Stay On Top for River Smallmouth

It was the middle of August, finally black outside, and I was knee-deep in one of my favorite river pools. Leaning slightly backwards, I fired a cast out into the black abyss, as far as I could. The loon-colored Whopper Plopper bait splatted when it hit the water, and I slowly reeled it back in.

- Rob Dankowski

 

Eight feet from where I stood, a massive fish eruption exploded the water. My heart almost stopped feeling the weight of this fish on my line.

I set the hook. Drag-searing runs followed by splashy jumps broke the cadence of the river night while a giant smallmouth bass battled for its freedom.

Feeling I finally had the monster subdued, I clicked on my headlamp and slipped my net under more than 22 inches of gleaming bronzeback.

In my opinion, nothing beats topwater fishing, and not much beats the savagery of a big smallmouth smashing a topwater, day or night, in a free-flowing river. Almost every river with a riffle and pool character will host a healthy number of explosive smallmouth bass.

Timing is everything when using topwater lures in rivers, it’s extremely important in choosing the size of your topwater and the speed with which you reel in the selected topwater.

Early Season

For June and July smallmouths, I have found that topwaters only seem to shine during the initial period of darkness. Smaller black Jitterbugs or other small surface baits reeled in ultra-slowly are the ticket. With all my topwater fishing at night, I lean exclusively on black-colored baits. An all-black bait offers a smallmouth the greatest visual silhouette. In the early season, an ultraslow retrieve is crucial because it allows smallmouth to track the whereabouts of a topwater. Smallies can hear the lure, their lateral line detects movement, vibrations and pressure changes. Motionless baits can’t be tracked, so stop-and-go retrieves are ineffective.