Have you often wondered how to catch large smallmouth bass early in the season on streamers? Since I frequently fish the North Fork of the Shenandoah River close to Edinburg, VA in April and May this is a question I have often considered.
I knew from past experiences that these big bass are still lethargic and that they want a large mouthful to feed upon and they don’t want to move very far to capture it. This realization showed me two very important facts that have helped me catch more large bass early in the season.
In order to show the bass streamers which match the large natural minnows they feed upon I developed the Murray’s Magnum Streamer series. These include the Magnum Creek Chub, Dace, Hog Sucker Lizard and Gray Ghost. All of these are tied with long extended bodies on long shank size 4 hooks.
The second factor, fishing these large streamers to the feeding stations which these smallmouth hold on early in the season call for fishing the protected water. Large slow back eddies and the slow water below the river crossing ledges are both very productive. I get my best results by fishing these streamers very slowly right along the stream bottom….stripping them six inches every ten seconds is good.
If the river is carrying extra water I use a SA Sink Tip III Line or a Teeny 200 Line to help me fish my streamers deeply. If there is only a moderate water level I use a WF7 Floating Scientific Anglers Mastery Textured Magnum Line.
This smallmouth bass fishing is often so good that I catch my largest fish of the season with these Magnum Streamers now.
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