rod is pretty important. I use a 7'6" medium-light x-fast, a large spool reel (a Diawa Tournament SS 1600) and light mono. You can do it with a 6'6" rod and 10# line if you have to, but if your fishing partner has a long rod and lighter line, be ready to get waxed to a high, luminous sheen, especially if the water's clear. Long casts really are important. The rod I have is a Diamondback, which is no longer made, but St. Croix makes an awfully good comparable rod in both the Premier and Avid series. If you want a 7 footer, the St Croix ML Premier or Avid are very nice, and the Shimano Crucial 7' medium fast (which I think is on the light side of Medium power) is actually pretty decent too.

In my experience at least, the best technique for grubs, by far, is just to cast them out and reel them in. No jigging, no twitching, no nothing. Just point your rod tip at the water and reel. Use the combination of drop time, jig weight and speed to control your depth, and you can fish this combo from 2 feet to 20 feet. When a smallmouth hits a grub you almost don't feel it. The rod just starts to load up. It seems like the come up behind it, track it for a little ways then just overtake it from behind. Sweep set and reel like mad and you'll rarely miss a fish. A light, sharp hook just grinds in. They either come to the boat or break the line.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but grubs really are about as simple and effective as it gets for smallmouths. I'd hate to be without them.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[bonefish]

LOL Thanks RK! I'll be using a 7' Shimano Compre, so I should be able to avoid getting a luminous sheen while on Lake Vermillion in 2 weeks.

[bemidjibasser]

X2 on the sharpness of owner hooks. I poor my own jigs and absolutely love the owner cutting point hooks. I also like mustad ultra points, but the owners are sharper in my experience. I poor football, round and mushroom head jigs to use with grubs, tubes, and spider grubs, depending on technique and cover I am fishing. I also like at least a seven foot mf spinning rod and use 6-8 lb yo-zuri hybrid or ultra soft line. I like the flouro and mono qualities of it since it is a copolymer. Dragging bottom in gravel and sand can be an effective way to fish grubs also.

[Cecil]

RK, would you agree grubs work better in clearer water like Mille Lacs over a lake that is a lil off-colored like Vermillion? Not saying they won't work on dirty water, but the clearer the water the better.

[Juan Grande]

Do you guys order your grubs on-line? I look at Gander and Cabellas, but I never find a good selection of anything bigger than 2-3 inches. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot.

[RK]

Hiya -

Bemidji...the other thing with the Owner hooks is they seem to hold their point very well.

Cecil - I do think that grubs get better in clear water. That having been said, they work in stained water too - Lake of the Woods and Rainy being prime examples. Color selection does change some I think. In clear water I use a lot of translucent colors (smoke, clear, amber, etc.) while in stained water it's more black, purple, white, pearl or school bus yellow.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[JBMasterAngler]

I usually only use 3" powergrubs, although I recently just found out that the gander mountain brand looks really cool in the water. The only 4" twister tails I have are the trigger brand, and they have alot of action to them as well...plus they come in some neat wild colors. Anyway, just go with northland jigheads...you can usually get alot for just a few bucks. I prefer 1/8 oz, but with the bigger grubs I'd go 1/4 oz. I also like to add overhead spinners (except for fishing in shallow rocky current). You might also want to look into 3" swim shads. I just started using those this year and smallies LOVE them!

[Cecil]

I think my fav is a 4" Gulp minnow grub. Otherwise you can go with any ol 4" grub. Outkast, kalin, power grub...

[RK]

Hiya -

You know, I still haven't tried the Gulp minnow grubs, which is stupid, because I use all kinds of other Gulp bodies...

I like 4" Power Grubs, Yum Muy and Muy Grande grubs, Northland grubs (they have some awesome colors), and have some misc others, but my favorites are the Kalins. Awesome translucent colors, super soft...

Speaking of smallmouths...time to go catch some. Have a good holiday weekend everyone.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Tator2k]

I've been using the 3" and 4" Alive minnows the same way and they work great.