Favorite Smallmouth Lures

[Scott M]

I was just wondering what everyone's favorite smallmouth lures are? I'm trying to think outside the box before I head up to the Gunflint to do some smallmouth fishing. IMHO, I have too many largemouth lures that just don't cut it for smallies.

Thanks for your input! Baits/lures and the right conditions to fish them in are greatly appreciated.

[SluggoMaster]

Large husky jerks, x-raps, shadraps, and spinnerbaits. Have fun!

[EBass]

I pretty much use the same stuff. Wait - I do use the same stuff.

Tubes, senkos or knockoff senkos, small 1/8 to 1/4 jigs, some plain jigs with curly tail grub or something like a crayfish.

Honestly though I use the same stuff

[lookincalifornia]

pop R's, zara puppy's, in-line spinners, 1/8 oz.- 1/4 oz. spinnerbaits, rebel crawfish, and lots of different plastics. the plastics and spinnerbaits i throw for smallies are usually chartruce. i most likely could go bigger with my lures, so don't think ya gotta downsize too much. a 3 pound smallie has a big enough mouth for most anything

[RK]

Hiya -

Yeah, smallmouth are different. No question...

If they're unpressured and still up shallow, 3/8 oz spinnerbaits can be great. Inline spinners like Mepps too.

Crankbaits can be very good too, but especially in lakes, smallmouth cranks are different than largemouth cranks. I've done far better on crankbaits with a more subtle action, like Shad Raps, Glass Shad Raps, Deep Down Husky Jerks, Reef Runner Rip Shads, or Berkley Flicker Shads. Fat Raps can be ok in darker water sometimes too. Never done nearly as well on fat, hard-wobbling 'alphabet plugs' like I use for Largemouths. (Rivers are the exception there...)

Suspending jerkbaits like Husky Jerks, X-Raps, Lucky craft Pointers, or Strike King Wild Shiners (one of my favorites) can be very good as search lures. even if they don't hit them, they'll follow them. You know they're there, so you can catch them on something else....

For plastics, it depends on if smallies are looking up feeding on fish, or down feeding on craws.

If they're looking up, very hard to beat a simple twister tail grub. I bet I catch 2/3 of my smallies each season on a 3, 4 or 5" grub. It's my search bait 90% of the time. Buch of different brands work - Kalins 3 or 5" Lunker Grubs, Zoom 4" Fat Albert Grubs, Yum 5" Muy Grubs, and 3" and 4" Berkley Power Grubs, and Mr Twisters are the ones I use most often. Don't be afraid to use big grubs. 5" grubs rule in mid-summer. Colors - man... Smallies can get soooo color selective. Generally though, hard to go wrong with smoke, clear/black flake, salt/pepper, and pumpkinseed. Mix in some bright colors like pearl, sand (sort of a tan with multi-colored flakes) or cotton candy, pearl chartreuse, or school bus yellow.

Besides grubs, 4, 5 or 6" jigworms, either small sickle tails or ribbon tails, can be great. We usually think of jigworms as immitating, well, worms, I guess. But a 4" sickle-tail worm is an awfully good minnow-immitator.

One thing about fishing grubs and worms for smallies.... With largemouths, grubs and jigworms are mainly a drop bait. With smallies, they're a swim bait. The best technique I've found for these things is just to cast them out, point your rod tip at the water, and reel them in. Don't swim them, don't jig them...just reel them in. Count them down to various depths as you search, and use the jighead weight and drop time to control speed and depth depending on their mood. If they're off, it may be a 3" grub on a 1/16 oz jighead just barely gliding along. If they're on, it might be a bright white 5" grub on a 1/2 oz jighead cranked as fast as you can reel...

If they're looking down, hard to beat tubes. Dart head jigs or a ball head works, but a football head can be easier to fish around rocks. If they're up in the cabbage or rushes, a texas-rigged tube with an intenal weight (Lindy makes a pretty good one) can be good.

Soft jerkbaits like Fin-S-Fish, Zoom Flukes, or Power Jerk Shads are great summer smallie baits, and pretty underfished. On a spinning rod with fireline, you can cast these things about 3 miles, and smallies love 'em. Again though, a different retrieve than for largemouths. With LMB, it's often the drop that gets 'em, but with smallies, it's more of a twitch-pause-twitch-pause steady cadence that works better. These things are great on a 1/16 or 3/32 oz jighead too. Just reel steadily with the occasional twitch and pause. Great way to cover water.

Finally - topwaters. 1/4 oz buzzbaits like a Northland Buzzard are great. Walk the dog topwaters like Zara Puppies, which someone already mentioned, prop baits like Tiny Torpedoes, or poppers like Pop-Rs or Skitter Pops. Seldom the best option, but nothing's more fun...

Good luck!

cheers,

Rob Kimm

[french_lake_kid]

Floating rapalas, and twistertails are the ticket way up in BWCA. I'm guessing that is where you going. White or black are my fav. twistertail colors. And for rapalas its gotta be golden shiner.

[Gritz]

3-1/2-inch and 4-inch tubes on 3/16 oz tube jigs work best for me in the river. Still haven't figured out the lakes yet. Please post your experience when you return from Gunflint. I will be visiting Gunflint Lake in September for a few days. It will be my first time there. I would appreciate any suggestions for smallmouth.