The brown bass that share the same rivers and lakes as their green cousins tend to be more difficult to catch but, for enthusiasts up for a challenge, there are ample rewards in store.
Compared to largemouths, smallmouth bass prefer cooler water with a steady current. Generally they’re more attracted to smaller baits with brighter colors, and they more readily exploit a wider array of food. That said, their preferred diets and habitats and those of the largemouth often overlap. With the shad spawn soon to be underway at Pickwick, both bass species may be found in the pockets early in the morning and in deeper waters later in the day, but, for smallmouths, the more current-related the area the better.
“The hotter the weather gets, the harder it gets to catch them, but you can if you work around a lot of current,” Gordon Hardin said. Hardin has been guiding fishermen on Pickwick since the 1970s.
Current is a big deal. That’ll be the key ingredient in any recipe for finding smallmouth. They’ll be in current-oriented spots with chunk rock, riprap or pea gravel, depending on the depth and speed.
“They’ll be on shell beds and over bottoms with hard surfaces, too,” Hardin said.
When it comes to baits, Hardin focuses on imitating the food most common to the place each given fish is found. Smallmouths working deep rock piles are often targeting crawfish.
“I really like using a crawfish on a Carolina rig,” Hardin said. “The Zoom Super Speed Craw is a good one to go to.
“In other places, I like a plain hair jig, one-quarter or three-eighths ounce. You can do a swim jig with a three- or four-inch grub tail or swim bait. That’ll work in current or even dead water.
Others really like fishing smaller baits with faster, vibrating tails. Zoom’s Fat Albert Twin Tail and Magnum Finesse Worm are two good examples.
“Right now, in the early mornings or late evenings, you can catch them on topwater baits in really shallow water,” Hardin said. “Work around main river points and creek mouths in one to five feet of water.”
Current, current
In bigger water with truly big current, such as that found below dam spillways, smallmouth enthusiast Jake Tippee, of Athens, Ala., favors the products created by Mike Bucca, the Bull Shad Swimbaits.
Originally from St. Louis, Tippee came to the University of North Alabama years ago to play baseball. While there, he and friends often fished for big striped bass in the tailwaters below Wilson Dam, and often hauled in trophy-sized smallmouth as bycatch. It happened so often, they started entering bass tournaments, where largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass are accepted but striped bass are not, and fished for smallmouth using their standard striped bass techniques.
“We never weighed in a limit, but we won lunker pretty often, and people were amazed at how we were doing it,” Tippee said. “To truly target smallmouth, you need to get out there in the current. I fish around tailrace waters.”
Tippee says prime areas for smallmouth include high-current areas below both Pickwick and Wilson Dams, and below Kogers Island, near the Natchez Trace Bridge over the Tennessee River.
“All of the Tennessee River is good,” he said.
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