I caught my first smallmouth bass from the Shenango River when I was about 10 years old. Even though the waterway was called a “river,” one could wade across most riffles there without getting his knees wet. During my adolescent years, I continued to fish for smallmouths in small streams within a bike ride of my home. When I was old enough to drive, I began exploring other wade-able streams such as Neshannock Creek, Sugar Creek, Oil Creek, Tionesta Creek, and Conneaut Creek. I caught smallmouth bass from these Northwest Pennsylvania waters before I ever had a boat and trailer.
Today, even though I spend the greater share of my fishing time on larger rivers and lakes, I still stay in touch with my fishing roots periodically by wading for smallmouths in creeks. Staying close to home and letting the boat sit on the trailer seems to make even more sense these days given the current economic climate.
From my viewpoint, smallmouth success on small streams during the summer revolves around two keys. The first key is to downsize your lures.
Smallmouth bass in skinny-water streams never approach the size of mature bass in impoundments, natural lakes, or true rivers. (Well, I should never say “never” because there will always an exception.) Although I’m not a fisheries biologist, it is apparent to me that any number of factors might affect growth potential of smallmouths in these streams – including water temperature at critical times of the year, limitations on certain prey during crucial life stages, water volume, lack of sufficiently deep water, and more. On most of the truly small streams, any bass over 3 pounds would be considered an exceptional size smallmouth. The average smallmouth caught from these streams typically ranges between 10 and 14 inches. Smaller-than-usual baits produce better for these smaller bass.
When wading, the number of lures an angler can carry must be pared to a minimum. Keep in mind that most water in these streams during the summer will be less than four feet deep. Lure selection should reflect that. You don’t need to go with many deep-running baits or weighty jigs.
The number one summertime lure on small streams is a minnow plug ranging in length from two to four inches. The original Rapala was the one everyone carried in my younger days and is still preferred by many. However, there are newer ones to consider too, such as Rebel Tracdown Minnows; Rebel Holographic Minnow; Storm Tunderstick JR, as well as an excellent selection of small minnow baits from Yo-Zuri.
These baits can be worked with a twitch-and-pause retrieve or a slow, steady retrieve. I like to add a SuspendDot to any floater thereby making it a slow riser when the bait is paused. I’ll carry at least three: one in a gold finish, another in silver finish, and a third in a rainbow trout pattern.
Another must-have lure is a topwater plug. The Heddon Teeny Torpedo or Phillips Crippled Killer propeller baits are two of my favorites. But you may prefer a small chugger like the Rebel Teeny Pop-R or 1/4-oz. Storm Chug Bug. The most effective retrieve is a couple quick snaps of the rod tip to make the bait splash or gurgle to get the fish’s attention, followed by a long pause – the pause drives smallmouths crazy!
Rather than a standard spinnerbait, I always opt for a safety-pin spinner arm clipped to a 1/8-oz. leadhead with 3-inch grub body. It’s basically the good old Beetle Spin, only I use components to make my own. If I need to cover some so-so looking water quickly in order to reach a better stretch, this is my go-to lure.
There are occasions when a fast-moving, subsurface swimming lure is needed to trigger strikes. A Rebel Teeny Wee Crawfish or Storm 13/16-oz SubWart might come into play here. However, these tiny baits tend to roll if cranked too fast. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with a Booyah Pond Magic Boogee Bait when I want a speedy retrieve; it only weights 1/8-oz. The frantic swimming jiggle of the bait mimics the action of a fleeing crayfish.
To complete your arsenal, add a few of your favorite 3-inch soft-plastic swim-tail grubs, tubes, and slender straight-tail worms, plus 1/16- and 1/8-oz. leadheads.
A single rod must serve the wader. With the tight quarters on these streams, I prefer a 5 1/2- or 6-foot spinning rod rather than a 7- or 7 1/2-foot rod. Even though I’m fishing baits that may be described as ultralight, I don’t want a soft-action ultralight rod. The rod must have the light tip to effectively cast 1/16- to 1/4-oz. baits and the backbone achieve a solid hooksets and do it with 6-pound-test line. The rod I’ve used for years is a G-Loomis Spin-Jig Model 721; there maybe something better, but I have not come across it.
Previously, I mentioned there were two key factors for summer success on small smallmouth streams. I have addressed downsizing. The second one involves a different perspective regarding location of smallmouth in small streams compared to a larger-flow river.
On larger rivers, bass fishermen describe different sites for spring, summer, fall, and winter fishing, looking at specific structure, depths, breaks, and flow rates for each season. During summer, there may be areas of a river that smallmouths rarely inhabit.
But on small streams, the definition of “summer” water is very vague. You may find smallmouths in small streams almost anywhere – riffles, chutes, runs, the head, center, or tail of pools, sandbar current seams, submerged logs, undercuts, deadfalls, weeds, around beaver lodges, and perhaps even at the edge of a muck-bottomed backwater. The best advice for a novice small-stream angler is simply to target everything as you move through a section. You’ll eventually develop a pattern of bass location that is peculiar to the individual stream.
However, during those dangerously low-water periods in the summer, small-stream smallmouths stack up on the deepest holes with logs or large rocks on the bottom, or slide into little shadowy undercuts in the bank. Vice-versa during unusually high-water periods in the summer, smallmouth will be pushed closer to the bank in pocket eddies. Other than those situations, everything in the stream is a potential target for the wading smallmouth angler.
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