Some more smallies…

jasmillo

jasmillo

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Hit a local lake for smallies with @Kfish yesterday. The bite was off. Word around the campfire was there were a lot of boats fishing this lake the day before so maybe that drove it. Maybe we just suck as bass fisherman though other boats we chatted with on the water were having the same experience.

Landed a handful of fish this size on the fly.

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Brought gear rod to try fishing deep if they were not easily in fly range. No luck doing that either but did get a decent one casting a jerkbait around some docks with it. We caught a bunch in this range around this time last year doing the same thing with the fly rods. Thinking some of these big boys are there but most got sore mouthed yesterday.

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Kfish said:
Not that we know of, we hooked them in about 6ft or water or more. How shallow are their beds? Don't think I've ever seen their beds at this lake.
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On the smallie spots I fish, it's most commonly 3-12 feet or so. But they can also go to 20+ if the lake is clear and the light gets through. And sometimes you'll find them in just a couple feet of water. Though I'd think that would be an evolutionary drawback if raptors spotted them.

Most important is that they want to find a clean hard bottom to spawn on. Pea gravel is preferred, but just about any hard bottom surface can work.
 
I’ve never come across beds at that lake. We are fishing in and around docks mainly. Bottom varies from grassy to stumpy to small to medium boulders. The beds are around somewhere but we just have not come across them that we can see from the boat and the water is fairly clear. When do smallmouth start spawning in western WA generally? I imagine it varies lake to lake dependent on water temps.
 
I'm just wondering if the bigger fish were keyed in on beds. If water is clear enough they will look like a dark kind of scraped up area sometimes a few feet to sometimes up to car size width with several fish on them.

Sometimes figuring out what stage of the spawn they are in is key to figuring out where the big girls are.
 
Billy said:
I'm just wondering if the bigger fish were keyed in on beds. If water is clear enough they will look like a dark kind of scraped up area sometimes a few feet to sometimes up to car size width with several fish on them.

Sometimes figuring out what stage of the spawn they are in is key to figuring out where the big girls are.
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I just assumed you fished it the day before and f’d us over :).
 
Back to spawn talk. If they are keyed on beds they won't travel off the bed to chase a bait. Not to say there are not other fish around in different stages of the spawn. But a bed fish is sitting on that bed and can be super keyed into it. If you can't see the beds slowing down and covering every couple feet of water can be key until your presentation reaches the bed and fish.

On the other hand if the spawn is over they sulk for a week or two and seek out refuge. They can be tuff to catch during this stage.

I dont typically target specific bed fish. But I am sure I catch bedded fish by covering water if that makes sense.

Spawn can be tuff to figure out what the heck is going on.

I am loving prespawn more and more. Warmth and food is what they want.
 
Fished a small west side lake on Friday, saw lots of sunfish beds in very shallow water, and bass beds in slightly deeper water with largemouth on or in the close vicinity to them. Things seem to be happening a little earlier than they did last year, but based on what I have seen in the past, I wouldn’t expect to see largemouth actually sitting on the beds guarding eggs until the start of June. Smallies could be a bit earlier? There aren’t any in the lakes I fish.

I was throwing a top water toad on a spin rod because it seems to work at getting over the lily pads which all these lakes are infested with. Got a few blowups, hooked only one and lost it in the pads. My success rate converting hits to landed fish is terrible, because I absolutely suck at delaying the hook set after the fish comes up.
 
Billy said:
Back to spawn talk. If they are keyed on beds they won't travel off the bed to chase a bait. Not to say there are not other fish around in different stages of the spawn. But a bed fish is sitting on that bed and can be super keyed into it. If you can't see the beds slowing down and covering every couple feet of water can be key until your presentation reaches the bed and fish.

On the other hand if the spawn is over they sulk for a week or two and seek out refuge. They can be tuff to catch during this stage.

I dont typically target specific bed fish. But I am sure I catch bedded fish by covering water if that makes sense.

Spawn can be tuff to figure out what the heck is going on.

I am loving prespawn more and more. Warmth and food is what they want.
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Thanks for the insight! We’re pretty noobs when it comes to bass and their behaviors around spawn time.
Definitely come over to the west side sometime , Jason and I can host a bass tourney and @Stonedfish will order us jerseys 🤣
 
Chucker said:
Fished a small west side lake on Friday, saw lots of sunfish beds in very shallow water, and bass beds in slightly deeper water with largemouth on or in the close vicinity to them. Things seem to be happening a little earlier than they did last year, but based on what I have seen in the past, I wouldn’t expect to see largemouth actually sitting on the beds guarding eggs until the start of June. Smallies could be a bit earlier? There aren’t any in the lakes I fish.

I was throwing a top water toad on a spin rod because it seems to work at getting over the lily pads which all these lakes are infested with. Got a few blowups, hooked only one and lost it in the pads. My success rate converting hits to landed fish is terrible, because I absolutely suck at delaying the hook set after the fish comes up.
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Spawn fish are notorious for missing topwater or slapping at it.

That's a valuable clue though the fish is there. I missed this one on top and circled back. Flipped a hair jig and game on. 1000020290 (1).jpg
 
Are there clues on the bigger fish we posted. Bed fish often have bloody tails, correct? Is that true of small and largemouth? Neither of the larger fish we landed had that though the one I caught had a bloody dorsal fin. I noticed the fish @Billy posted had a bloody tail and dorsal.
 
jasmillo said:
Are there clues on the bigger fish we posted. Bed fish often have bloody tails, correct? Is that true of small and largemouth? Neither of the larger fish we landed had that though the one I caught had a bloody dorsal fin. I noticed the fish @Billy posted had a bloody tail and dorsal.
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Well prespawn they look flawless with about to pop bellies. Spawn fish are more beat up and thinner. Bloody gils and sore spots are common. Similar traits for both smallies and largemouth.

Largemouth beds are usually in or around cover and usually a single pair of fish. Not to say like a rocky cattail point couldn't have a few largemouth beds on it.

Smallmouth though sometimes almost have big community beds where fish come and go. Most likely not tied to over head cover like largemouth do. They like bottom structure.

Picture it like largemouth want a smaller more private setting and smallmouth are just out there where everyone can watch haha.
 
My wife woke up this morning complaining that she had the song "Ain't misbehaving" stuck in her head :) I do hope they spin off TeenJus and Baby Billy along with Judy and BJ as a whole 'nother series, they steal pretty much every scene they are in. Also, just to avoid total rude thread hijack status, the fishing scenes in that show are legitimately awful...
 
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