<font size="4">Deep Water Smallmouth Bass - Part 1</font>
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<b>In this article, guide and professional bass angler Mark Currie gives his tips how to catch large smallmouth bass that reside in the deeper parts of lakes. Mark likes to take his guests fishing on a number of bodies of water in New York State, Vermont, and Quebec, including Lake Champlain, Lake Memphremagog, Lake St-Louis, Lake of Two Mountains, Lake St. Francis, and the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers.</b>
Where do Smallmouth Bass go when they are not feeding?
If I’ve heard this question once, I’ve heard it a thousand times and the answer is always the same, to the bar! No, not the one most people frequent, but the one out there in open water.
Places that most people seldom venture for one reason or another, like a spot where deep water becomes interrupted by a structural change. It could be a rock shoal, or perhaps a deep weed line that happens to be growing out in the middle of nowhere. It could even be a contour change of one or two feet. Any bar or band of land that changes the bottom contour of the lake could hold numbers of big fish during those “Dog Days of Summerâ€, if you know where to look.
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/sbass-cur ... jpg">Years ago, I began the open, deep water search for smallmouth bass, and today, I can attest to the truth that not all smallmouth remain shallow, like some think. Sure, most people catch bass in shallow water, and at certain times of the year, this is the best place to fish, but summertime limits the catches to just a few short hours each day.
Smallmouth have a tendency to feed during the coolest periods of the day, which usually means early morning and late evening. Fishing during those time frames is great, if you can, but what about the remainder of the day. Should you go back to the house after the morning bite and only go out again after dinner? No Way, No How!
As a Tournament fisherman, the luxury of resting during the off hours of the bite has never really applied to me, and therefore, sent me in search of the elusive neutral or negative Smallmouth Bass. Many a Monday morning check has been cashed because of these presentations and hopefully many more to come.
<b><i>Author Mark Currie with a deep smallie</i></b>
Starting with a chart of the body of water you plan to fish, mark off several good looking depth changes such as a thirty foot area with a fifteen foot rise on it, or even a forty foot area with an eighteen to twenty foot hump in the middle. The aid of a quality GPS unit such as the ones Lowrance manufacture, makes life much easier. By taking the coordinates from the chart and entering them on my LMS 350A, I can easily locate the spots that I wish to fish and store the ones that produce well for future trips, or tournaments. If you are not familiar with Latitude and Longitude readings and how to use them, I suggest you find someone who is and request their help in learning how to apply them to your electronics. These devices sure beat the old method of eyeballing markings on several shores and trying to find them later, especially when the nearest shoreline is five miles or more away. Pinpointing your exact location with the aid of a GPS allows more time to fish and less time looking
<img src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/sbass-cur ... -shot3.gif">
Once you have worked out all the bugs with the electronics, you are ready to fish. The question is what to throw, and how to know where the fish are located on this piece of structure. I usually idle around with a few markers by my side, ready to toss overboard at the first sign of a depth change. I will throw one on the highest point or crown, another where it falls off into deeper water, and a few more along the ridge of that same contour change to act as a trail to fish. If this shoal happens to have more than one crown, mark each one, and don’t be shy to fish the trench that separates the two high points. Many times, the school will suspend between the two, and ambush anything that uses it as a migration route.
<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/sbass-cur ... .gif"><img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/sbass-currie/frenzy.gif"> I like to start on top, with search baits such as; PopR’s, Zara Spooks, Bang O’s, or any similar lures, to see what kind of mood the fish are in. I don’t usually catch very much this way, but every so often the bass are aggressive and limiting out becomes as simple as throwing out a lure and reeling it in.
Most times however, it’s not quite that simple and you have to finesse them into striking. My second choice would be either a medium diving crankbait such as Berkley’s Frenzy series, or a suspending jerkbait like the Smithwick Suspending Rogue.
These presentations usually only take a few minutes with a couple of anglers and the information gained can prove to be very helpful in determining the locations and aggressiveness of the bass. After you have done all the above, you are ready to settle in and really concentrate on catching the neutral and negative fish that are usually the largest ones in the area.
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/sbass-cur ... .jpg">This last method is probably as lethal as using live bait ...but you'll have to read about that in <a href="http://www.fish-hawk.net/hawktalk/viewt ... 2461">Part 2 of Deep Water Smallmouth Bass</a> by Mark Currie.
Copyright Mark Currie and Fish-Hawk.Net, 2002
