Big or small baits for early spring smallmouth?

[Dick G]

I noticed in one of Eric's reports that he saw some crayfish moving about in the Fox. As our Illinois streams wake up for spring fishing, are the smallmouth looking for a larger meal, or are they still favoring smaller float-n-fly sized offerings? It would seem logical to start the season with smaller presentations and increase the size as the year progresses, with the largest baits offered late in the summer and into the fall.

On the other hand, the first bait fish and crayfish to become active after a long winter are going to be fairly big in order to have survived through the coldest months. So, wouldn't it make sense to start out with large baits in the very early spring, and then down size after the fish and crawdads have spawned later in the year, before returning to larger baits in summer and fall?

I guess another factor to consider is the presence of bug hatches. Last spring in Door County I saw many big smallmouth landed on what I considered to be small flies, while large plastics were not producing as well. Go figure.

So, is it the size of the bait in early-early spring that entices more strikes, or do temperature, depth, color and speed trump the profile of the lure? I'm going to do a little outdoor research this afternoon.

[Terry Dodge]

I read today that smallmouth also like to indulge on a french fry or two.

I would recommend a wacky rig for anybody interested in testing this.

[Jonn Graham]

Big female smallmouth are the first to move and the first to need food in their belly to nourish and develop their eggs. Sure, males eat also in the spring, but I catch my share of big, female fish in early to mid April. Usually, but not always, on the swim jig. Some think the swim jig/swimbait combination is awful large for spring. I have not found this to be the case. I think those egg-laden females are looking for a substantial meal. That is my theory. Of course, everything we all think is just that, a theory. If those darn smallies would just open their mouth and talk to me, this whole game would be much easier.

[Guest rich mc]

my take on it is small baits in the am or right after a cold front after a warming trend starts bigger baits in the pm last week I had bass on a small jig with 85%of the pond still ice covered . fish didn't touch that jig Tuesday night but wanted bigger baits on top. rich

[ronk]

After you've taken Eric's advice the most important thing is to place the bait whatever kind in front of a fish.Location is always the key.Can't catch what ain't there.

[Jonn Graham]

Yup, location is still the biggest key. But, guys still want to fish smaller baits than they need to. If small baits are your thing, of course, you will catch plenty of fish. But, many guys think that larger baits will cut down on their numbers of smallies they will catch. I don't agree with that. Almost 30 years of chasing smallies has shown me that. Way back when I was young, I had little knowledge and threw small baits all the time. Caught plenty of fish, but not many large ones. As time progressed I continued to "push the envelope" on bait size and found that numbers of smallies caught was still high and my numbers of larger fish skyrocketed. Case in point last night....................did a quick wade with Jim and I threw a swim jig with a full size swim bait as the trailer. Water was probably in the mid to high forties. I caught four and three of them were around 12 inches. The little guys have no problem eating that full size (3/8 oz) swim jig.

[Kev-mo]

Yup, location is still the biggest key. But, guys still want to fish smaller baits than they need to. If small baits are your thing, of course, you will catch plenty of fish. But, many guys think that larger baits will cut down on their numbers of smallies they will catch. I don't agree with that. Almost 30 years of chasing smallies has shown me that. Way back when I was young, I had little knowledge and threw small baits all the time. Caught plenty of fish, but not many large ones. As time progressed I continued to "push the envelope" on bait size and found that numbers of smallies caught was still high and my numbers of larger fish skyrocketed. Case in point last night....................did a quick wade with Jim and I threw a swim jig with a full size swim bait as the trailer. Water was probably in the mid to high forties. I caught four and three of them were around 12 inches. The little guys have no problem eating that full size (3/8 oz) swim jig.

 

Jonn, what's a full size swim bait to you? The biggest I throw is a 4 inch.

 

It's been my experience bigger is better provided water temps are at least in the lower forties.

[Jonn Graham]

four inch is the size of swimbait I use on the back of my swim jigs. Of course, if the water is extremely cold (below 45) then smaller and less action is better.............most of the time. The new Ring Hammer from Big Hammer is outstanding. In my opinion, a better swim bait for the back of swim jigs than the original Big Hammer swimbait.

[Norm M]

I let the fish decide. Proper depth and speed control in the proper location is always the most important thing to do. I start with much larger lures and fish them more aggressively than most folks. Many days no change is needed. I will slow down the large lures before I change sizes. When I change sizes, I start aggressively. There are times when I end up with an Eire Darter on a very light jighead worked from painstakingly slow to stopped to catch smallmouth this time of year. Polishing the rocks as one old timer referred to it. Those times are few compared to when larger, more aggressive shine .