Bass Fishing Tips

This will be broken down into two separate sections. One each for smallmouth and largemouth
bass. If there is enough interest and or time, we will be putting up a page for spotted bass.

Smallmouth bass tend to make people think crayfish and moving water whereas largemouth bass
tend to have people think of small lakes and lily pads. A lot of the smallmouth bass we catch are
caught while jigging for walleye, but we also catch largemouth while drifting and trolling for walleye.
So their habitats do overlap. Smallmouth do need to have more oxygen than the largemouth bass
do, so at certain times of the year in certain waters, you will not find these fish together.

Weather affects the smallmouth in different ways. Windy weather usually means the fishing will be
better as the waves allow less light to penetrate beneath the water's surface. The same is true
when there is a light drizzle on a calm day. Smallmouth will go on a feeding frenzy before a front
moves in. Some of the best smallmouth fishing is done by jigging on the bottom with a jig tipped with
a leech, crawler, or minnow. Casting to rip/rap shorelines is effective as well. Anything that is in the
water that deflects the current is also another good place to target fish.

Weather affects largemouth bass in much of the same as it does for smallmouth bass. Warm
fronts generally improve fishing unless there are a few warms days in a row in summer. This can
raise the water temperatures and cause the fish to become sluggish. Topwater baits are always
the most exciting way to fish for largemouth bass. If the fish are holding in a deep pool, a heavy jig
will also provide some nice action. The soft plastic revolution owes its success to the popular
largemouth and the Texas rigged plastic worm.