Basin Smallmouth Bass in Summer

I know what you’re thinking? Fishing smallmouth bass in a deep basin is just plain a wacky idea in canoe country. Nope. Let me explain a few things. First of all smallmouth bass are voracious predators and they quite simply go where the food is. If this means deep basins so be it. Next question; how does one find smallies in a basin? Basins are deep and typically big or super big so defining where to start can be so easy it’s not funny or it can be a search mission.

Lets start with the easy part, sight fishing. Yep you can see smallies in 40-80 foot basins with the naked eye. How you say? Just notice the surface. Do you see fish exploding on the surface over basins? If so I’m betting these are smallmouth bass chasing bait to the surface. This could be a few blow ups or an entire couple acre area with hundreds of fish blasting away at bait right under the surface! And this is the most fun you’ll ever have in a canoe. Typically this occurs in light wind situations so you can see this a long way off. See the surface blowing up? Start paddling immediately because these fish will eat swim baits hard. Really hard! Some of my favorites swimbaits are Keitech and Zoom. I prefer lighter colors and the larger sizes. Put them on a 1/8 or 1/16 jig head and cast ’em into the boiling water. Start reeling as soon as the bait hits the water and rip it fast just under the surface. Rip it all the way back to the canoe many will eat right in front of you, usually in packs of many. You’ll be amazed! I have witnessed this many times. Two particular adventures had us catching big smallies hand over fist for over an hour using this method and a few other times we had 5-15 minutes of non-stop action on fish over 18 inches.

So that was easy and almost dumb. To find them deeper fish basins attached to weed beds and points. This tactic is a little more methodical but when you find the smallmouth they eat in volumes. Typically I’d start at the first break, say 15-20 feet and work towards deeper water casting the same rig mentioned above only let the bait hit the bottom then start snap jigging it back to the canoe. These fish are on the prowl in schools. Playing keep away is what works best and the bites are take no prisoners.

Want to know more? Feel free to comment and I’ll get back to you. Or shoot me an email.

This is one of the smallies we caught inches under the surface in about 65 feet of water. You gotta see the tail walk!

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