Just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s really hot, and vice-versa. Most years, things both hot and new for smallmouth bass make a mighty short list. But that was before the popularity of smallmouth fishing went through the roof. That list now includes specialty rods, a luxury smalljaw anglers haven’t enjoyed in the past.

When a new lure really appeals to smallmouth bass, it might become a staple, alongside the venerable tubes and grubs and jerks that never fail. But even new staples tend to be most effective within the first few months after being introduced. “Remember when Lunker City’s Slug-Go first came out?” Kevin VanDam asked me recently. “You could throw it anywhere and get bit. Bass that would bite nothing else would chase it down. Multiple wakes would converge on it.”

Swimbaits

“That’s what the new King Shad is like,” he continued, referring to the new hard-body swimbait from Strike King. “I recently fished a small natural lake on a windy day that kept me off the bigger lakes. I’d never caught really big smallmouths in that lake, just numbers. I tried a King Shad there and within 45 minutes I had a string of bass ranging from 4.5 to 6 pounds. I’d never seen bass that size in the lake before.

“Needless to say, when I’ve wanted to catch big ones the past couple seasons, I’ve been throwing swimbaits,” VanDam said, “though not the largest California editions. The soft-plastic variety are good, but you miss a lot of fish. The King Shad, by comparison, is a great hooker with a few modifications, and it’s just 4 inches long, within that critical size range that appeals best to smallmouths. In ultraclear water it has a completely natural look.”

VanDam said he’s been testing it out in the gin-clear waters of Grand Traverse Bay. “In that 0- to 15-foot zone, smallmouths can see this bait extremely well. They rise up and just blast it. The primary prey for smallmouths in the Great Lakes includes smelt, gobies, and alewives—all fairly large, open-water baitfish. I’m still amazed how well they bite that thing. When they won’t chase any other type of reaction bait, I’m smoking fish with this swimbait.”

The King Shad comes in a 4-inch size only, but it’s tall from belly to dorsal, like a shad. “It can troll up to 14 mph and it won’t roll,” VanDam said. “That means you can burn it, snap it, and rip it without blowing it off-track. I modify it for smallies by changing the trebles to Mustad Ultra-Points, which increases the hookup ratio. And I’ve been adding weight to it because it only runs about 3 to 4 feet deep out of the package.

“I cast it on a 6-foot 10-inch or 7-foot rod, the same ones I use for spinnerbaits, with 17-pound fluorocarbon line. The size of fish you catch on this swimbait is amazing. It looks so natural in the water, it seems to mesmerize bass. Strike King is coming out with a waking version, too, but, honestly, I wish this lure had never been introduced and I still had it to myself.”

Heavy Worms

Ever read about the “heavy-water” experiments by the Nazis during World War II? They thought it was the key to developing nuclear weapons, largely because the Allies kept blowing up the facilities that produced water with three parts oxygen. If that ingenious ploy had not succeeded, we might be flying swastikas instead of Ol’ Glory today.

This year we embark on the heavy-worm experiments. Several companies have produced plastic worms that sink like rocks without benefit of sinkers, and most of them come in sizes and colors smallmouths find irresistible when presented wacky-style. Under a float, on a drop-shot rig, bare bones, or on a jig, smallmouths chew wacky rigs like few other things. This new wrinkle provides fascinating options for replacing weight systems and getting deep quickly.

When dropped into our fish tank, Berkley’s new Heavy Weights SinkWorm looked more like a bell sinker going down than a softbait. During a hot bite, the worm sinks faster, meaning SinkWorms could be the perfect tools for keeping a hot wacky-rig bite going. When fished under a float, no additional sinkers should be required to take the worm down to operating depth in a hurry.

Heavy worms suggest presentation wrinkles, too. Tru-Tungsten’s Weighted Worm comes in two versions, tail-weighted and head-weighted. Small clumps of tungsten powder are molded into the body. “Tail-weighted baits are great for gliding back into cover,” says Bass Guide Editor Steve Quinn, “and when nose-hooked, you can make one back beneath docks, fallen trees, or weedy overhangs by lifting the rod then giving slack. These worms also give a different action when wacky-rigged, and you can vary the hook position to produce different effects.”

And speaking of wacky rigs, another hot ticket last year was the addition of jig tactics. A worm wacky-rigged on a jig can be worked deeper and faster while retaining a much slower drop rate than a traditional jigworm, because the flapping action resists water on the pull as well as on the drop. Jackall’s Wacky-Jig Head incorporates a thin, short-shank hook and a tungsten ball head sans collar. It enabled development of a technique called “flick shakin’” that combines shaky-worm tactics with wacky-rigging. According to Jackall, “Flick shakin’ is already more widely used than drop-shotting in Japan.” Check the feature article in this Bass Guide on its origins and applications.

Jackall also introduced the Cross-Tail Shad, which might give Berkley’s Gulp! Goby and the new Venom Goby a run for their money on drop-shot rigs in Great Lakes venues. When shaken, the tail flaps while the body vibrates, a key action attributed to success in the goby-saturated markets around the Great Lakes.

