Springtime is the top time of the year to be on the water as the smallie bite is shaping up after the long winter. In the spring waves of the smallies will make movement towards the bigger bays to get ready to spawn, leaving the deeper water main lake haunts that they spent the winter in. When the water temps hit the low 60’s some of these smallies will start the trip to the shallows being the first wave to hit the shallows of the season. How far they get into the bays will have a lot to do with water temps and how long they hold due to the weather. If the spring temps jump up the smallies will be right there with them but if they hold off the smallmouth will hold out in the middle of the bay off of the deeper drops with food sources waiting for the water temps to climb.

If you have to put the time on a calendar this would be the 2nd or 3rd weekend of May as a rule of thumb but a lot of this will depend on the type of spring that we are having. If we have an early spring this may start at the first part of May and if we have a late spring this move towards the shallows will take place later in the month or the first part of June. So pay attention to how spring is making progress in the Great Lake areas by you. As for the other side of the coin the bite will last for about a month and a half once it starts, this is not a two week window like on smaller bodies of water. Because of the size of the great lakes and the slow rising water temps the movements of smallies will take a little while to happen.

Once you have a bay that you are going to target take a little time and make a pass through the area with your electronics. My Humminbird 997 with side imaging gives me a great way to look at structure and for bait fish in open water saving me time when I am looking for prime structure and food for the smallies that may be held up in the middle of the bay waiting for the water temps to climb to the warmer 60’s. Try to target water depths in the range of 8ft to 12ft. A great search bait for these depths is Rapala’s Shad Rap RS. Cast this bait out and crank it down to its running depth and stop the bait, give a few cranks of the reel and stop it again and let it sit a few second. Repeat this with longer and shorter pauses to get an idea of what the smallies want. A new bait this year that will work in this situation will be the Rapala X-Rap Deep 10. This bait will get down to 8ft to 10ft on a regular cast and will act the same as the regular X-Rap. Fish this bait with a stop and go pause back to the boat.

When the shallows warm up smallies will make the move shallower and you need to follow to stay a part of the action. They will hit the shallows looking for food and areas to spawn. Once the water hits the upper 60’s the urge to spawn will take over and the fun will begin. For the next month the numbers of smallies that will invade the shallows will seem like it is endless, and at times the action may be the same way.

At this point of the spring season you will have a handful of baits that will work to catch early season smallies. To start I will always fish an X-Rap in the mid-shallow depths. 4ft to 8ft when the smallies are holding in a little deeper water at the start of the day or if a cold front has moved through the area pushing the smallie a little deeper. I will fish this on a baitcaster as my first choice with a 12lb line. I prefer Pline Holo line for this tactic. This is a fluorocarbon line with little stretch giving the X-Rap maximum action. If I am faced with a windy day and casting is hard to do with the baitcaster I will switch to a spinning rod set up spooled with Fireline Crystal 20/6. New to the market this year Fireline Crystal is the same color as mono, no longer will you need to use a leader to keep the fish from detecting your super line. Make long casts and work the X-Rap in a stop and go method, create a cadence to work the bait (jurk, jurk, jurk, and pause). Work a different variety of cadences until you find one that works and stick with it.

When the smallies move to the shallows you can mix it up a little bait wise. I like to throw an Outkast Stick Worm rigged in two different ways texas style. One would be texas style weightless and the second would be to use a weighted worm hook. If the smallies are active I will use the weighted worm hook presentation I can fish the bait faster than I can if it is un-weighted. On days when the smallies are slow to react to your bait you will want to fish the Stick Worm on a regular worm hook weightless. For this I prefer to use an Eagle Claw HP hook this keeps the Stick Worm in place better and you are able to get the bait through the cover better.

Swimming a grub has been one of the best ways to take shallow smallies the last few years. Rigged either texas style or on a jig simply cast your grub out and count the bait down a few feet and start to reel. 1/16oz to 1/4oz jigs and weights will get the job done, use the lightest weight you can and still keep contact with the grub. Carry a variety of colors of grubs and it is key to use a bigger grub for this pattern I use the Outkast Fat Tail Grub. For this presentation I use a 7ft medium action spinning set up teamed with a matched reel, spooled with 8lb mono line.

One of the sleeper tactics early in the season is topwater but the key to getting bites; you have to work the bait slow. Make your cast and let the ripples settle, give the bait a pull and let it sit; the strikes will come after the bait has set for a few seconds. If the smallies are active you can step up the speed a little. Storms Chug Bug and Rapala Skitter Pop are great baits for this topwater tactic.

A special note when the smallies come into the shallows to spawn and take to the beds, try to leave these fish be. There will be enough other fish that are not spawning that you can target and catch. If you do by chance take a bass off of the bed get this fish back into the water as fast as possible so they can get back to the nest and carry on their spawning ritual.

So if you are looking for some of the best smallmouth action of the season make your way to the Great Lakes this spring. Once the action starts it is one of the best smallie bites that you will encounter in your year of fishing. A variety of lure presentation will work in the spring so keep your options open.

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