Systems Of Suspense Are Better Than Most Anglers Can Believe

He came strolling up the ramp as darkness descended. “Tough day,” he said, leaning on my boat. “It never seemed tough at this time of year, until local tournaments started hitting the spot with increasing regularity,” I replied. He smiled. “I guess I’m part of the problem. I discovered this river bite in a tournament. Can’t get enough of it now. But the fishing really tapered off this year. I only caught 10. How many—” He paused after glancing down at the bobber rods on my deck. A look of bemused disgust crossed his face. “That’s cheating!”

No, the fishing hasn’t tapered off. It only seems that way, because techniques that worked fantastically well six years ago are all but worthless now. In that short time, pressure morphed thousands of tigers into thousands of puddy ’tats. And kitty likes different toys. My friend at the ramp was wrong to think that a bobber means bait. It can mean jigs, drop-shot rigs, split-shot rigs, plastics on bare hooks, tandem rigs or, yeah, bait. OK, he was right. I was using mud-flap leeches on a #4 Eagle Claw baitholder. And I heard the edge in his voice, the unspoken cry of “Heresy!” If we were Puritans I’d be a pile of ashes.

Those ready to tie me to a stake and light the tinder at my feet, grant me a paragraph in defense: The float goes down when a smallmouth clamps on the bait, and if the bass lets go, the bobber pulls the bait away. Set quickly enough and the hook is generally in the mouth, almost never in the gills, but sometimes swallowed. If so, cut the line, donate a small single hook, and the fish will probably be fine. If it happens more than once: A) You’re on a bite hot enough to preclude bait, or B) Switch to circle hooks and remember not to set the hook, but rather point the rod at the fish, let the tension build until the hook is set in the corner of the mouth, and sweep. Now, how many of you have tried to remove both trebles on an $8 crankbait from the gills of an overly aggressive smallmouth? Case closed. Now get away from me with those matches.

But why use floats for smallmouths? First: A suspended jig, plastic, hardbait, or livebait is uniquely well adapted to catching smallmouths, the wild success of suspending jerkbaits standing in evidence. If it’s something they generally eat, they might eat it. If it hovers just over their heads and stays there, they will almost assuredly eat it. Take a look around, next time you’re smallmouth fishing. With the exception of float-and-fly anglers plying cold water, nobody uses floats for smallmouths to take advantage of this dynamic. Second: A kid could do this. So it’s a great way to introduce kids to smallmouths.

Ever eat lunch? Bobbers. Relax and enjoy while a fly or plastic worm bobs enticingly under the waves nearby. Ever have smallmouths gather under your boat? Bobbers. Right off the transom. Matt Smiley of Eagle Claw watched a 5-pound smallmouth follow a hooked walleye up to my net last year. “It went right under the boat,” he said. I suggested that he suspend a leech right off the transom with a float rod I had rigged and ready on the deck. We were anchored, but could have been drifting slowly and the same thing would have happened. Smiley hooked the fish right beside the outboard about 5 minutes later.

Three years ago, that bass could have been taken on a jig-grub combo held directly under the boat, hanging horizontally, or it might have responded to a slow lift-drop with a plastic worm. That doesn’t work so well anymore in that lake, which brings us back to the subject of pressure. (Don’t ask why, if it bit right under the boat anyway, it wouldn’t bite a tube. It might have, but you’ve just got to be there sometimes.)