Summer 2019
®
Staying in contact with the bottom is key, but sometimes a finesse dropshot
is needed over a
football head jig.
and selecting the right bait has a lot to do with its diving depth. You want to select a crankbait that will achieve the desired depth, while contacting the fish holding cover, but not hanging up. The diving depth of your crankbait will be altered by the line type and pound-test you spool up with.
If I want to keep my bait from running as deep, I’ll use heavier test, or a monofilament like Seaguar Rippin’ Mono.
If need to get my bait deeper to hit that rock pile, I’ll use a Fluorocarbon line and decrease the size to one, such as Seaguar AbrazX in 12- or 15-pound.
When those smallmouths are still looking to chase down a meal, but have seen crankbaits and swimbaits, a technique you can turn to is fishing a swing-head jig .
TIP
ELECTRONICS: When fishing a dropshot over rock piles or a weed clump, you are likely fishing directly over the structure. You want to have your electronics set up in this situation so that you can see your dropshot sinker descend to the bottom and see the arches of the fish (hopefully bass) below. When you see an arch on the screen, you can move your dropshot ever so slightly and more than likely get that bass in the boat. I look for rock piles, the tip of a point, or a hump that has deep water close by and baitfish around it.
WEIGHT: Like fishing a Carolina-rig, I’ll use the lightest possible weight possible to give my bait a very natural look. Using a very sharp hook is important to get those big bronzebacks into the boat, which is why I use the Eagle Claw Lazer TroKar Drop Shot hook in a 1/0. I’ll nose hook a variety of soft plastic baits, such as finesse worms, tubes and shad imitations.
#3 CRANKIN’ TO SWINGIN’
Crankbaits are a great summer smallmouth tactic, because you can cover a lot of water very quickly and you can effectively mimic several things that a smallmouth may be feeding on – such as shad, perch or crawdads.
Crankbaits come in a wide variety of colors that resemble the above forage I mentioned and selecting the exact color will depend on the water clarity and weather conditions you are fishing in.
Covering a shoreline, weedline or
point is very easy to do with a crankbait
Keep the bait moving, but switch
profiles from a
crankbait to a
swing-head jig.
By using a heavy enough head, like 1/2 or 3/4-ounce, your bait can stay in contact with the bottom and while you slowly bring line in with your reel, the plastic will just have enough action in the water to coax a smallmouth into biting.
When I choose a swing-head, I use an All-Terrain Tackle Swing Head Rock jig, because, I can select the weight head and the exact hook I want. Both style and size depend on the plastic bait I want to fish.
Baits such as craws and creature baits shine when smallmouth are looking down to feed on crawfish, but a soft plastic swimbait can also be rigged on a swing head if they are feeding on baitfish or perch.
By having these tactics and techniques in
your smallmouth fishing arsenal, you’ll be able to
stay in the zone and targeting smallmouth bass,
even if they stop biting the original presentation
you were targeting them with. •
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Credit Zach Rinn