Spring Smallmouth Bass Location and Jerk Bait Presentation

When the snow melts and lake and river temperatures begin to rise, it’s time to prepare for smallmouth bass pre-spawning. Hard bodied or jointed jerk baits designed to suspend in the water are an excellent choice this time of year, especially on cloudy and windy days when the smallmouth appear to be more aggressive. Conversely, it appears that the slower-moving, weightless plastics seem to perform better on calm, sunny days.

Rigging and tackle: I normally go for 3 rods rigged for jerk bait fishing.

1. A 7′ medium-fast rod with a 5:1 or larger spool, Abu Garcia makes a great pair of reels for jerk bait fishing. Line it up with a 15lb braid with a fluorocarbon leader and you have a great setup for your larger hard baits and larger spinner lures.

2. I love this setup on still sunny mornings. Quantum MXP medium light 6’3″ rod, 4:1 spinning reel, 10lb braid with 18in 8lb fluorocarbon leader. This is my go-to for setting up the soft plastic jerk and crunch bail. #3 and #4 width and offset, 1/64-1/32 oz #3 offset hooks (optional).

3. Daiwa Medium 7′ spinning rod with a 4:1 or larger spinning reel with 6lb fluorocarbon line. This is a wild card rod, in the past I have had success with this using weightless fins as well as smaller harder baits. What I found is that since the fluorocarbon line sinks it tends to bring the hard and soft plastic baits a bit deeper and the 6lb line feels a bit better with the lighter baits than the baitcasting setup. 10 lb. If I could only take one, I’d take this one because I think it’s the most versatile, but the other configurations are task specific.

baits:

1. Hard Body Lures: Husky Jerk #10, Floating Raps #7, Berkley Cutter 90 are great choices. Natural colors in clear water and heavily fished areas, White, Pearl, Perch and Chartreuse are spring winners in dyed water.

2. Soft Body Baits – Zoom super fluke 5″, these just have great movement and seem to catch more fish than any other soft plastic bait I use. In recent years Berkley Gulp Alive, KVD and others have also released good quality products Texas rigged with no weeds, these baits are dynamite in the spring.

To lease

Spring is a great time for smallmouth because at no other time of year are their patterns more predictable and there are so many large females “stacked” in the same spot. Focus on deep water drop off areas and inland spawning areas 10ft deep with a gravel bottom and dirt structure is a good place to start. Large egg-laden females will actively feed and may have several trophies sitting in the same small notch or around the same stump. Smallmouth will spend most of the winter in 30-40 feet of water and then move to shallow flats just after the ice breaks off and until spawning, which usually begins when the water temperature hits 50 degrees. . Any large flat in 8 to 15 feet of water next to 30 to 40 racks is a great place to start. Look for a gravel bottom, many times a good rock pile or stump could hold 10 large females during this time of year.

Largemouths often need to see baits a couple of times before they decide to attack if they are not actively feeding, so if you see an attractive spot, cast 3-4 casts before moving. When they are feeding and you catch one, be sure to throw it back to the same spot because large females are rarely alone this time of year. This can be some of the most fun and fastest fishing of the year. When they’re feeding, it’s not out of the question to catch five four-pound fish in ten casts.

When it’s cloudy and windy, it seems to wake up the small mouth and have the best bite. Whenever I use a jerk bait in the wind, I always use larger, harder bodied baits. I also work the bait faster than with the soft plastics. Rapala Husky Jerk 10 is a favorite bait in these conditions, with white, chartreuse and pearl white being warm colors. I always check with a bait shop or online about warm colors in a particular body of water.

Soft plastics are an art form, and I’m going to install them on calm sunny days. I work the bait about 3-5 feet deep with longer jerks that are mixed in with short jerks. A key tip is to keep a consistent slack in the line, especially when using the braided line setup, it will give the bait a more erratic casting motion and twitches will look more realistic. Also use the line as your strike indicator, when you see slack tighten adjust that hook. I remember once a friend and I were in the same boat using the same colors and the same bait. The only difference was that he added a little weight and was working the bait at a rate that averaged 3 casts for each of my casts. At the end of the 75 minutes it was 14 fish and he had 1 and I was averaging 16″ per fish with a pair of four pound nineteen inches smaller. The only difference was that he had no added weight and was working very well on the bait slow, sometimes as slow as 4-6 seconds between actions This method is especially deadly on a calm sunny morning, largemouths are not as agitated as they will be when the wind picks up but are always ready for a meal easy.This is often the first lure I start with and the last one I end up with.

For the people who fish for them, spring bass fishing is unique. Using jerk and twitch baits is one of the most fun ways to catch them. Tight lines!