When broken shards of ice are still bobbing in the lake, some smallmouth bass are already shallow and biting in most still-water environments. River smallmouths tend to lag a little behind, waiting for water temperatures to climb up near 50°F before venturing out of winter habitat. In many reservoirs, smallmouths become active and suspend when the water begins to warm. Whichever environments abide nearby, your ducks should be in a row long before these things happen.

The process of getting ready for the season should be a many-faceted plus. Constant reorganization breeds familiarity with those gnarly tackle boxes. Knowing where to look and finding things quickly make fishing more efficient. Knowing when to replace diminished supplies of hooks, leaders, shot, and other terminal tackle saves many an outing.

Spring and fall tend to be the most productive seasons for smallmouth bass, because seasonal needs demand additional energy at those times of year. Each season demands different tackle, too. One way to deal with that is to store tackle in component boxes and label each one with the appropriate season. A box marked “spring smallmouth cranks” contains more suspending baits, more shallow runners, fewer round baits, and generally smaller lures than a box marked “fall smallmouth cranks.” With spring at the doorstep, it might be time to consider creating seasonally appropriate boxes.

Reorganization of that spring box every winter is a stone-engraved requirement for serious anglers. Among the dazzling array of new products generated by the fishing industry every year, a select few will appeal to smallmouths tremendously well in your favorite lakes and rivers. Finding that select few means creating space in the box for experimental stuff. Easy. Everything that failed to work last year? Gone. This is no time for sentimentality. That series of lures that kicked butt five years ago but hasn’t produced since goes into storage. The goal is to have nothing in the box that didn’t work last year, or at least the year before, creating room for promising innovations.

The goal is staying one step ahead of the crowd with bait selection every season of the year. Something new that appeals to smallmouths generally has a life expectancy of one or two seasons before the weekend warriors catch on. But the new thing doesn’t have to be a recently developed lure. It could be a color or pattern you create yourself. It could be an old lure everybody forgot about. Point is, you have to be ready to show smallmouths something they haven’t seen that they actually want to eat, and that’s why you need to make room in the box now.

Some time-tested things keep on ticking, every spring, year after year. We strongly suggest, here, that you try these things and develop a systematic method for trying new things, using gear designed to optimize your presentations, your efficiency, and your odds.

Float Tactics

Spring is the time for light jigs and slow retrieves. A 1/16-ounce jig works better in spring than at any other time of year. But it’s not the lightest jig that works.

Time-tested things that seldom fail for spring smallmouths include float-and-fly systems. Right at ice-out, or at a commensurate point south of the Mason-Dixon, smallmouths in reservoirs begin to suspend near wintering sites. In natural lakes, even in Canadian lakes, some smallmouths begin patrolling shallow-water spawning sites even before the ice breaks up on the main lakes. This is a foraging movement, and while smallmouths can be quite active, smaller and slower presentations often prove most appealing.

You need a long rod for float-and-fly presentations. G. Loomis recently introduced a 91⁄2-foot rod for this application, the SMR1140S-FF. The length allows me to fish down to 10 or 11 feet with a fixed float, which is critical. Making the fly (typically a 1/32-ounce synthetic hair jig) rise and fall in a series of small arcs is the predominant trigger in cold water, requiring a fixed float (as opposed to a slipfloat). Deadsticking the fly or letting it rise and fall gently in the waves tends to be most effective when manipulation of the fly fails to produce.

The SPRO Phat Fly and the TC Tackle Stubby Shiner are the flies I use most in spring. The SPRO Baby Bass pattern, a realistic fly, has accounted for a number of spring trophies on my boat. Forage tends to be small in spring, but even if the majority of forage items were larger, I believe smallmouths would continue to key on smaller shiners and fry in many environments until the water warms above 50°F, because small lures work so well, and because the metabolic processes within a cold bass are so slow. Small-diameter braided lines shine for float-and-fly mainlines, because they float and, potentially, cast farther, if you use the right line. I use 6-pound-test Berkley FireLine, which works well with the smaller Rainbow Plastics A-Just-A-Bubble, a sensitive float that casts for distance.

