SMALLMOUTH, the magnificent, mysterious bass

While largemouth bass get most of the love the smallmouth possesses a wide variety of traits that endear it to many anglers. Across the south and all the way up into Canada many northern anglers show little regard for this game fish preferring the walleye for its taste. Not as widespread as its cousin the largemouth the “smallie” presents a challenge by being harder to pattern and pickier than its cousins the other black bass species.

Largemouth prefer slower moving waters whereas smallmouth like cool, moving homes. As far as food goes largemouths are legendary in the fact that they’ll eat anything that they can fit in their cavernous mouth. Shad, bluegill and the favorite of the bass family, crawfish are the majority of their diet. Differences include spawning seasons, the smallmouth goes on bed prior to the largemouth. Preferred water temperatures, cooler for the smallmouth but the major difference is the depths they prefer and are frequently found. Largemouth spend a great deal of time in relatively shallow water, three to eight feet with the smallmouth bass it’s not unusual to find them in 15 to 25-foot depths.

Catch largemouth in an area on specific baits and that pattern can last for days, with the smallies they can change by the hour! To further confound the angler at times either will hit exactly the same artificial bait, at other times you have to tie on tiny baits to coax a strike from the smallmouth. Largemouth seem to adapt to muddy water better than the smallmouth. Deep, clear lakes are welcome homes to the smallmouth and river system are made for the body style of the brown bass. muscular and equipped with a “paddle” size tail they are powerful swimmers and even more pugnacious fighters. I refer to them as the original “frequent flyers.” Once hooked the fights are often punctuated by hard pull, line stripping runs and acrobatic jumps. Here comes the controversy, pound for pound I believe the smallmouth is the hardest fighting freshwater fish. (There I said it)

In a discussion with longtime friend legend Bill Dance he said, “If I could only fish for one fish it would be the smallmouth.”

The folks who focused on smallmouth often preferred a simplistic approach to hunting for smallmouth. A peak inside the tackle box of the “Godfather of smallmouth fishing” Bill Westmoreland you saw what he referred to as “hair flies” with pork rind trailers, old school for sure. Others carried three colors of curly tail grubs and various weights of leadheads. One common trait among the dedicated smallmouth chasers was the use of light line mostly because of the clear water they fished.

River system lakes are likely places, deep structure and contours are places to search for the trophy fish. What structure is to a largemouth depth is to the smallmouth, they relate to deep water, not objects like stumps or manmade structure. Rivers themselves are fertile fisheries. Found near current and most likely just off current flows feeding on food sources the happen by they are opportunistic feeders.

If size is your criteria for a trophy catch, then largemouth should be your target, the world record largemouth is almost double the size of the record smallmouth. Largemouth 22 pounds 4 ounces caught in 1932 by farm boy George Perry while fishing for food. The standard for smallmouth is 11 pounds and 15 ounces caught by David Hayes in 1955 while trolling an old Bomber bait. That fish came from Dale Hollow Lake, which straddles the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. In my opinion that’s a record that will never be broken. My personal best was an eight pounder that slammed aa spinnerbait. Generally, I start my search in my close to home waters around deep-water ledges and moving water with rocky shorelines. The rock draws crawfish and schools of shad. When targeting smallmouth if I can find water in the 55 to 70-degree range I have a buzzbait tied on at least one rod. Not a numbers bait but a proven big bass lure the buzzer positions me for the topwater bite the smallmouth has made famous, an explosion guaranteed to unnerve the most seasoned fishermen. Other choices are the spinnerbait, crankbait and a number of soft plastic offerings. When you encounter the stubborn smallmouth a change in mind set and baits is recommended. Smaller lures and a finesse style can payoff in fish. The maddening aspect of being a smallmouth angler is one day you may boat fifteen the next day the same baits in the same spot goes unrewarded. I experiment with retrieve speed and generally utilize a faster retrieve with the bigger baits and a slow, swimming, twitch, rest retrieve with the smaller baits.

Baitcasting combos spooled with 12-pound test monofilament are n my kayak for the buzzing, cranking and spinnerbait chores. For the lightweight lures I use a seven-foot spinning outfit, the reel is loaded with eight-pound test braided line and a leader of eight-pound test fluorocarbon. (I make the leader a ½ foot shorter than the rod.) Set the drag on your reels accordingly, a big smallmouth will spool you (take all your line) and the drag should give some on the light line set up.

We handle our smallmouth very carefully and release each one after a few photos. If we want fish for a meal, we keep a few crappie, bluegill or smaller legal largemouth bass. These fish are too precious to not be recycled.
Smallmouth, magnificent and absolutely mysterious.