TODAY'S TIP: Trophy smallmouth can't resist live bait
by Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, www.fw.ky.gov

I was once a purist - until I got over it.

I used to feel that you should only catch smallmouth bass - or any fish for that matter - on artificial lures. Throwing a hair jig, grub, blade bait or other lure was the most sporting way to fish in my mind, and the best example of the concept of "fair chase" for fishing. "Only meat hogs use live bait," I would scoff with an air of moral superiority.

But, a funny thing happened on the way to my first trophy fish award for a smallmouth bass. My fishing buddies had no such compunctions about using a live shiner or large crappie minnow to fool fall and winter smallmouth bass on Lake Cumberland or Laurel River Lake.

I would patiently swim a light hair jig down a point from the back of the boat, and hear a whipping sound and slight grunt from the front of the boat. My buddies' rod would bend double, straining from the fight of a chunky smallmouth that inhaled their shiner. They gently chuckled at my conceit while the drag on their spinning reels screeched.

On the occasion that I took a smallmouth with a jig, the fish usually ran from 14 to 17 inches. Those smallmouth bass my buddies caught with shiners averaged 18 to 21 inches.Read More