Straight-forward tactics, plus insider tricks that consistently turn fish in good conditions and bad.

On Rainy Lake last spring, smallies wanted the grub brought so slowly through the reeds that a 1/8-ounce Legacy-Lok jig was dragging along on rock and sand before the fish would strike it. They seemed to want the jig moving most of the time, though a small percentage took the jig on the drop or picked it up off bottom after a pause (deadsticking). At the same time, bass in surrounding cabbage beds preferred the bait riding along about halfway down, ticking leaves and stalks in the heaviest beds.

Around tangles of wood and where weeds grow thick around rockpiles by midsummer, Texas-rigged grubs tend to be more hassle free. In dense weeds and wood, grubs too often rip free from jigheads. To keep the grub from draping too far over branches and sticking, afix the cone sinker to the head, using either a toothpick, a screw-in model such as as the Florida Rig sinker manufactured by Gambler, or something like the Top Brass Peg-It. Use tough tear-resistant plastics such as Riverside or Mann’s 3- to 5-inch grubs on 1/0 to 3/0 round-bend worm or tube hooks like the Daiichi X-Point X-15. Texas-rigged grubs also work well as drop baits, falling vertically along the weed face or down into pockets.

For all wood and weed tactics with grubs, I like a 61⁄2- to 7-foot medium to medium-heavy spinning rod for setting hooks through plastic with a tough green 10- to 12-pound line like Maxima Ultragreen, P-Line, or Berkley Big Game Inshore. I start with green grubs, too, such as watermelon seed, green pumpkin, avocado, or similar shades around reeds and weeds; use brown grubs like root beer, pumpkin seed, and crawfish colors around wood.

Rocks

Smallmouths and rocks are inseparable. In the lakes and rivers I fish most for smallmouths, rocks are entirely unforgiving. Crawling anything along on these jagged moonscapes isn’t possible. Texas and Carolina rigs are gobbled up like popcorn. Football heads? Without 1,000 jigs in each size and color, forget it.

All the more reason why horizontal grubbin’ can be so spectacular around shallow rock. The same techniques and equipment described for working suspended bass produce well on shallow reefs, rockpiles, humps, along rocky shorelines, in shallow boulder fields, up on shallow flats, and along the first major break into deep water. Snags are reduced to a minimum, while coverage area expands dramatically. Most importantly, horizontal grubbin’ is an effective shallow technique that can be worked off the other side of the boat over deep water on the next cast, alternating between structure and open water.

By early postspawn (62°F to 68°F), most smallmouths around the country are relating to rocks somewhere. When the water is the slightest bit stained or cloudy, I find that chartreuse or fire-tiger grubs worked quickly over the tops of rocky points, reefs, or humps can trigger hordes of smallmouths. Cast all the way across the tip of these structural elements, and retrieve at a high rate of speed—sometimes as fast as the reel will allow with a 1/4-ounce or larger jig.

But experiment with jig size and speed. Sometimes a 1/16-ounce head or even smaller works best at a crawl. Though a steady, uneventful retrieve typically produces best, I sometimes find that pushing the rod tip toward the grub for a split second just as it reaches the darker, deeper water on the edge of the drop converts a few extra followers on each spot.