Smallmouth on Blade Baits

[ttb31183]

The weather has finally started to cool down after a pretty mild fall to winter transition. The fish have still been biting, but there has been a noticeable shift to baits. It seems like they all want a blade bait in deeper water.

My last trip smallmouth fishing was earlier this week and the water is in now in the mid 40's which is prime time to pick up the metal. I caught around ten smallmouth (and some trout) on these baits and the swimbait only landed me one and the Ned rig another.

I caught plenty of smaller ones and a few in the high 3lb range.



Gold seems to be the best for me and these are just the unpainted ones I pour myself. I lose too many of them so it makes sense to just pour a bunch each winter.



Here is one that ate the blade bait right when I started to rip it up.



In my experience, once the water is 45 or less, this is the best way to catch them and that will probably continue the rest of the fall and into the early pre-spawn.

[milehi]

Ordered my first buddies way back early 80s, called buddy banks on the phone, said he'd put them in the mail, send him a check when you have time.

[Kyle46N]

So cool. I had my first introduction to blade bait bassin on the Potomac a few years back, and just thought it was so cool to get popsicle bass to eat a chunk of metal in 40 degree water. I've tried it on Berryessa in the winter, and we've caught some decent fish, but its tough to get more than a few in the boat. I wonder if the water temps truly get cold enough here.

[HenderT]

Nice catch and great tip about good temp to get bites.