Smallmouth will aggressively hit a variety of lures. Match your lure to the forage that bass are eating. Choose minnow-imitating lures in spring, and pick lures that imitate crayfish in summer. Select lure colors according to the color of the local baitfish and crayfish in the water that you are fishing.
Soft Stickworms
Stickworms are short, thin worms that look like a small piece of licorice. Rig them weightless on an open hook and let them float with the current or drop next to cover. Use a weighted hook to gain depth or speed of fall. Stickworms excel for smallmouth bass in clear to slightly stained water to depths of 7 feet.
Soft Jerkbaits
Soft jerkbaits, like the Slug-Go, imitate shad and other small baitfish. They look like a cross between a small fish and a cigar. Rig them weightless and Tex-posed. Cast them to areas where smallmouth hold, let them sink, then retrieve with a series of slow, swimming jerks. Vary the depth and speed of retrieve.
Topwaters
Prop baits, like the Tiny Torpedo or Devil's Horse, are surface lures that look like cigar stubs with propellers on each end. They are excellent summertime, clear-water lures. Use them in low-light conditions. Twitch, pop, jerk, or drag them. Try different retrieves until the bass tell you what they want. Poppers have cupped mouths designed to spit water like a shad skipping on the surface. Pop them slowly, skip them quickly, or try any combination of repetitive twitches. Swim cigar-shaped baits like the Baby Zara Spook in a slow, rhythmic retrieve by using slight wrist flicks.
Tube Baits
Tube baits excel in bed fishing and along deep grass lines. The website Smallmouths suggests using them in rising water, cold fronts and stained water, or when bass are on deep current breaks. Flip them near cover, hop them along the bottom, or twitch them as a jerkbait. Use natural shad colors in clear water, and use darker colors in stained water. Stain the lure's tail with chartreuse plastic dye to add a spash of color attractant.
Crankbaits
Crankbaits run from 1 to 20 feet deep. Match crankbait colors to the color of the local crayfish that smallmouth feed on during warm months. Fish crankbaits in deep river holes. In lakes, run them along deep drops and rocky shoals. Slim, shad-colored crankbaits match the look of spring forage. Wide, wobbling crankbaits match summer forage.
Grubs
Grubs are small plastic lures, often with curly tails in a sickle shape. They are inexpensive, easy to fish and very effective. Field & Stream calls the curly-tail grub "the best fishing lure of all time." Start with a 3-inch grub on a 1/8-oz. jighead and swim it through waters likely to hold the smallmouth bass you seek. Turn your reel handle fast enough to keep the lure moving just off the bottom. Bump the bottom to increase strikes. Try chartreuse or other colors that match your local baitfish and crayfish.
Live Bait
Crayfish are the best live bait for smallmouth bass. Hook them through the tail, cast them to your chosen spot, and let the crayfish move about freely. Occasionally move the bait to prevent it from crawling under a rock and staying there. Worms, hellgrammites and small minnows also catch smallmouth.
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