Favorite lures for small mouth

Browning86

Six Pointer
Got a trip to the New River planned and want to see what lures y'all wouldn't leave home without.... Going to be up there the 1st of June so hopefully the bite will be good but it should be a fun time regardless.
 

Boojum

Ten Pointer
Curly-tail grubs. 4" lizards. Small crankbaits. jerkbaits, small spinnerbaits. River smallmouth usually aren't too picky. Bomber used to make a small crawfish pattern square-billed crankbait that would absolutely slay them. With that said, my favorite way to catch smallmouth is on a fly rod.
 

smith-n-stokes

Old Mossy Horns
Lizards are my go to lure. I like the 5 and 6" ones. Take a variety of colors. Darker ones work well, but sometimes the oddball colors work too.


Sent from wherever I was at the time...
 

haywoodhunter

Eight Pointer
In the river I usually do best with anything looking like a crawfish, both soft plastics as well as cranks. Also like to use jerkbaits
 

curdog

Ten Pointer
Contributor
I like dark colored bitsy tubes rapalas, even in lined spinners. But I've caught my biggest river fish on tubes on a jig head.
 

LKGRenegade22

Four Pointer
Summer fishing for smallies I would have to throw a fluke! But all the lures listed above are great. All our personal bests have been caught in a tube or lizard.
 

FishHunt

Old Mossy Horns
Popping baits (Pop'r, Splash It) and small jerk baits.

<>< Fish

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wademaster

Guest
Anything a largemouth will hit, a smallmouth will hit.

Lizards
Shad Rap in Fire Craw
Inline spinner baits (gold)(Panther Martin)
Your favorite largemouth spinnerbait
Tubes
Plastic Craws on jigs. Work great.
Top water when the time is right.
Trick worms
Grubs. Curly tail and paddle tail.






Sent from my kayak....
 

Trophybucks

Guest
green pumpkin tube with orange highlights, I like to rig them on a light weight spot remover. Rebel craw works great too. Those are the best 2 baits I have found.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
If you want to catch the most fish on a small mouth river or stream just fish a Ned rig with a partial zinker z attached and never look back.

you can thank me later. you wont be catching a dozen a day on that thing, more like a dozen an hour.

if some of you really have some primo smallie waters that you want to test my big mouth on, get with me after turkey season. :)
 
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FishHunt

Old Mossy Horns
If you want to catch the most fish on a small mouth river or stream just fish a Ned rig with a partial zinker z attached and never look back.

you can thank me later. you wont be catching a dozen a day on that thing, more like a dozen an hour.

if some of you really have some primo smallie waters that you want to test my big mouth on, get with me after turkey season. :)

If you don't mind getting in the rivers and fishing from a kayak I can put you in pretty decent smallmouth water. A Charlie's Slider fished with small soft plastics works great for smallies also. Never fished a Ned rig but I'll look into it.

<>< Fish
 

Browning86

Six Pointer
I'm familiar with everything mentioned except the Ned Rig...when I googled it looked like a senko to me. Is that what it is?
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
I'm familiar with everything mentioned except the Ned Rig...when I googled it looked like a senko to me. Is that what it is?

no, it a small soft plastic fished on a jig head. Google midwest finesse techniques to get the full treatment.

the only people that will poor mouth it are those that have not taken the time to try it.

Ned started it is slick water but his followers slay them in stream and other flowages.

the kind i see you guys fishing here. my river smallie fishing has been limited to the upper james in VA.

i assume ours are better?

If they are even close you will kill them on the Ned rig, absolutely kill them.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
If you don't mind getting in the rivers and fishing from a kayak I can put you in pretty decent smallmouth water. A Charlie's Slider fished with small soft plastics works great for smallies also. Never fished a Ned rig but I'll look into it.

<>< Fish

how about a canoe? I have a paddler SIL available for that. he could paddle and i could fish. LOL
 

Luv2Boutdoors!

Ten Pointer
#2 silver blue fox spinner, original black/silver floating rapala, emerald shiner jig (custom made), 2.75 - 3.5in tube jigs. That's all you'd need.
 

showtime

Guest
I fish the new river Claytor Lake all the time. I used to fish the James a good bit. The thing that worked best for me personally was a 1/8th ounce white rostertail it covers a lot of water, sends out vibrations, and has a lot of flash/sight factor to it. a bitsy jig with trailer will get you a few more bigger fish and stop some of smaller ones but it cant cover near the amount of water a rostertail can don’t know how large a section you plan on floating/fishing.
 
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darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
I'm telling y'all, if y'all ever get tired of fishing with a little catching thrown in, go to live bait and enjoy catching instead of fishing. Smallmouths are the easiest fish I've ever tried to catch with live bait.
 

smith-n-stokes

Old Mossy Horns
I'm telling y'all, if y'all ever get tired of fishing with a little catching thrown in, go to live bait and enjoy catching instead of fishing. Smallmouths are the easiest fish I've ever tried to catch with live bait.

I've never used live bait ( for smallmouths) always wanted to try a hellgramite though. I see them in the mouths of lot of smallmouths I catch.



Sent from wherever I was at the time...
 
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