Best smallmouth baits?
 

Hey everyone,

Heading up to fish this weekend for the first time out of my kayak. I am not looking for all the great spots( even know that would be nice lol) but what seems to be the hot ticket for catching them this time of year. I am loooking into fishing around stonedam island. Any help would be appreciated.

Smallmouth fishing in July
 

Hey Bassin21...

With the smouthmouth spawn over, I would target deeper structure from 15-25 feet of water and choose the bait you're most comfortable with. This time of year I really like fishing a carolina rigged lizard in green or brown tones... but that may be a little tougher in a kayak. Other good choices would be grubs or tubes, drop shots and jigs.

During lower light conditions, topwater baits will draw smallies up from the depths as well.

Although I haven't fished there much, there should also be largemouth in the coves at the back of the cove on the north east side of Stonedam island (fish cove some other unnamed ones).

Good luck and report back with your successes!

Cheers...

Gusman

Thanks a lot gusman. I will definitely get back to you and let you know. We have a big kayak tournament where you take the length of your five best bass. I was planning on tubes, senko Texas rigged and wacky. And hopefully a good top water bite in the morning.

Still many shallow fish early
 

With the surface temp still only 70/72 I am finding smallies still in 6 to 12 ft of water if bait clouds are present. 4 inch soft swimbaits work well to both cover water and slowly fish once you find them. Had followers but no comitters to hard jerkbaits. Wacky senkos almost always work but its hard to cover water with them. We even had a decent bite in the early am Sunday burning spinnerbaits just under the surface in 8ft or less of water. There are still individual fish roaming on shallow rocky flats early & late and topwaters can still work on them. If you have sonar, look for the bait clouds. Otherwise I'd suggest fishing the windward side of rocky shores or reefs with 30+ fow nearby. As for largemouth I found a few middlin fish last weekend in the back of a cove chasing spawning gills in less than 1 to 5 fow.

If you want to win the tournament vs: donate then fish for smallies 30 to 50 ft. over sand grass.

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Ditto.....