Top Smallmouth Bass Baits of 2022

Welcome to our 10th anniversary end of season reveal! At the end of every season, I showcase the boat’s top producers that caught the most fish for customers and I. The 2022 season saw less angling pressure on our lakes and no truly heavyweight fish caught, but much improved steady bites and daily results.

Our fishing year was greatly shaped by the production and effectiveness of horizontal presentations. Paddletails and swim baits dominated – as evidenced by our inland smallmouths favoring more abundant baitfish prey over some of our lakes dwindling crayfish supply. So too did search lures when coverage of water was needed. Need a quick bite anywhere? Finesse baits can catch ’em anywhere.

This year we caught a lot of 18 to 21 inch fish. No heavyweights, but a lot of quality up-and-comer specimens who will grow up into heavier, more desirable specimens these next few years. The test subjects appreciated each of these bites we profile.

As your smallmouth bass guide, I have to be on the top of my game daily. The daily routine is my anglers up front throw the fish catchers while I tinker from the back of the boat. The bass rods offered by St. Croix Rods are enablers in my diverse approach to catching fish, and to the boat’s success. You will learn how each top bait from 2022 was best presented with each preferred rod highlighted for the job. As we utilize them the most, we also highlight a lot of partner brands too….. because they work!

I continue to observe stubborn anglers living and dying by certain techniques. Once the bite expires, this stubborn one-dimensional angling speaks doomsday to me. Our philosophy is that a diversified lure selection will help not only make you a more versatile bass angler, but allow you to catch more fish and be prepared for the called upon presentation at any given time. 

Prime patterns and favorite lures can be revisited each year, especially as the environment and behaviors of smallmouth bass dictate their locations and influence their feeding habits. Each year a few annual constants remain, but new discoveries and techniques succeed in the underwater world below me.

Our lakes are receiving more pressure. As individual fish get caught more frequently, they remember the experience. Perhaps you’ve overplayed, or mishandled them. That fish learns quickly to avoid and become more elusive. I see it a lot. One of my goals this year was to focus more on downsizing and finesse with hopes of catching more fish throughout the year. Even though we had a lot of productivity from big fish throwing full-size baits and offerings, down-scaling and downsizing from a full-bodied 5-inch paddletail on casting gear, for example, to a much smaller 3-inch bite-size paddletail presented on a long rod with light line often made the difference. As smallmouths receive more pressure and see more baits, fish can often respond more positively to downsizing. We had to do this a lot.

Another observation I’ve made is jerkbaits and crankbaits just are not producing like they once did 5 to 10 years ago. This is becoming evident in spring.

It’s enlightening and educating to look back at each season’s “Top Baits” posts dating back to 2013 to see what worked then, what continued to work until those bites ended, and what works now. The evolution of fishing is kinda cool, but the way our fisheries are changing is of concern.

Read thru the archives: 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020; 2021;

As any observant and scientific-minded angler can conclude, the success you have with your favorite lures and technique-specific methods depends on weather and water conditions, fish locations, and habitats.

On the lakes and rivers you fished throughout 2022, what were some of your favorite and most productive methods to catch big fish throughout the year?

Lets highlight and introduce what worked best for Northwoods Bass in 2022.

Z-Man Fishing Products 2.75″ Finesse TRD

Yoga Pants / rigged with 5/32 oz. 3G Smallmouth Solutions Neds

The Ned rig came onto the bass fishing scene during the last decade when Ned Kehde concocted this jig worm. Since then, the entire bass fishing world has gone mad and fallen in love with it. It excels in difficult fishing conditions, on pressured waters, and is one of the best finesse fishing options to consider.

The Finesse TRD (The Real Deal) is designed specifically for the Midwest finesse style of fishing, more commonly known as the Ned Rig, which has been gaining momentum nationwide as a subtle and easy-to-master, yet amazingly effective, presentation. While savvy anglers have been modifying ElaZtech baits for years to create perfect baits for Midwest finesse fishing, the TRD possesses the ideal finesse profile in a ready-to-fish package. A softer ElaZtech formulation and custom salt content allow the TRD to exhibit the precise sink rate, lifelike action, and irresistible feel that expert finesse anglers have learned result in longer holds and increased hook-up ratios.

