Summer smallies?

I need some info on summer smallies.

How deep are they????
What lures to use?

Most people would want to say deep but in my opinion in the summer big smallies are goin to be wherever they wanna be depending on what type of cover they ate favoring. I've caught monster smallies in a few feet of water to over 50 ft. On a lake I have a spot where you can get em on topwater in 70 fow. I would throw a lot of finesse baits. Especially drop shots and blades

I agreed with Kamilfishes's comment.

But at that spot where you are talking about are usually catch on suspend to bottom of water at no matter how it was depth at. If it was 7 feet, you still will get it on bottom to middle column. even at 50 feet, you will get bass at 25-50 feet.

Your fishfinder was lighting the fish arches on around 25-35 feet at 50 feet deep. meanwhile perch are around that range too. like I showed you what perch/bass look like on your fishfinder. So, you probably need to find something that can reach that deep without going any farther. blades are best choice to go.

But If it was me, I always will shooting for bottom for like 75% of times. The other 25% is that I already knew what to do with specific lake with bass activity so that's why. Therefore, in the end, we have our different ways of fishing. So nothing wrong about that. But we have our special skills to put into this only one same spot that we fish at.

The two biggest smallies I have ever caught were both in the summer. One went 5.2 and I caught it in about 6" of water, but it was right near a steep drop. The other was 4.7 and I caught that in about 3ft of water on a spook.

carolina rig, drop shot, blades for deep and suspended smallies.

Recently read an article in one of the mags. They kind of behave the opposite of largies. The article said they tend to stay in deeper water on cloudy days and tend to go shallow on sunny days. I couldn't find them deep or shallow this morning

Was reading some stuff on line and some of it contradicted itself. Rain can sometimes bring them out as it will cool the water off.I believe this to be true because I went out to a place that has been tough to catch smallies and banged out 2 in a row and 4 over all in short work after the recent down pours we had.Also read that early morning and dusk to night best time to catch them. Caught my pb smallie for mass last night just before dark 3.5 yeah I know not huge but very nice size for where I was fishing.Makes sense that they would be most active at that time seeing as their favorite food is crawfish.

Biggest smallmouths I have ever caught (5 over 5 pounds; 2 over 6) have all come from deep water in late summer.

It does depend on the water; River fishing in big swells off the main current; Quabbin and Wachusett the bass move in almost timed travels through deeper channels.

smallies love to hold up on rocks ive notices as im sure im not the only one to notice that one but in some pond there are no rocks theres this one pond by me were there is nothing really substantial for rock piles so the fish love hanging out on downed wood in 5 foot or deeper but its different for other ponds just something to look out for they usually stay out of lily pads and they love suspending off steep depth changes and under water depth changes like in johns pond in mashpee there is a spot in the middle of the pond that goes form 30 ft all the way up to 10 ft its pretty cool there are always smallies hanging out in that general area but ive really noticed that in the early to mid spring when the water is in the 50's through 60's they are more likely to be 10 foot or shallower and love to hitting the jerk bait an jigs/tubes. but summer time they in the morning and evenings they will come up shallow and as it warms up they go back to the depths and will suspend thats when blade baits and crank baits come into play. i know right now there are a lot of bait fish in the ponds right now on cape!! all the little bass and herring fry have hatched so a lot of fish are gorging on really small bait around 1 inch long and thats hard to match up to so i have been mainly throwing a Carolina rig with a small finesse worm or the drop shot and the jerk bait but hope this helps sorry if im all over the place with this info haha just message me if you got any questions about any of the ponds on cape

MOST quality smallmouth spend the majority of thier time in 20+ feet of water after the spawn. They can be found shallower in the morning and/or on cloudy /windy days. They spend a lot of time in a weed that is called Sand grass. IDK if that is the official name but its what a lot of guys call it/ Its a bright green to dark green fine, spiney like weed ( not to be confused with moss or slime) They are around it because their food source is around it. Crayfish and baitfish will get up in and around it and the smallmouth stalk their prey in and around it. It's called sandgrass because it grows in sand. It can grow in depths up to 35'. If you get good with your eletronics and have them set right you can tell you are over it just from looking at the graph. If you don't have a good enough graph or the experience then dragging a 1/2 to 3/4 oz jig or carolina rig on the bottom is a sure fire way to find it. With the carolina rig, dont worry if you feel your rig is all caught up in the weed. The weight may be but the bait usually isnt untill you pull hard to try and shake off the weeds. If you are not getting that grass on your rig, your not in the right place. Like someone else said they like rocks too. Find a boulder or rock pile in 20-30' with bait around, the smallies will be there. It really is all about the bait with summertime smallies. Find it and you find the bass
Invest in a good middle of the road sonar unit, for example the Hummingbird 386ci DI Combo is a good starting point. It has a lot of bells and whistles for under $400. Learn how your eletronics work. learn how to set the unit for optimal performance.
Learn your eletronics and you will find the fish

I'm a big fan of the spook in 2-5 feet of water during dusk and dawn! Love top water!

rich, are you talking about that eel grass stuff?


i've only fished a few places that has it and they've been relating to it even fewer times unfortunately since i definitely prefer it over slimy garbage and coontail.

rich, are you talking about that eel grass stuff?


i've only fished a few places that has it and they've been relating to it even fewer times unfortunately since i definitely prefer it over slimy garbage and coontail.

No sam not eel grass. Thats a shallow water weed. While sandgrass can grow in 5-10' its found much more in the 15-30' zone. The cape has it, Webster has it ( along with 10 other types of weed), The NH lakes are covered in it. When you drag it up on a bait its usually a good size ball of very very thin spiny weed but again, not the slimy snotty stuff you can sometimes run into in more fertile water.

Up at Winni, squam and winnisquam, I would sometimes catch a 2-3lb smallie and it would be balled up in 3lbs of sandgrass

it has a skunky smell to it that is hard to confuse and usually quite pleasant because it means you are catching fish

rich, are you talking about that eel grass stuff?


i've only fished a few places that has it and they've been relating to it even fewer times unfortunately since i definitely prefer it over slimy garbage and coontail.

No sam not eel grass. Thats a shallow water weed. While sandgrass can grow in 5-10' its found much more in the 15-30' zone. The cape has it, Webster has it ( along with 10 other types of weed), The NH lakes are covered in it. When you drag it up on a bait its usually a good size ball of very very thin spiny weed but again, not the slimy snotty stuff you can sometimes run into in more fertile water.

Up at Winni, squam and winnisquam, I would sometimes catch a 2-3lb smallie and it would be balled up in 3lbs of sandgrass

very good to know, thanks for the information.