# River Smallies



## JohnJH (Feb 3, 2015)

I'm lookin to try to catch some river smallies this year. What are your guys' favorite tackle/baits/lures for river smallies?


----------



## NCbassattack (May 5, 2014)

I have yet to find a bait better for them than the Yamamoto Cut Tail worm in pumpkin, green pumpkin, or camo. Rigged with a 1/16 split shot about 15 inches above the bait. Cast it into the current and just twitch it as it drifts. Smallmouth cannot resist this bait, caught hundreds on it.
Also, the tiny torpedo by Heddon is good as well.


----------



## zimmerj (Oct 17, 2014)

Do any of you fish the Grand and Chagrin for smallies? I have the last few years and have only caught a few small ones. The only time I've caught bigger ones is when the smallies from Lake Erie come in in April and May.

After a 40 year absence from fishing I just picked it back up a few years ago. Not sure if these two rivers just don't have a lot of resident smallies or I don't know where to look.


----------



## JohnJH (Feb 3, 2015)

zimmerj said:


> Do any of you fish the Grand and Chagrin for smallies? I have the last few years and have only caught a few small ones. The only time I've caught bigger ones is when the smallies from Lake Erie come in in April and May.
> 
> After a 40 year absence from fishing I just picked it back up a few years ago. Not sure if these two rivers just don't have a lot of resident smallies or I don't know where to look.



I fish the tusc and cuyahoga and have friends that have caught em on accident but I've never caught one


----------



## randallbob (Mar 13, 2011)

I can only speak of my experience catching Small Mouth on the Grand and the Ashtabula Rivers. There is a resident population of Small Mouth that live in the rivers year round. They are great fun to catch but they are not the big ones. The big ones are the Lake Erie fish that swim up river to spawn. I've seen big females guarding their nest in the Ashtabula in late May. Like zimmerj said they are in the river in April and May and gone mostly buy June. I have also caught big aggressive Small Mouth as far up rive on the Grand as Mason's Landing (Vrooman Rd.) That doesn't mean much unless you know the Grand, but Mason's Landing is several miles up river form the lake. East side rivers are BLOWN OUT right now but as soon as they come down I'll after Small Mouth. Hopefully by next weekend.


If you can find a stretch of slower moving water in early morning or evening top waters work good on Small Mouth but I've had most of my success with river Small Mouth on green pumpkin or watermelon senko type soft plastics with red, green, gold even black flake in them. Because I'm thrifty (cheep) I use the Gander Mt. version of the senko. I Texas rig them with no weight on a 3/0 hook and cast up stream on about a 45 degree angle. Let'em sink and then give them a little twitch now and then as your reeling in the slack. When you feel the tug tug from Mr. Small Mouth set the hook and wait for the air show.

Something I've noticed fishing like this is I seem to get a lot of line loops on my spinning reel. I think it's because as the flow of the river brings the bait back to me and I'm really only taking up the slack in the line. I am not pulling the line onto the reel so there is no tension on the line. The reason I mention this, is because when your spinning reel gets loops in the line on the reel it can lead to BIG knots in you line as you cast. So every few casts I send one down river as far as possible and then reel in putting the line under tension and getting rid of the loops. I only mention this because when I forget to do this I inevitably cast out and get a huge knot that takes a lot of time untangling it. If it's too bad I and up having to cut the knot out.

If your used to the fight from a Large Mouth you in for a treat when you catch a Small Mouth. Good luck going after the Small Mouth they are a lot of fun to catch.


----------



## Rembis50 (May 28, 2013)

Rebel Crawdads, Crickhoppers, and small crankbaits do the job for me


----------



## CudaJohn (Aug 26, 2014)

The towpath on Scranton Road (scranton flats) is a stones throw from my work. There is some structure there and it's not too far from the lake. It might not be a bad spot to look for smallmouth. I hit it up twice last year during my lunch hour. Ran into a bunch of snags fishing anything with a treble hook. A texas rigged worm or craw would have been a better option.


----------



## BigFishAddict (Feb 25, 2012)

I live close to the rock and I've caught lake run smallies in spring on everything from tubes, cranks, jigs, topwater, I've even done well fly fishing for them. This year I'm gonna float fish for them with artificials and see how I do.


----------