I didn’t pick up a ned until 2018. Many eye-opening experiences followed. Nowadays, I always keep one tied onto a 7ft medium action finesse spinning rod whether it’s my super-size AR Rig or Z-Man’s TRD.

It’s a numbers presentation, but it’s also one that targets some of the largest bass living in the most pressured lake systems. It’s also the bait to use when smallmouth don’t show interest in tubes or other bottom-dwelling jigging methods. It’s a trip-saver in coldfronts. It’s also a guide’s life-saver.

Traditionally a small profile, the Ned Rig is typically fished with a 1/16 to 1/8 oz. mushroom style jig head, and tipped with a 2 to 3 inch tail segment of a stick worm. The flat mushroom style jig head allows a stick bait to stand and be presented upright. This is an angle bass are new to.

Even though many anglers fishing the rig are scoring gargantuan numbers of bass and experiencing 50 to 100 fish days with it as a finesse option, the Ned Rig is my solution for big smallmouth when they’re fixated on leech patterns – typically from mid June through August. But it is also a year-round fish catcher too.

I fish my neds as a bottom presentation. This calls for full bottom contact and use of a heavier head. I fish it with a 5/16 oz. mushroom head custom-poured by our friend, Gregg Kizewski, of 3G Smallmouth Solutions in St. Germain, WI. Then in snaggy situations, such as dealing with rock piles wood and cribs, Gregg also makes them weedless with his Next Level Jig that can be Texas rigged.

I bomb cast it for long distances, and hop and dead stick it along the bottom in order to imitate a leech. Always keep pressure on the line in order to detect the most subtle bites. An immediate hook set will result in the bass connecting with hook in the roof of the jaw, 99% of the time. You will want the 7’1″ MXF Victory (Finesse), and Legend Tournament Bass LBTS71MF (Versatile) spinning.

You will need Yoga Pants 99% of the time. Though Canadian Craw, Goby Bryant, and The Deal are author favorites too. 

St. Croix Rod used: Legend Tournament Bass (Versatile) LBTS71MF / Victory (Finesse) VTS71MF

Z-Man Fishing Products Scented Jerk Shadz – 4″ and 5″Smelt

Smelt / rigged with 1/8 and 1/4 oz. Northland SLURP! Jig

Are you moping around for smallmouth ?

Known nowadays as the “Damiki Rig”, this is one of many little strategies and riggings that got away from me and I had forgotten about. I brought it back into my rotation on pelagic-based fisheries in 2021 and 2022.

It works really well on our cisco and smelt-based fisheries. Typically, smallmouth school and roam the open water and around deep structure on these pelagic fisheries.

Pioneered by Canadian anglers on Rainy Lake, I brought it home to Wisconsin and it works incredibly well on our Wisconsin lakes.

All you need is a 6 and a half to 7 foot medium fast action spinning rod. Currently, I hang my smelt imitators vertically with a St. Croix Victory Tactical VTS68MXF. Main line is 10 lb. Cortland Masterbraid in high-vis yellow, with a minimum 6 ft. section of 8 lb. Cortland Fluorocarbon leader.

The next requirement is your electronics, and spot-lock. I watch my screens both at bow and on console closely and intently, both the bait and whatever smallmouth come within range to strike. Keep the minnow always above smallmouth, and you’ll watch them climb upward to strike.

My new Lowrance HDS 12 Live finds SMB schools very well on side imaging, both in open water idling, and when specifically targeting suspended fish around mid-lake humps, sand grass beds, and above deep structure.

