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What Lure For Smallmouth Bass

Tie on a ned-rigged soft plastic and fish it ned rig style. That is the first choice for smallmouth bass on this site: 1/16-1/8 oz on jighead hooks. It is poor in wind or current strong enough to push it around, because a bait that will not stay put has lost the one thing it does well.

Tackle for smallmouth bass is a decision made repeatedly, not once. So it is organized by method: the way you are fishing decides the bait long before brand or color does. Each group below carries the rod requirement that method implies. A bait the rod in your hand cannot cast is not an option, however well it suits the fish.

Ned Rig

A small bait dragged slowly over rock looks like the crayfish they are already hunting. It is also the easiest thing here to fish from the bank.

A bait this light only casts on a rod light enough to bend under it. The fast tip is what shows you a bite, because nothing about this bait pulls hard enough to announce itself.

  • Ned-rigged soft plastic

    Weight
    1/16-1/8 oz
    Size
    3"
    Hook
    jighead
    Water
    clear

    Ned-rigged soft plastic is a 1/16-1/8 oz rig fished on jighead hooks (a hook with its weight molded on at the eye), which suits smallmouth bass in clear water. Best over rock and gravel in clear water, when fish are down on the bottom and will not chase anything moving quickly. Cast it and let it sink all the way down on a slack line. Wait. Then drag it a couple of feet with the rod, stop, and wait again. Most bites come while it is sitting still.

    Poor in wind or current strong enough to push it around, because a bait that will not stay put has lost the one thing it does well.

Tube Jigging

A tube falls with a spiral and works down through boulders, which is where a river fish waits out the current.

A fast tip lets you lift the tube over a rock instead of dragging it into one. It also shows the bite, which on a falling tube is the line moving sideways and nothing more.

  • Tube jig

    Weight
    1/8-3/8 oz
    Size
    3-4"
    Hook
    jighead
    Water
    clear and stained

    Tube jig is a 1/8-3/8 oz jig fished on jighead hooks, which suits smallmouth bass in clear and stained water. Strong around boulders and broken rock. In a river it works best where fish hold in the calmer water beside the current. Let it fall on a slack line and watch where the line enters the water. On the bottom, drag it a foot at a time with the rod tip low. Lift it over rock instead of pulling it through.

    A poor choice over clean sand or open water with nothing on the bottom, where the falling spiral is all it has left to offer.

Jighead and Soft Plastic

When they have come off the bottom to chase small fish, something that swims covers water a dragged bait never will.

A fast tip reads the faint knock of a bite through slack line, and the exposed single hook needs a quick, short set and not a long sweep.

  • Light paddle-tail swimbait

    Weight
    1/4-7/16 oz
    Size
    3-4"
    Hook
    jighead
    Water
    clear and stained

    Light paddle-tail swimbait is a 1/4-7/16 oz lure fished on jighead hooks, which suits smallmouth bass in clear and stained water. Best when fish have left the bottom and are chasing small fish in open water, where something that swims covers ground a dragged bait never will. Cast past the fish, count it down to the depth you want, then wind slowly and steadily. Let it drop back toward the bottom every so often. Bites usually come as it starts down.

    Weak on fish pinned to the bottom and feeding on crayfish, where something crawling beats something swimming past.

Crankbait Fishing

Pick one that runs the depth you are fishing and it finds fish along a rock bank faster than anything else here.

A moderate rod flexes deeply through the cast for a bait with wind resistance. More importantly, it keeps small treble hooks pinned when a fish shakes at the boat.

  • Medium-diving crankbait

    Weight
    1/2-7/8 oz
    Size
    2.5-3.5"
    Hook
    treble
    Water
    clear and stained
    Depth
    6-14 ft

    Medium-diving crankbait is a 1/2-7/8 oz lure fished on treble hooks (three hook points sharing one shaft), which suits smallmouth bass in clear and stained water. It works between 6 and 14 feet. Effective along defined depth changes where fish sit out away from the bank and a shallow bait never reaches them. Make a long cast and reel fast enough to get it down quickly. Then hold a steady pace so it bumps the bottom or the top of the cover it is meant to reach.

    Not the tool in under four feet of water, where it fouls on the bottom before it ever swims properly.

Jerkbait Fishing

A bait that darts and then hangs still pulls them up off the bottom when they are hunting minnows.

You snap this bait down with the rod on every single retrieve, so a rod that gives is doing that work all day. The same give keeps small treble hooks in a fish that shakes its head at your feet.

  • Suspending jerkbait

    Weight
    3/8-7/16 oz
    Size
    3.5-4"
    Hook
    treble
    Water
    clear

    Suspending jerkbait is a 3/8-7/16 oz lure fished on treble hooks, which suits smallmouth bass in clear water. Best in clear water when fish are hunting minnows and are shallow enough to see a bait pass overhead. Two or three sharp downward snaps of the rod tip, then stop and count. Reel up the slack between the snaps, not through them. Lengthen the pause until you find what they want.

    Wrong in dirty water, where a fish never sees the dart and the stop that make the bait work.

Walking a Topwater Plug

They will come up in low light over shallow rock. Missing half of them is normal and not a mistake you made.

Enough tip speed to work the bait in rhythm, but not so stiff that a treble tears free when a fish rolls on the plug instead of eating it cleanly.

  • Walking topwater plug

    Weight
    1/2-7/8 oz
    Size
    4-5.5"
    Hook
    treble
    Water
    clear and stained
    Depth
    0-1 ft

    Walking topwater plug is a 1/2-7/8 oz lure fished on treble hooks, which suits smallmouth bass in clear and stained water. It works between 0 and 1 feet. Best in low light over shallow water with fish feeding up, and it stays useful all day when there is enough surface chop to hide the boat. Point the rod tip down and give short downward taps in a steady rhythm, taking up slack between taps so the plug swings instead of pulling straight.

    Not worth tying on in heavy wind or a strong current, where the plug cannot hold a rhythm and fish cannot track it.

  • Popper

    Weight
    1/4-5/8 oz
    Size
    2.5-4"
    Hook
    treble
    Water
    clear and stained
    Depth
    0-1 ft

    Popper is a 1/4-5/8 oz lure fished on treble hooks, which suits smallmouth bass in clear and stained water. It works between 0 and 1 feet. Good over an isolated target such as a dock, a stump or a single oyster clump, where holding the bait in one place matters more than covering water. Cast past the target, let the rings settle, then pull sharply once and wait — most strikes come during the pause, not the pop.

    Inefficient for searching a large flat, where a walking bait moves more water per cast and covers ground faster.

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