Clearwater River Smallmouth?
Posted by Best Bass Fishing Lures on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
I fish the Clearwater River In Central ID. It is a fairly fast moving river with a few deep pools. It has very little cover other than rocks and sand. I have a few questions about catching the larger smallies.
1. I mostly fish tubes with a 1/8 to 1/4 oz internal jig head or curly tail with same size ball jig head but I keep hanging up, near as I can tell the jig head is getting wedged between the boulders, I have tried Texas rigs, spinnerbaits, Carolina rigs, plain weedless bass jigs, ect. but they all get hung up too. The fish seem to like the lure touching bottom as the primary forage are craws and sculpins. How can I keep from getting hung up while keeping in contact with the bottom?
2. What kind of structure will I find the bigger ones hiding around?
3. I really like the drop shot rig but the ball sinker gets hung up almost every cast, how can I keep it from getting hung up?
Dr. Powdersky-I have tried weightless plastics but they seem to like it on the bottom and the current washes a weightless rig downstream before it can even sink a few feet. as for line I’m using 10lb braid with 8lb flouro leader. the braid is almost as small as my 4lb flouro.
The Wormist-I’ll have to try that, it makes sense because I use pencil lead clipped to a swivel for steelhead and it don’t hang up near as often as the drop shot weight.
Filed in Bass Fishing Lures | 3 responses so far
Dr. Powderskyon 01 Sep 2010 at 6:27 am 1since no heavy cover is present, you may wanna get a lighter line, loosen up the drag a bit and fish weightless worm instead?
keep the lure moving constantly so it won’t make it all the way to the bottom and in between rocks
The Wormiston 01 Sep 2010 at 7:10 am 2question no. 3…
don’t use the ball type dropshot weight. use the longer narrow one. or use a number of splitshot crimped lightly to your line.
Backwater Charlieon 01 Sep 2010 at 7:57 am 3Wow, tough situation! I am speechless. I would have recommended Texas-rigged Senko’s, Drop shot worms, and Tubes but you have already tried these. Maybe you can try some “Snagless Sally” spinnerbaits?