The fluorocarbon leader materials (attached to the mainline with a SPRO barrel swivel) should be in the 4- to 6-pound range. Toray Super Finesse and Raven Fluorocarbon lines perform admirably well when the idea is to hang something in space while making it appear unattached, because these are truly limp lines, unlike most fluorocarbons. The key to float-and-fly fishing in spring is to place the fly in their faces or a few feet over their heads in the lanes they travel most frequently between deep and shallow water.

A similar technique employs wacky-rigged plastics under a float. Again, in spring, the best tools tend to be small, and I like 3-inch Yamamoto Senkos and YUM Dingers on a #4 baitholder hook, presented on the same tackle and in the same way mentioned above. A wacky-rigged, cigar-shaped worm often tears free and is lost while battling a smallmouth, so Case Plastics has come out with the O-Wacky Tool, which facilitates the placement of a small O-ring around the exact center of the worm. Slip the hook through the O-ring instead of the plastic. Fewer plastics are lost this way, and far more bass can be caught on each worm before it tears apart.

Suspending Baits

At the same point, right at ice-out, suspending jerkbaits begin to deliver and can be the most effective option right through Postspawn for big smallmouths. The Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and Pointer 100 are the Cadillacs of this genre, because they suspend so perfectly right out of the box. I’ve had great success with the XCalibur X series and the Rapala X-Raps, which sometimes need to be tweaked. The key, especially early, with water temperatures under 45°F, is to work a suspending bait down to its running depth and leave it alone for long periods of time. Deadsticking a suspending bait for a minute or more at this time of year can be deadly, but it requires a braided mainline and a sensitive rod. Strikes are soft, reminiscent of what you feel when a bass plucks a finesse worm off the bottom. Braids transmit that subtle take much better, and 10-pound FireLine casts farther with fewer tangles than mono or (for my money) other braids. When using spinning reels for these slow retrieves in spring, the line doesn’t pack right and it eventually leads to problems.

One of the best spinning rods for casting and working jerkbaits in spring is the St. Croix Avid AVS70MLF, a medium-light 7-footer that propels lures in this category long distances while allowing you to create a subtle presentation and feel light takes. Fluorocarbon is required here, too, and because suspending baits tend to dive into shallow rocks a lot this time of year, you need a tough one. The most abrasion-resistant fluorocarbons available today are made by Ande, Maxima, and Toray.

The Numbers Game

Few things produce more strikes in spring than swimming a 4-inch Berkley Power Grub or Power Worm on a light head. My tournament partner, Tim Dawidiuk, uses 4-pound Ande, but I prefer 5-pound monofilament. One of the few companies selling filler spools of 5-pound is Maxima. Ultragreen is characterized as a tough, abrasion-resistant line, but it’s reasonably limp and casts extremely well when broken in. Both Ande and Maxima lines seem to perform better the third day than the first, and both tend to be problem-free when given a good stretch in the morning before you hit the water.

A 4- to 5-pound line produces longer casts than an equivalent 6-pound line, but smallmouths are tough. I don’t trust many of the thin, limp, 6-pound lines on the market when tangling with a 5-pound smallie. So why not use braid with a fluorocarbon leader? Braids are fine when swimming plastics in summer, but slower is better in spring. The larger diameter of monofilament allows you to retrieve a grub or worm much more slowly while keeping it up in the middle of the water column, where you want it.

The best 1/16-ounce jigs for this technique remain the Matzuo Heavy Metal Head, the Gamakatsu Ball Head, and the Owner Ultrahead Darter. The Matzuo jig, with its fish-head realism and fluted underside, seems to keep the bait up better with tension on the line during a slow retrieve. Ball heads are universally effective, and bullet heads add action on a slow retrieve as the pointed nose is pushed first to one side then the other by water resistance during the retrieve.

And the retrieve is easy. Cast, let the jig-grub or jig-worm slowly sink a few feet (about halfway to bottom is optimum on shallow flats), and start reeling with the rod tip pointed down or (in water shallower than 4 feet) parallel to the water. Reel just fast enough to keep the jig from sinking, and just slow enough to keep it from rising. With a 1/16-ounce head, it’s a very slow retrieve, almost suspending.

