What is everyone's favorite smallmouth bait. I've never caught one before. I'm going to make a big effort to catch one this year. I've heard crayfish are their favorite food. Crankbaits, worms, jigs, shad?????

Leeches. Live leeches. Hehe. Too bad you can't buy them down here.

Crayfish are definitely a top food, so if you get a lure that emulates that, it's a good start.

Leeches?!!! Where would you get them up there? Do you have to yank them off cattle or something?! lol! I guess their medical practices are more primitive up North than I expected... bloodletting and all. lol!

Lol. Leeches are just about the best live bait available for many species. They sell them in every bait shop up north.

When they are on the hook, they just continue to wriggle and swim, and any fish that can see is going to try and eat them.

Plus, they are one of smallmouth bass's favorite foods!

Jerkbaits hard and soft work very well for smallmouth. I think it is more important to be in the right kind of water to catch smallmouths rather than what you are throwing. They will eat a wide varieity of baits from c-rigs to poppers. I have seen them come up from 15-20ft to smash a topwater bait. So if you want to catch one you need to concentrate more on the water you are fishing rather then the bait you are throwing. They tend to be deeper then largemouth and relate better to rocks then any other kind of cover.

Cool, but creepy! But really... are they common in the wild up there, and if so, do they ever stick to you and suck your blood like in the movies? I always thought they were in bogs and swamps... courtesy of Hollywood, of course.

I think I've already scoped out a really good smallmouth destination... sounds like I already have what I need in my tacklebox... Fisherman's Supply had live crawfish for sale last week. Hopefully, they will still have a few when I head out.

Abel is right. Rocks are a smallmouth's favorite type of structure, by far. They also love deep water, mostly because they are naturally cold water fish, unlike Largemouth. They are also even meaner and more aggressive then largemouth, and definitely fight a lot harder.

So catch them on good spinning gear, it'll be a lot more fun!

I really want to catch some around here, they are my all time favorite fish.

As for the leeches, I really have no idea if they are common in the wild lol. I believe there are populations of leeches in almost every body of water, including Texas. Most of them are only an inch or so long. The leeches they sell up north cannot suck the blood of a human, that i know of, they actually seem to feed more on dead fish and decaying matter.

Blood sucking leeches do exist of course, and I Have had to pull a few off of me after wade fishing before lol. Usually they are pretty small.

Ive pulled leaches off of a couple of bass down here

In WI when I fished everyday in the summer a zoom fluke or zulu would kill em. I run it on a spinning rod with 8lb braid to a barrel swivel to a 10lb leader rigged weedless. Works wonders.

I live on Texoma, an excellent smallmouth lake. As a matter of fact, there was an Allen Warren fishing show on this morning that was filmed on Texoma. They were doing some cold weather fishing around the bluffs and catching some nice ones on deep diving (or medium) crank baits. My personal best came on a live shad while fishing for stripers, 5+ lbs.

I've heard a couple of folk say the lake Grapevine has a fair to middling smallmouth fishery, anybody know anything about that?

Spider jig's and skirted grubs work very well.

Roadtrip, there is a breeding Smallmouth Bass population in Grapevine. But it's a fairly small one, and tough to target.

I have caught one smallmouth there myself.

Check out Mini-Me's by www.SOBlures.com. Bill Dee has some of the best Smallmouth spinner baits taht you will every use.

Tell Bill, Steve sent you...