The Smallmouth Bass is a wonderful combination of stealth and aggression; once hooked, it is a fierce fighter. They are predators, and they grow to impressive girths and body weights. In most areas, males range from two to four pounds while females reach up to six pounds. Thriving in warm water seasons, they grow to more than 11 pounds in warmer regions and into the range of 20 to 22 inches. Adults feast on crayfish, smaller fish, and minnows.
Keep or Catch-and-Release
When keeping a few for dinner, the Smallmouth is an excellent choice for table fish. It has white, slightly sweet meat, and goes quite well with a number of styles including the ever-present filet sautéed in butter. Originally used to replace Brook Trout in many American rivers, lakes, and streams, anglers value the Smallmouth as a food source. Catch and release work well with Smallmouth Bass, and one can use barb-less hooks and practice good techniques to limit exposure out of the water, and limit injury when removing one’s favorite lure. They are a resilient species and have adapted well to a wide range of conditions. Many states had stocked reservoirs, lakes, and ponds with Smallmouth Bass and seeded them in rivers and streams. Anglers enjoy the challenge of luring them to strike and to land them on light tackle.
Got Clean Water? Check the Smallmouth
The typical habitat for Smallmouth is clean, clear waters in lakes and rivers. In the United States, conservationists used Smallmouth to replace the dwindling supply of Brook trout in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s as industrial pollution causes a severe loss of that species. However, Smallmouth Bass also are sensitive to pollution and their numbers fell drastically in recent decades until sustained efforts to clean and conserve waterways gradually brought improved environmental conditions. Their native range was in the North and Eastern United States, but they have spread and been transplanted through stocking programs to nearly every part of the United States.
Hard Baits And Techniques Get Strikes
In late summer and early autumn, Smallmouth Bass enjoy the bounty of the seasons, and they feast and fatten in the warm sunny days and mild nights. Anglers can catch them on spinning tackle using a wide variety of hard baits. They feed at every depth and strike with fierce intensity. Many anglers favor crank baits that resemble small fish. These are excellent for covering a wide area of water to locate areas of feeding activity. One can use crank baits in a variety of colors to meet condition of light and water color. Smallmouth Bass use vision to locate prey in clear or stained water.
Minnow lures work well at several depths including top-water presentations, which produce dramatic leaping strikes. Anglers often swim these authentic looking baits along edges of structures and cover. They work very well when uses in a stop and start pattern above the grass lines. One can retrieve spinner baits at varying speeds to see which will attract strikes. One can bounce spinner baits off submerged structures to trigger a hard strike on days when the fish seem to be holding in cooler water.
Buzz baits can trigger strikes when ripped across the water just beyond visible structures such as submerged trees and natural features. With all hard baits, one can carry several color patterns, and this can be the key to a successful day of Smallmouth Bass fishing. Color, motion, and sound trigger strikes; water conditions often determine which colors are best suited for success. One must take into account both the temperature and clarity of the water.
Planers Work On-Shore Too
For a twist on the use of planer boards, on-shore anglers can use them too. They can put hard baits into the currents of fast moving rivers and streams, or into calm areas just beyond casting range. One reverses the direction of the board and uses a lanyard clip to release the line once in the bait gets to the desired spot. In currents, crank baits and most hard baits operate as if being retrieved.
In the picture: 20.75 inch Small Mouth Bass weighing in at 4 lb 12 oz., caught on Lake Geneva using a Yellow Bird T-weight Teflon Coated Barrel Sinker.
Yellow Bird Products
1803 Holian Drive
Spring Grove, IL 60081
815-469-9686