While mostly uneducated and highly catchable, the challenge with these suspended fish is they’re often on the move. Bites usually happen during the first 5 minutes, and then they move several feet elsewhere. When fish leave my screen, I try to follow along with them. A short quiet putter, with trolling motor ready to spot-lock, will bring us back atop them for the next round.

When hanging it horizontally in fishes faces, remind yourself “Less is More”. Jigging cadences and unnecessary movements will deter fish interest and strikes from occurring. Often, the wave action of the boat and your line bouncing with it is all it takes to trigger smallmouth. Never jig it.

Moping refers to the lack of action imparted to the lure by the angler.

As it continues working for me and on trips, I’ll eventually get into more specifics and become picky with minnow shapes and styles, and cone-shaped head designs with a 90-degree line tie. For now, we get by with a 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz. Northland SLURP! head. The metal keeper of the jig burrows into the elaztech perfectly.

It’s a good bet in cold, clear, and highly pressured fisheries where you might settle for a dropshot or ned rig instead. You can vertically target fish at any depth with it.

For early spring, mid summer, and again in fall, give it a try. Moping is effective, engaging, interactive, and entertaining for targeting a segment of the lake’s fishery that roams offshore and rarely ever lives near-shore.

Try a damiki rig, and go have a walleye / smallmouth beatdown.

St. Croix Rod used: Victory (Tactical) VTS68MXF

Z-Man Fishing Products 4″ Diezel Minnowz

Motor Oil / rigged with 1/4 oz. Finesse EyeZ Jig

Catch smallmouths quickly. On new lakes? No problem.

This 4-inch slender swimbait personifies fishing on the fly, in search of quick bites.

I quickly discovered its effectiveness, efficiency and productivity during the ice-out period back in late April. Its fish catching powers continued to carry-over into the spring spawning period, then into mid-summer, and early fall.

Traditionally I would throw a larger profiled swimbait or paddletail with a casting setup. Mainly to weed thru dinks and focus only on the largest specimens available in the system. But as you know, our big fish are seeing more baits more often, and with that comes lots more rejection. Downsizing from a high octane 5 or 6 inch swimbait to the softer, slender shape and subtler profile and shimmy of a 4″ Diezel Minnow fished with spinning gear proved to be the difference-maker across many fisheries. It caught fish of all sizes, but many bigger ones I believe wouldn’t have been caught otherwise.

The ElaZtech material works well with certain styles of hooks, but not so well with others. The rubbery plastic will fail to connect with jig heads lacking a wire keeper or sturdy collar.

My first recommendation is to pair it with Z-Man’s Finesse Eyez Jigheads (pictured above). The slender head cuts through water, promoting further bait body swimming and tail kicking action. The 1/4 oz. size with a 3/0 hook launches like a dream with my preferred spinning gear – St. Croix Avid AVS70MHF with a size-30 Quantum PT spooled with 15 lb. Cortland Masterbraid. My reel of choice holds approximately 200 yards of line which can bomb-cast it.

Available in dozens of colors, I gravitate to the Ayu and Motor Oil colors most often. They just work on every water type and clarity. The Deal is another good one. Newly released Pro Team Perch and Disco Cisco got lots of usage this fall and both did well wherever perch or cisco were the dominant lake forage species.

St. Croix Rod used: Avid Spinning (AVS70MHF)

Z-Man Fishing Products 3″ MinnowZ

Smelt / rigged with 3/0 size, 3/16 oz. Finesse EyeZ Jig

Catch smallmouths quicker.

Meet the little brother of Z-Man’s Diezel Minnow – The Minnowz.

Looking for quick bites and an actual finesse option for pressured, picky-eating smallmouths? Check out this little guy. This bite size snack epitomized the entire 2022 season, catching quality fish from a variety of more pressured, pelagic waters.

I launch my 3″ Minnowz with St. Croix’s new Victory Open Water VTS710MMF spinning rod paired with a size-30 Quantum PT spinning reel spooled with 8 lb. Cortland Masterbraid. This set-up casts a country-mile, important for coverage on the open water pelagic waters.

