Smallmouth Bass Articles

Over the years, we’ve learned to visualize 
the potential of softbaits still in the bag. An experienced eye and probing finger take in texture, shape, and detail, as well as color. Converting potential...View article

Given the chance, I think most bass fishermen would rather catch big smallmouths than big largemouths. No surprise, you say, because smallmouths typically fight harder and jump higher than their cousins....View article

Pavlov’s dogs, fed for days at the sounding of a bell, began to salivate at the chime with no food in sensory range. Few witness that kind of conditioning, but perhaps you’ve seen a dog cower at...View article

The more I learn, the less I know. At least it seems that way lately when it comes to structure fishing for smallmouth bass with tube-jigs. At one time, I was regarded as somewhat of a regional expert...View article

When a team desperately needs a touchdown, Coach tells the quarterback to throw deep. The same strategy works for bass anglers applying new tactics for fooling big bass in deep water. Last...View article

The word is out on a finesse system that has professional anglers scrambling to master it. While its components and concept are far from new, rigging worms wacky-style on jigheads created an undercurrent...View article

Soft plastic baits in every conceivable color have displaced hair jigs in the tackle boxes of most smallmouth bass anglers. Soft plastics are widely available and catch smallmouth everywhere they swim....View article

You will be allowed one style of plastic bait for smallmouth bass. One style to fish all year, to the exclusion of all else, by decree of the Tired Old Magistrate of Hackneyed Expressions (call him...View article

Once fall turnover is past, water temperatures hover around 50F. During the days after turnover, warm afternoons can encourage bass to bite aggressively on normal-size baits, or even outsize spinnerbaits...View article

To the untrained eye, there may be little difference between baits popular 25 years ago and today's models. Jigs are conservative lures, in terms of design changes. Some might say the jig is the perfect...View article

The morning starts out with a fresh, Texas-rigged softbait. After an hour and a half, a cup of coffee, and several bass, tattered baits begin to pile up on the deck. By noon, a few more fish, sardines...View article

Brett Richardson, an avid multispecies angler from Bergenfield, New Jersey, reports: "Of all the memorable smallmouth excursions through the eastern Great Lakes region, the last 10 years of Lake Erie-Niagara...View article

Though jig fishing carries the image of a power-fishing approach, the hottest application today is downsized jigs designed to draw strikes from bass that shun other baits, including big jigs. Jim Eakins...View article