 |
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
e-mail us |
||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
||
 |
||||
|
Northeast Kingdom Guide Service Covering the waters & woods of the beautiful Northeast Kingdom area of Vermont
SMALLMOUTHSby David Hart For consistent success on bronzebacks, nothing beats the action and feel of soft plastic baits. Of all the varieties of lures of smallmouth bass anglers have in their tackle collections, none are more useful for a wider range of situations than soft plastic bait. This may be a brash statement, but several types of plastic worms work when hard baits won't. It's that simple. They also pull bass from places where hard plastic, steel and wood lures simply can't be used. Of course, soft plastics aren't just back up baits used only when other lures fail to consistently produce fish. They are go to lures. The action and texture entices smallmouths to bite and hang on when other baits won't draw more than a curious glance. Like any bait, the key to using soft plastics is knowing when and where to fish them.  Tim Freese and Bill Englemann Smallmouth Bass Guides from different regions of the country, rely on a variety of soft plastic lures. In many situations, they use little else. Bassmaster asked the guides to share their advice for catching smallmouths on soft plastic baits. Grubs and Tubes: Novice smallmouth bass anglers often fish grubs and tubes in the same manner. They drop them in deeper holds behind boulders in rivers or along ledges in lakes and hop them across the bottom. That often works, but veteran brown bas s anglers use each lure for different situations.  Plastic tube lures and other soft plastic creations are go-to baits that work any time, any place. "Tubes and grubs are completely different lures with different applications and actions", notes Tim Freese (phone 703-443-9052) who guides for bass on the Shenandoah and upper Potomac Rivers. "I almost always have a grub tied on one of my rods because there is always a situation where a grub is the perfect bait. The same is true with tube. I keep a tube tied on a rod as well."Grubs come in a variety of sizes and can be used with several different rigs. Generally however, Freese prefers to Texas rig the bait with a brass bullet weight and a glass bead. He uses 5-inch Yamamoto grubs almost exclusively. "I prefer the 5-inch baits because they tend to weed out the smaller fish" he notes. (Excerpt taken from BASSMASTER MAGAZINE)
VERMONT BASSIN'
|
||||
Dozens of waters--from tiny, out-of-the-way ponds to big, accessible lakes - are filled with both largemouth and smallmouth bass. Many of them are vastly underfished and only get seasonal pressure, mostly by vacationing families who journey north after school lets out for the summer. 
The problem with a trip to the Northeast Kingdom simply is deciding where to begin.
