Best Live Bait For River Smallies! We had a fun day live baiting for smallmouth! We used crayfish, minnows & hellgrammites! Check out and see what they like best; cause they definitely...

lukedh94

We had a fun day live baiting for smallmouth! We used crayfish, minnows & hellgrammites! Check out and see what they like best; cause they definitely had a favorite!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8d8iDblFuc

flyguy Loc: Lake Onalaska, Sunfish Capitol of the World!

lukedh94 wrote:

We had a fun day live baiting for smallmouth! We used crayfish, minnows & hellgrammites! Check out and see what they like best; cause they definitely had a favorite!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8d8iDblFuc

Welcome to the Forum, luked, glad you had a fun day, smallmouth are fun to catch.

oldgundoc

The only bait that I ever took when I went small mouth fishing were night crawlers.
Never skunked but, may have missed out not trying other b ate.

Capt Lou

Helgrimites if u can get em ‘ !

Big dog Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York

lukedh94 wrote:

We had a fun day live baiting for smallmouth! We used crayfish, minnows & hellgrammites! Check out and see what they like best; cause they definitely had a favorite!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8d8iDblFuc

Big smallies can be particular. One day crawdads, next day shiners. Keep a fishing log including what you caught, on what, where, water temps and clarity, season, air temp, time of day, etc.
Review last season before you head out this season, if you caught last season, do it again. If you got skunked, try something different.

Seafoam Loc: Nampa, ID

We're not allowed to use "live bait" here. It's legal to use crawdads though and smallmouth love them worms are still the best for most anything.

Big dog Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York

Seafoam wrote:

We're not allowed to use "live bait" here. It's legal to use crawdads though and smallmouth love them worms are still the best for most anything.

The biggest smallies I ever saw were by the Bonneville dam on the Columbia River. They were just basking near the surface. Had to be 6-8 lbs., maybe half dozen of them.

Seafoam Loc: Nampa, ID

Big dog wrote:

The biggest smallies I ever saw were by the Bonneville dam on the Columbia River. They were just basking near the surface. Had to be 6-8 lbs., maybe half dozen of them.

Haven't had the opportunity to fish the Columbia yet I'm usually just passing through driving. I can imagine there are some huge fish. Biggest smallies I've ever saw was on the Snake. My best was 22" on a popper didn't get to weigh it though. Still have the best luck with nightcrawlers.

Big dog Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York

Seafoam wrote:

Haven't had the opportunity to fish the Columbia yet I'm usually just passing through driving. I can imagine there are some huge fish. Biggest smallies I've ever saw was on the Snake. My best was 22" on a popper didn't get to weigh it though. Still have the best luck with nightcrawlers.

I didn’t really get to do much fishing when I was on the Columbia, I was doing fisheries research, salmon smolt survival rates, by some of the dams along the river. We did do some fishing just to get DNA from some of the species that prey on the young salmon. We had to do that after I found one of our micro transmitters inside a dead small mouth.
I would love to have the chance to fish there for real.