Winter relents. Spring creeps in. Ice has finished melting, and we have open water once again. While most anglers haven’t yet fired up their outboards, a longing for big smallmouths excitedly energizes the first trip of the year. Mid April has chilly days, but the ensuing hook sets and singing of the drag is

  Spring pre-spawn smallmouth patterns are solidified across so many fisheries throughout the Midwest and Great Lakes. Wherever in these regions you’re destined to fish, the smallmouth bass populations of natural lakes, rivers, and reservoirs are guaranteed to be feeding heavily at this time.  

  Legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky once brilliantly summarized, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” You’ll never succeed unless you try. Additionally, that means you have to take action if you want dreams to become a reality.

  By Andrew Ragas Much has been studied, discussed, and written about in recent years about fall season river migrations when smallmouth travel downstream to their overwintering sites. On your river, smallmouth could be year-round residents. On my specific rivers in Wisconsin, most of their smallmouth populations are non-resident. Through personal experience and data to

By Andrew Ragas Smallmouth bass are notorious for their peculiarity and curiosities. Oftentimes, they’ll sneak up on baits merely to check them out. With similar frequency, they will completely ignore everything altogether until you decipher what’ll get their attention. While other times, they will crush almost anything in sight. Anglers who are passionate about smallmouth