This was a BIG smallmouth. Just how big, we didn’t know. “Do you think it’s over 7 pounds?” asked my fishing partner, Mark Davis, for the third time. “Yes, I believe it’s 7-plus,” I replied—again.

Mark is Public Relations Director for Shakespeare, Pflueger, All Star, and Cajun Lines, and had caught the huge bass a short time earlier on a current break in the Middle Gap at Buffalo Harbor. “I don’t want to haul this fish to a bait shop to weigh it,” he said. “I want to release it.” All the while he kept his foot on the trolling motor foot-control to maintain our boat’s position in the strong current, which was trying to push us out of Lake Erie and down the Upper Niagara River.

“But I sure would like to know if it beats my personal best, 7.2 pounds from Pickwick Lake,” he said. “These Erie smallies are hard to judge—built like a cement block, short but extremely wide from back to belly, and very thick.”

We hoped to see another boat that might have a scale, but the threat of bad weather had sent them scurrying for the ramp. Then, at the same instant, we both saw a small black object floating toward the boat. Davis reached over the side and plucked it from the water. A Berkley handheld scale! “‘Ask and ye shall receive!’” he cried. What are the chances, in Erie’s 640,000 acres , that the moment we need a scale one would float by?

“If that thing has been in the water for long, no way it’s going to work,” I said in disbelief.

Davis hit the “On” button, and the digital read-out came up 0.0. So far, so good. I lifted his bronzeback from the livewell and, with extreme care, Mark weighed it. At first the numbers jumped back and forth, finally settling at 7.4 pounds.

As Mark released the fish, I clicked the shutter on my final frame. “My biggest smallmouth ever,” he said, “caught on an emerald shiner!”

It wasn’t enough that Davis used livebait to beat me five bass to every one that I caught on tube jigs. That wasn’t unexpected. Choosing the correct indigenous livebait and presenting it properly in a current situation frequently outfishes artificial lures for numbers of fish. But he swept big fish honors with livebait, as well.

Davis stated, “If smallmouth bass are scattered over a wide area but aggressively hunting prey, an artificial lure out-produces livebait. But when they’re tight-lipped like today, even fussy smallmouth can’t let prey go by when current delivers it to them.”

Baits for River Smallmouth

Flowing water and smallmouths are a match made in nature, so it’s no wonder that current and current breaks are a bronzeback’s two best allies. Current serves up the food while a current break provides the dining room. Whether it’s a small creek or big river, current positions smallies in easily identifiable and more reliable locations than smallmouth that wander the still waters of impoundments.

I grew up fishing livebait for smallmouth bass on the Shenango River in Western Pennsylvania. But baitfishing was put on hold after I learned to use artificials. Then there was a decade-plus of tournament bass angling where livebait was taboo. But eventually I revisited my angling roots of livebaitin’ for smallmouth.

I’ve been indoctrinated by local river rats into the seasons of livebait. The general pattern of what to use is applicable to creeks and rivers throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and Midsouth, although species of preyfish vary regionally.