Welcome!
This site is under construction, but here is the intent.
This site is about upping your odds of landing smallmouth bass. My approach is based on four factors.
- Water clarity
2. Season (water temp)
3. Cloud cover
4. Wind
With these factors, you can gauge the mood of the fish and adjust techniques and bait to improve your catch rate.
Here is how to navigate the site.
- Start on the Home Page. Choose either clear or stained water. This is a judgement call. Sometimes it is an obvious choice. Many times the choice is not clear, and you will have to experiment. That is part of the fun! You get to try out different approaches.
- Next, choose the season, level of cloud cover, and wind speed. Click on the square image that fits the conditions. There are four images for each season. Each image has a pictorial guide to season, clouds, wind, and water temperature. There are more judgement calls here. My advice is based on cloudy or sunny conditions, windy or calm conditions, a range of water temperatures, and known feeding behaviors. Obviously, there are lots variations in these conditions. Figuring out what works for you is part of the fun journey. Once you have winning formulas for your river, that’s pretty darn satisfying and gives you a lot confidence.
- Once you make a selection and click the image, you will land on a page with details about the challenges for the conditions, the recommended gear, the recommended techniques, and the recommended baits.
My recommendations are general guidelines. They work for me. I’m sure they will work for you. Play around with techniques and baits to perfect your approach.
Be sure to read the page on finding fish. This will help you put the bait where the fish are— Generally, that’s 10% of the water.