Spring Hardbait Smallies
by Phil
(New York)
After a long winter I couldn't wait to get back out on the water. It looked like nice weather coming up so I got my gear all ready. I was fishing an area new to me, but I scoped it out shortly after ice-out to locate wintering areas. I froze my butt off, so the 65 degrees felt good.
One of my favorite areas to fish is Lake Champlain In upstate New York. This massive lake is home to BIG smallmouth. Four and five pounders come in bunches and only the Great Lakes offer better smallmouth fishing. Like the Great Lakes, watching the weather is the first thing you do or you could be swimming with the fishes! Everything looked good, calm wind and low pressure moving in within 24 hours. Time to fish!
The spawn was over and I figured it was time to give them something big to eat. My plan was to cover a bouldered shoreline near a sharp drop off. It was close to where I had marked pre-spawn smallies a few weeks earlier on my Humminbird.
I started with a curly tail grub on a light jig head and BAAM! Two smallies on the first two casts. They were both about 2 1/2 pounds each. Boy does that boost the confidence! I figured the bass were hot today so I finished my drift without any more casts. I snuck out and got back in position for another drift with my Rapala Husky jerk. I went with the trusty silver/black. As I got back on my spot I cast down the shoreline and gave it the twitch and pause. Bam! A 4 pounder according to my scale. Holy crap it doesn't get any better. I finished my drift with a couple of nudges and missed fish. Well not too bad but I didn't have a lot of time to fish so I headed out to some humps I was trying to figure out.
I broke out the Rapala Flat DT's in silver/black and purple/chartruese. I figured that the smallies were on the hunt for some energy after the spawn and the flat sides make it look like a fat minnow. After about 10 casts I was thinking about checking another area but I decided to hit it from another angle.
I moved around to the upwind side of the hump and made a few more casts. I hooked some weeds and ripped it free and BLAM! This smallie hit so hard I almost fell out of the boat! 4 pounds 10 oz. Now that a slammer. Three cast later a 4 pound 1 oz fish. Man I couldn't miss. I changed colors from my silver/black to the purple to prove it wasn't just color. I moved to a different angle on the hump and landed a 3 pounder that I swear did about 3 back flips after I set the hook. He hit just as hard as the first and fought all the way to the boat. There was a sharp drop on the side I had not covered yet so I moved again. This time I slowly trolled past the hump with the trolling motor and landed another smallie aboout 3 1/2 pounds. I guess all the research I did payed off. I marked where I caught the fish and planned to enter it in my log when I got home.
I headed back to the launch with a feeling of accomplishment because I had figured out a little about a couple schools of smallmouth. I was already making plans to come back when I had more time. I found a new hot spot!
