There are a couple of us doing a fly in trip with Halley's camp in July this year. The lake is located in the NE part of Ontario and is mainly a small mouth lake they say (lots of rocks). I have never fished a lake that is all small mouth. I was wondering for those that have targeted smallies up north what is a good bait? I heard that the drop shot is good and plan to stock up on some of that (I don't know if color matters). Weight is also going to be an issue as we are only allowed 100 lbs per person. Basspro has a lot of their stuff on sale and wanted to stock up and save some money but wasn't sure what I should be looking for. If anyone has any info I would appreciate any tips. Thanks in advance guys.
use the same as you use here. Tubes,pop-r' small cranks. The lake might be featuring small mouth but I would imagine you will find some other fish there. 100# of gear is doable if you watch what take. Good fishing and make a report when you get back.
Throw in a pack (or two) of solid black (if you can find them) tube jigs, and either jig or swim them in deeper water off points or drops. In July some of those larger SM Bass will drop down to deeper water, and these black tubes look like leeches. Have a safe (and fun) trip - btw, almost anything swimming will hit these black tubes.
Thanks for the info guys.. I am excited to get there. July can not come soon enough. We can portage to a couple other lakes that have walleye and pike. The plan is to do that a couple days to catch our dinner. I just can wait to hook into smallies all day.
I have been north many times fishing for smallies and my go to baits are as follows
1) Berkley power worms 4 inch ( plain black, black chart tail, motor oil chart tail , green pumkin seed ) I also like zoom finesse worms.
2)A black and frog color jitterbug is a must . Northern smallies are notorious top water feeders . Wait til a pike crushes it.
3) 1/4 to 3/8 oz hildebrandt spinnerbait gold blades, black or chart skirt with a white twin tail grub . Pike also love these .
4) Rapala shadow raps . They are expensive but smallies love them.
We go in July as well and primarily target smallmouth. We have been using the same combo for years, chartreuse jig heads tipped with half a night crawler. We average 100+ fish days. Its a blast.
Basically what he said. Obviously in windy conditions we step up to 1/4 oz. Standard red eye round head chartreuse jig head. We prefer lighter to try and limit snagging rocks but needless to say we're knot tying experts after the first day.
Another thing to take into consideration is water clarity and your line selection. We use the dark green power pro. We have tried everything and this has seemed to work the best. Another is the technique we use to jig the crawlers, I have taken friends up before that really struggle to feel the bite. We simply cast out and slowly work the bait back, just slowly lifting and feeling for weight. Its a blast. We usually go the first week in July and depending on the winter we have sometimes still found the bass on their beds.
Most Canadian lakes I've fished are rocky, deep ledges. All good suggestions, I'd take a couple blades too for those deep ledges. For numbers, nothing will beat a drop shot 4 inch worm. Cross tail shad is my favorite
Thanks again guys. We will be fishing the last week of July. Looks like I will have to pick up some 1/4 oz jig heads. Never really thought about line choice. I have a few poles rigged up with the suffix green color and really like it. I bought some sticks baits for the drop shot. That seems to be what a lot of people catch them on.
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