Not every grub or worm operates on a 1/16-ounce head. The light head cannot make some baits fall fast enough, or force you to reel them fast enough, to make the tail work. With some grubs, when the tail tries to kick, it makes the package spin or turn up on its side, which is why I referred to Berkley grubs, one of the largest baits (4 inches) that operates on these light jigs. Many 3-inch grubs work, but a slightly larger grub seems to trigger more fish most days. Soft, handpoured worms, like the Persuader Curly Tail, tend to function nicely on 1/16-ounce jigs.

Before the surface of most bays reaches 46°F or so, I’ve witnessed hundreds of smallmouths over time following or bumping a grub on a 3/32-ounce head, which is barely heavier than a 1/16. Switching to the smaller jig, those bumps become bites more often than not. A 3/32-ounce Gopher Tackle Mushroom Head, one of the best hookers out there, is perfect for swimming grubs on shallow flats throughout most of the spring season, even when the water is colder than 45°F at times.

The perfect rod for presenting a 1/16-ounce jig-worm or jig-grub combo does not exist. My favorite is a 71⁄2-foot Lamiglas that is no longer in production. My partner, Dawidiuk, likes the 8-foot St. Croix Avid AVS80MLM2. The tip needs to load in order to throw this light package any distance. Tough to find a stick with a tip that soft that remains moderately fast. The added length is required to provide a longer sweep and faster tip speed during the cast. When throwing 3/32- to 1/8-ounce heads, I jump to 6-pound Maxima Ultragreen, and I often depend on 7-foot Fenwick rods, especially the Techna AVS 70MLF, a very sensitive, fast stick that protects light line well.

Creating Signature Colors

When testing colors side by side during a hot bite, all other factors being equal, I generally find that one or two specific colors or combinations catch more fish than any others. I’m prejudiced, yes, and I probably feel more confident with certain colors. But I find it hard to believe that, during a hot bite, I’m not going to anticipate a strike no matter what color I’m throwing, so I tend to think color is relatively important. One good response for pressured fish (and we all have those, these days) is to create unique colors. Show them something they haven’t seen, by bleeding colors into grubs and worms.

For instance, Persuader offers one of the few smoke-green plastics (the Curly Tail) on the market. The smoke-green Curly Tail not only produces big smallmouths for me every year, it tempts some huge, shallow walleyes as well. I make my own smoke-green plastics by bleeding them, placing 5-inch Kalin clear or smoke grubs into packages of watermelon or green pumpkin plastics. After a few days (unless left in a very warm car or boat), the clear grubs become slightly tinted. After a few weeks they become darker, almost too dark, in some instances.

This is just a suggestion. It requires a lot of experimentation and time to find the shade you’re going for, and some plastics don’t bleed much. Forget about them for a month or so and you might end up with colors designed for the wastebasket. But it’s a great way to add chartreuse, purple, or green hints to subtle grubs, too. And, if you’re a smallmouth angler, what else do you have to do all winter?

I always believed black, white, brown, or grey were the only colors I needed for jigheads, probably because those colors represent about 90 percent of what the market provides in terms of bass jigs. But something made me paint a few football heads watermelon green, and, side by side during numerous hot bites the past two years, watermelon heads produced more strikes than any others. Then I started experimenting with nail polish, which comes in thousands of shades, most of which have never been seen by any smallmouths on the planet. What I discovered is scary and I don’t want to get into it here except to say “mauve.” Take it or leave it.

Combinations of signature colors you can create are almost mathematically endless. Bleed some plastics and paint your own jigheads, choosing shades not found on jigs anywhere, remembering that paints can be mixed. Or try nail polish (remember to put a clear sealant over it or heat will make the polish soft). For the most part, my nail polish experiments have been confined to panfish and steelhead jigs. For those species, I seldom use standard colors found on the SKUs anymore. From what I’ve seen so far with smallmouth bass, I’m leaning in that direction there, too.

Do-It Corporation offers over 50 shades of powder paint alone. Do-It, Spike-It, and several other companies provide a variety of dip paints for customizing every kind of lure. Spike-It pens are very effective for adding orange, chartreuse, and other highlights to plastics while you’re on the water. Creating new colors is one way to stay ahead of the crowd, and a great antidote for cabin fever and bad ice.