Great Lakes smallmouth bass often spread out across thousands of acres of expansive flats, making them a challenge to locate. Tennessee River ledge expert, Mark Rose, is no stranger to finding offshore bass (tackle links at the bottom). He explains the need to find subtle change areas such as points, rock patches, or changes in bottom composition. While your graphs are a big part of the search, so too is your lure. Finesse paddle tail swimbaits are an excellent tool for combing flats and triggering smallmouth keyed on gobies and other baitfish forage. Here’s a breakout of Rose’s program:
1. Target smallmouth around the edges of flats. Hone in the search when you locate isolated rocks, bottom changes, and subtle points and pockets in the contours.
2. Fish finesse paddle tail swimbaits to cover water and contact fish quickly.
3. Use a longer medium-power spinning rod to achieve greater casting distances when covering water offshore.
4. Select a small diameter braided mainline and light fluorocarbon leader to get the bait to depth and keep it there when fishing in deeper water.
TACKLE USED:
• Strike King Rage Swimmer Swimbait: https://wired2.fish/rageswimmer
• Strike King Tour Grade Football Shakey Head 3/8-ounce: http://wired2.fish/TourGradeFootballShakeyHeads
• Lew’s Pro Ti Speed Stick Spinning Rod 6’10” Medium Power: http://wired2.fish/ProTiSpeedStickSpinningRod
• Lew’s Custom Pro Speed Spin Spinning Reel: https://wired2.fish/LewsCustomSpeedSpin
• Seaguar Smackdown Flash Green Braided Line, 15lb: https://wired2.fish/SeaguarSmackdownFlashGreen
• Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon, 8lb: https://wired2.fish/SeaguarTatsuFluoro
• Humminbird SOLIX 15 CHIRP MEGA SI+ G3 Fish Finder: http://wired2.fish/SOLIX15-G3
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Not a giant. Pulls up a 4.5lber.
Always enjoy Mr Rose
How long is the leder line? I know the great lakes for small mouth can be gin clear, so I'm wondering how long the leader line is
Kalin lunker grubs- another year round killer,, nice video 👍
I’ve come to the conclusion that northern smallmouth don’t fight half as hard as southern smallmouth.
Nice video and tips! Always enjoy the smallmouth content keep me coming 👍
What lake is he on?
I gotta give it up to the camera man! Looking through that lens the whole time waiting for that perfect shot, and not loosing his balance. I can’t even take my sweatshirt off standing up on my boat without almost going overboard! Good work guys!
What spinning combo are you using?
I wouldn't be excited to be limited to lews rods and reels.
Asmr breathing
Megabass dark sleeper is a smallmouth slayer year round
nice , i love the underspins too for the smaller paddletails
I noticed you were using brightly colored braided line even with a moving bait presentation and still catching plenty of fish in gin clear water. Is there a particular leader length that you use so that the brightly colored braid doesn’t negatively impact your ability to catch fish ?