The longer and faster action the rod is, the lighter the line it can support and baits it’ll handle. I am a believer and fantasizer in light line usage for more bites and more fish. This is becoming increasingly important across several smallmouth fisheries nowadays. Powerful strikes and hook-sets from afar are a blast with this setup. Its length and medium-moderate fast action enables these hookups.

St. Croix Rod used: Victory Spinning (Open Water) VTS710MMF

A jig and paddletail remains a simple and effective fish-finder for me. I’m sure it will play well on your favorite clear water smallmouth fisheries too. Take a paddletail, and rig it on a favorite swimming style jig head. Easy and engaging fishing for all angler types and skill levels.

It’s the perfect strategy for covering water on windy days, bomb-casting the open water amid cisco and smelt schools, and targeting big fish.

This year we fished with the following jig and paddletail combinations.

Strike King Rage Swimmer (3.8″) with Freedom Tackle FT Series Swimbait Jig

Ayu / Rigged with 1/2 oz. Freedom Tackle Swimbait Head

Keitech Fat Swing Impact (3.8″) with Freedom Tackle FT Series Swimbait Jig

Pro Staff Perch / Rigged with 1/2 oz. Freedom Tackle Swimbait Head

I was introduced to the Pro Staff Perch pattern last year by Jesse Simpkins, St. Croix’s director of marketing. He put on a clinic with 2.8 and 3.8 Pro Staff Perch Keitechs, catching some 25 smallmouths with them to my meager 2 smallmouths with a 3.8 Rage Swimmer.

So like everyone else would do afterwards, I ordered some $100+ worth of Keitech’s with the aid of our friend Bill Schultz’s 20% off discount code LOL. Thank you Bill.

Due to being soft, supple, and salt-impregnated this bait is far from durable. But Freedom’s FT Swimbait Head and its double-keeper GREATLY prolong the bait’s life. What commonly lasted only one or two fish apiece can now last anywhere from 5 to 10 fish per bait – this is not an over-exaggeration to pimp out a sponsor – this is fact.

Keitech’s revolutionary two-tone injection process uses several different types of salted plastics to achieve perfect balance & action. The most impressive feature of these great swim baits is the ability to maintain a perfect swimming motion at any retrieve speed. The tapered design ringed body distorts the shape to a more natural appearance. The center rigging line provides the perfect position to ensure the bait is rigged correctly. The Fat Swing Impacts are packaged in blister packs to help protect the integrity of the baits.

Pro Staff Perch fared best in early fall as the yellow perch migrations began and most of our smallmouth fishing was happening along weedlines and sand flats. It matched the hatch, and also caught the boat’s largest fish of the season.

For most paddletail and swimbait fishing, I favor long rods with a MHF action. Priority #1 is casting distance. Priority #2 is bend and action for long-distance hook-sets mid-retrieve.

Strike King Rage Swimmer (3.8″) with Trokar Boxing Glove Jig

KVD Magic / Rigged with 1/4 oz. Trokar Boxing Glove Jig

Rapala X-Rap 08 – Hot Head

It’s timeless, simple, and slimmed down compared to other suspending jerks and slashbaits I throw. Often the best baits are those that remain unchanged, and continue to produce year after year.

The size 08 Hot Head X-rap was a go-to for customers and I throughout the spring and summer seasons when smallmouth were on a baitfish feed.

Hot Head

Will our smallmouths ever grow conditioned to it?

Size 08 is applicable on spinning gear, and fared best in low wind conditions, and also when fish had a smaller forage preference.

The Hot Head color is perfect for northwoods smallmouth. It contrasts best on my tannic brown waters, and can be seen by fish from miles away on the clearest waters. It is the only color one ever needs.

Due to its slender profile and strong construction, the X-Rap is built for accurate, long distance casting. What separates this suspending jerk from others is I can fish the size 08 comfortably with my favorite (now retired) 7ft med. heavy St. Croix Avid-X spinning rod with high-speed Quantum Smoke 30 Speed Freak reel.

