Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth bass get confused with largemouth bass and, in waters where both exist, with spotted bass. The easiest check on a smallmouth versus a largemouth is the jaw. Close the mouth and look at where the upper jawbone ends relative to the eye. On a smallmouth it stops at or before the middle of the eye. On a largemouth it extends well past the back of the eye. Smallmouth also lack the largemouth's dark horizontal stripe down the side, showing instead bronze to brown sides with vertical, faintly barred markings. Body shape is another tell: smallmouth are more football shaped and less compressed than a largemouth.

Spotted bass are the tighter mix-up, especially where ranges overlap. Spotted bass have a rough patch of teeth on the tongue that smallmouth lack, and their dorsal fin has a shallower notch between the spiny and soft sections, almost connected, where a smallmouth's notch is deeper and more distinct. Spotted bass also tend to have a more defined lateral blotch or broken stripe, while smallmouth show vertical bars instead. If you're unsure and can't check the tongue, the eye color helps too: smallmouth almost always have red or orange eyes, which spotted bass and largemouth do not typically show.

Cool rivers, rocky lakes, and mountain reservoirs. In North Carolina that means the mountain and upper piedmont river systems: the New, the Watauga, the French Broad, and highland lakes like Fontana and James. They want current, structure, and clean water more than they want warmth.

Look for smallmouth around boulders, gravel bars, current seams, and rocky points. In rivers they hold behind rocks and in the slack water at the head of pools. In lakes they stack up on rocky humps and points, especially where a hard bottom meets deeper water.

Crayfish are the main event. Smallmouth also eat minnows, hellgrammites, and insects, and in rivers they key hard on whatever crayfish are doing on the bottom. A lure or bait that imitates a crawdad scooting backward will draw strikes almost anywhere smallmouth live.

A soft plastic craw or tube jig worked slowly along rock and gravel bottom is the standard producer, in rivers and lakes alike. Cast upstream or across current and let it tumble naturally through the seam. In lakes, drag it slowly across rocky points and humps.

A small jerkbait or a spinnerbait fished around current breaks and boulders works well in spring and fall. Live bait anglers do very well with a crayfish or hellgrammite drifted under a float through a rocky run. Fish early morning and evening in summer, since smallmouth get lockjawed in the heat of a bright afternoon.