Want to catch your biggest smallmouth ever? Key on prime times: Prespawn and late fall. Cool water motivates the biggest bass. In fall, they stock up for winter. In spring, as the water begins to warm, females are full of eggs and ravenous due to energy deficits created during the cold-water period (winter).
In the coldest water—late fall and again at ice-out in spring—nothing beats a float-and-fly. I use SPRO Phat Flies and custom-made hair jigs on 6-pound fluorocarbon leaders under a Rainbow Plastics A-Just-A-Bubble. Slide the float onto the line, twist the end cap to secure the float to the line, tie on a barrel swivel below the float, add a 3- to 5-foot section of fluorocarbon and tie on a Phat Fly. I use a G. Loomis rod designed for float-and-fly applications. You need a rod at least 9 feet long, because the float must be fixed to the line. Slip floats seldom work as well.
Float-and-fly tactics excel in water temperatures between 36°F and 50°F. Find spring and fall aggregation points (these differ from one environment to the next, which will be detailed in future entries) and start by working those adjacent flats and edges. I look for drop-offs with a shallow lip in 4- to 6-feet of water and progressively work deeper (down to 12 feet, which is about the end-of-the-line for float-and-fly tactics). The best jig most days weighs 1/32 ounce. On windy days, the 1/16-ounce varieties work best.
To manipulate the float-and-fly, simply pull the float toward you slowly and stop it in its tracks. The jig follows a fixed float in an arc, and falls slowly, enticingly, irresistibly back to vertical. Generally the float snaps under on a strike, but really big animals may play with it or take it under slowly.
Be patient. In really cold water, smallmouths may eye the fly for quite some time. Try twitching it in place after a long pause—especially on key spots where you've caught cold-water smallmouths in the past. The big ones might wait until you've caught 4 or 5 smaller specimens, and by then they're leery. Wait them out. Experiment with color and size until you find the fly that triggers a goliath.
The legendary and late Charlie Nuckols develope
d this technique using synthetic "troll-doll" hair tied on 1/32-ounce ball-head jigs. Experimenting with various hair jigs tied with bucktail, rabbit fur, and other naturals (see Paul Jensen in "links") have proved very interesting. Jensen's tiny perch imitations are deadly. Tim McFadden of TC Tackle (also in "links") creates a variety of jigs that produce giants, too. But for commercially-available products, few things beat a SPRO Phat Fly for consistent results. Just remember to let the fly do the work, Don't pull it away too fast in cold water. Make your movements slow and easy.
When the float-and-fly cools off, suspending minnowbaits catch fire. That's the subject for coldwater smallies part two, coming soon.