smallmouth plastics

[034]

when trying to imitate crawfish for smallies, what plastics do you all favor.... tubes, beavers, powercraws, many, many more etc...jighead or t-rigged??? Looking to hear what the experienced smallie experts have to say! Thanks.

[mainbutter]

I use anything with two claws that is buoyant, so that when rigged with a jighead, it sits claws up and out in "crawfish defensive position".

Right now I use a flapping-claw crawfish mold to make my own.

T-rigged works fine, but I've found that without the soft plastic trailer-keeper barb that most jigheads have, my particular homemade craws slip down the hook on the cast when T-rigged.

I T-rig my beavers however.

[Cecil]

Tubes and finesse jigs. Tubes I dont texas rig unless I am around a lot of vertical cover.

[RK]

Hiya -

Pretty hard to beat a tube frankly.

If I'm trying to mimic a craw I usually fish the tube on a football head. Only time I Texas rig one is if I'm in rushes, and then it's usually on a Northland Jungle-Loc jighead.

I do use Paca Craws or 3" Chigger Craws and Power Craws sometimes, and 4" Jungle Hog/Brush Hog type baits are great too. Again, I use them on football heads.

I will sometimes use a big 1/2 oz football head with a huge hook for smallies, but I tend to use 1/4 and 3/8 heads with light wire hooks a lot more often. Northland's Butt Head jigs are my favorite, and Gamakatsu makes a good light football head too. Haven't tried them but I would bet some of the football shakey heads out there now would work great.

I use finesse jigs some - probably not enough honestly. Usually with a Tiny Paca Craw or 3" Power Craw as a trailer.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Tator2k]

The company that makes the death shimmer spin baits also pour a custom floating craw arm that goes onto a jighead. I picked up a couple packages to test while at the spring boat show.

[Daze Off]

Only thing I will add that has not been mentioned are senko's rigged wacky style and crawtubes texas rigged with a 1/4 oz weight pegged. Each are go-to baits for me as far as plastics are concerned for smallies. Don't actually fish regular tubes much but probably should. hard to go away from what's working though.

Size is not an issue since I have used 6" minnows to catch smallies very late in the fall.

[Todd S.]

Daze Off-what size senko do you typically use for smallies. I'm headed to Mille Lacs smallie fishing for the weekend and am hoping to smack em wacky riggin, but I have yet to do that up there for smallies?

[Cecil]

I use a 4" for smallies. But a 5" will work better whacky rigged. Debating heading to the pond this weekend as well...

[Daze Off]

I use the 4" on small rivers like the Rum or out of heavy current and the 5" otherwise. This year I have taken to using a weighted wacky hook as well.

I was thinking that up on Mille Lacs I will use a bobber with a senko wacky style to use over rock reefs/piles. Cut way down on the snags/lost tackle I'm guessing.

[RK]

I was thinking that up on Mille Lacs I will use a bobber with a senko wacky style to use over rock reefs/piles. Cut way down on the snags/lost tackle I'm guessing.

A wacky rig under a float can be awesome. When I fish with my 4 year old that's what he does, and I hate to say it but there have been times when he has absolutely throttled me just dragging a wacky rigged Dip Stick worm under an adjust-a-bubble behind the boat while I fished a reef with conventional gear. A wacky rigged (or nose hooked) stick worm with a small split shot 18" or so ahead of it is all you need. No brainer...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[bucketmouth64]

I've used a 4" grub curly tail with a 1/4 jig. This worked well this spring with a steady retrieve, but I would think it would work year round.