Spoon Theory

The December issue of In-Fisherman magazine exposed a new technique for largemouths incorporating casting spoons. In the article, veteran Lake Fork guide Rick Loomis and bass pro Kelly Jordan explain how largemouths are already conditioned to swimbaits on Fork, driving the development of new techniques. The answer involves fishing big spoons horizontally, or at least semi-horizontally, on deep structure.

The featured spoon is the Big Joe, made by Joe Spaits’ Weedless Lures Company, which resembles the good ol’ Len Thompson, known and loved by pike fishermen the world over. The idea is to cast into a pack of schoolies or over pieces of prime structure, allowing the spoon to flutter down. Most strikes occur on the drop or as the spoon falls again after being ripped off bottom.

Bass pro Mark Rose won a tournament with a new casting spoon from Strike King called the Sexy Spoon. Along the way, he caught several smallmouths. “If a smallmouth is down there, he’s going to bite it,” Rose says. “Anytime bass are offshore and feeding on shad deep in the water column, it’s going to work. It’s an open-water tactic, perfect for casting to offshore humps, gravel bars, clam beds, and similar spots. If you have room to hop a casting spoon and let it flutter back down, it’s going to work.”

The Sexy Spoon is 51⁄4 inches long and weighs about 3/4 ounce. Rose casts, lets the spoon fall to the bottom, rips it up, and lets it flutter back. When it touches down, he rips it again. “On these deep spots, a crankbait lingers for just a short period of time,” he adds. “It wobbles on through and is gone. A spoon stays in the strike zone longer. Ripping it off bottom requires a rod with a lot of backbone and thick, strong line, like 20-pound fluorocarbon. In search mode, I rip the lure up as far as I can. When I find fish, I settle back to shorter hops, keeping the lure in the critical area longer.”

Strike King Sexy Spoons are designed for bass and painted with popular crankbait patterns. “This is a deep tactic, and smallmouths rip the rod out of your hand,” he says. “In fall, when smallmouths are suspended and tracking big schools of shad, these horizontal spoon techniques shine, as well as in winter when they’re stacked on deeper spots. It’s not just for smallmouths. I’ve caught other species of bass, and white bass, yellow bass, and crappies, with this method. It’s a fine imitation of a dying shad, and works in deep water where predators lurk.”

In cases like this, new tactics create a perfect excuse for recycling old favorites. Trout and pike fishermen should haul out some old spoons for those species and try them for bass in deep lakes, reservoirs, and in the Great Lakes. The Acme Little Cleo, with its seductive side-to-side wobble on the drop, has been a staple of mine for salmon, steelhead, walleyes, and pike for many years. The color patterns, many of them brand new this year, match ciscoes, shad, alewives, perch, and smelt. Several of the many sizes this lure is stamped into work for smallmouths anywhere.

Reel American, Tackle and More

Learning about a new reel manufacturer is great. Finding out they make smallmouth reels is fantastic. Finding out the reels are being made here, in the United States? Priceless.

Ardent Reels were on the drawing board and tested in the field for years before hitting the shelves. Owner David Gray says he was in no hurry, because he wanted to avoid the many bugs anglers often find in new reels. The line includes two new casting models and one spinning version. The Ardent XS1000 casting reel has a one-piece magnesium alloy frame, 10 stainless-steel ball bearings, and a 6.3:1 gear ratio, packed in a fine-looking metal-flake frame.

Ardent’s S-400 M spinning reel features a smooth Strike Saver drag, a one-piece aluminum frame, and a 5:1 gear ratio. The powerfully built gear drive is built for years of heavy use, with no loss of power or smooth operation. Both reels are the right size for smallmouths, with 120-yard capacities for 12- and 10-pound test, respectively. And butter-smooth drags give you a steady hand in landing line-sizzling bronzebacks.

If you haven’t checked out the G. Loomis Bronzeback Series of spinning and casting sticks, specially designed with smallmouths in mind, now’s the time. The lineup includes 16 rods, 9 spinning and 7 casting, with blanks selected to deliver softbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, topwaters, cranks, and float-and-fly rigs with precision and ease. Casting models feature blank-through-handle construction for better feel. The spinning line sports short foregrips and reversed reel seats that balance better, while allowing you to slide a finger up the blank when necessary.

St. Croix’s new Legend Tournament Bass rods offer blank-through-handle construction in all 24 models, each designed for a different application. There’s a 5-foot 10-inch Skippin’ blank for getting under docks. And, housed among their specialty blanks for walleyes, you’ll find the Legend Tournament Slip Stick, the most perfect rod out there for slipbobber rigs and bobber-wacky rigs, two tactics I suggest you spend more time with this year. The rod is 8 feet long, but telescopes down to a size that fits rod lockers, easy to haul and store.

Smallmouth fishermen have never had so many specialty rods to choose from. The lofty status maintained by smallmouth fishing today has encouraged special designs in tubes, goby imitations, spinnerbaits, cranks, and all manner of equipment we don’t have space to feature here, but we’ll get to them all eventually in the pages of In-Fisherman magazine.