Spring 2020
®
ALLMOUTH
By Dr. Ricky Shabazz
Pre-spawn and spawning smallmouth stack up in areas of the river where current is reduced. Working current breaks with overhanging tules, grass beds, wood cover, sandbars, and eddies right against the bank is a very productive way to catch staging smallmouth bass in a river system.
Angler’s Marine and Daiwa Pro Tony “Team Bling” Lain targets smallmouth by sight fishing in the river.
“Smallmouth bass are easy to see due to the clear water and current flows that form current breaks and back eddies,” shared Lain. “The smallmouth that live in current breaks usually feed by sight. These smallmouth act like trout swimming in and around current breaks in search of what the current brings downstream; so, a key is to let the bait float downstream in as natural of a way possible.
“It is very cool to look down in the water and see a three-pound smallmouth bolt out of a current break to eat your bait.”
For these situations, Lain opts for soft plastic stick baits. “I have one rigged up for finesse, if the fish are spooky and another for heavy fishing, if there are trees or other heavy cover nearby,” Lain said.
For finesse, he
prefers a four-inch
Natural Shad Fat Neko Worm rigged
with a 2/0 wide gap hook. For heavy
cover, he opts for a larger five-inch
Yamamoto Senko or Daiwa Macho
Worm rigged with a 5/0 wide gap
worm hook.
He chooses natural colors
such as Green Pumpkin no flake
or shad patterns. He ties on with
fluorocarbon married to Daiwa J
Braid via a uni knot. He fishes the
finesse set up on a Daiwa Tatula
Elite 7’1”, medium action Brent Ehrler
Dropshot rod paired with a Tatula LT
3000-CXH spinning reel.
For the heavier applications, he uses a Daiwa Tatula Elite 7’6”, medium-heavy Cody Meyer Search Bait Rod paired with a Daiwa Tatula Elite 7.1:1 baitcasting reel.
Lain prefers to target current breaks with shade.
He always positions his boat on the shady side of the river facing into the current. This allows skittish shallow water fish to feel safer as a bait drifts by them with their backs to the boat.
2
TRASH POCKETS
The second way to catch smallmouth bass sight fishing in a river involves targeting trash pockets.
As the smallmouth begin to concentrate into the
shallows, switch to flipping and pitching into thick trash
pockets that form in various places along the river. These
trash pockets are often the result of leaves and other
debris being blown along the shoreline.
“You will be surprised how many big
smallmouth live in shallow water trash along the
river,” said Lain. “The pockets offer a shady current
break to ambush easy meals.”
Lain presents the lure by pitching right up on
the bank or into the trash pocket and letting the
bait slip it into the water
Texas-rigged soft plastics, such as crawdad-
style baits and weedless skirted jigs are his
lures of choice. He uses a dark colored or a pure
white four-inch Strike King Rage Menace rigged
with punch skirt material. For weight, he selects
either a ¼- to 1-oz tungsten weight, 2/0 wide gap
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