Since the Avid-X’s retirement in 2021, I have found the Victory Lite-Weight Spinning (VTS610MLXF) to be a good substitute. It has the required backbone for good hook-sets, and the tip action to best manipulate and control the X-Rap. The shorter length can be an aid for the wrist-flinging and jerking required. It may feel a little too light to the touch and handle, but is perfectly qualified for the task.

The X-Rap incorporates a long-cast design, enabling weights to shift during the cast. Its weight-forward design is a benefit because it allows anglers to cover vast amounts of water quickly, making it an effective search bait. The key characteristic of the X-Rap is that it can be fished in any type of manner and according to the moods and feeding patterns of the fish. This correlates with the retrieve of the X-Rap and the way it is fished as it involves a lot of mixing and matching according to the behavior of the fish.

The X-Rap family of baits comes with a pair of razor-sharp VMC trebles, but I recommend swapping them in favor of Trokar Tk300 round bend treble hooks.

St. Croix Rod used: Victory (Lite Weight) VTS610MLXF

Strike King RedEye Shad

Chartreuse Perch

Even though many smallmouth populations and their fisheries are growing conditioned to several types of artificial lures, there is still a time and place for the loud noise-makers that’ll aggravate fish into striking.

A lipless crankbait hasn’t made my list in several years. However, we found a winner with the Strike King RedEye Shad that worked throughout the month of September as we grinded away atop sand and weed flats, patterning the perch migrations and smallmouths infiltrating the shallows.

There is still a need for pissing off fish in order to get their attention to bite.

This 1/2 oz. bait needs no introduction. There is no wrong way to fish it.

My recommended hear is a St. Croix Mojo Glass with a reel spooled with 15 lb. Cortland Masterbraid. A 3 foot section of mono and light-stretch fluoro leader can help mask the line in clear water, but not necessary.

The Mojo Bass Glass is a pleasure to fish. If you aren’t used to a glass rod it is an acquired feel, as it took me over a year to get used to the beefy stick. When a fish strikes, the hook-set is arousing. St Croix’s exclusive integrated Poly Curve (IPC) mandrel technology and combined with super premium, 100% linear S-glass, these rods provide exemplary performance with all crankbaits including square bills, lipless cranks and chatterbaits. They excel with lures ideally matched to a moderate action rod.

Get Bit Baits 3.5″ Double Dipped Tube

Brown Craw – Stupid Rigged with 1/4 oz. Trokar insert

If you are a tube jig aficionado, you will get the most out of a Get Bit Baits 3.5″ DD Tube. Double-dipped for enhanced durability, they last much longer than most other tubes in comparison. Another bonus, it’s a local Wisconsin company I’ve started supporting.

Despite declining rusty crayfish populations throughout the northwoods, tube jigs in a variety of color patterns continue to produce.

In lake regions with sparse snags, I most often fish tubes with an exposed hook. It’ll simply connect with more fish and light biters. Lately I’ve been turning more to the “Stupid Rig”, a snag-proof Texas Rigged variation with an EWG tube insert (any tube insert brand is fine). It fishes effectively and snag-free on rock piles, wood, and cribs. It’s also my rig of choice when floating river systems too.

When smallmouths aren’t chasing moving baits or won’t pick up another type of bottom bait, the trusty tube often saves the day. Despite being one of the most popular smallmouth lures of all time, smallmouths mostly remain unconditioned to its simplicity, seductiveness and effectiveness.

St. Croix Rod used: Legend Elite ES70MHF / Mojo Bass Power Spin MJS71MHF

YUM Craw Bug

Green Pumpkin – Rigged with 3G Smallmouth Solutions Next Level Ned Jig

When I taught myself to smallmouth fish nearly 20 years ago, I learned my ways with the Yum Craw Bug. It caught some of my best smallmouth early on in my career on lakes, rivers and flowages. Then for a long time, it went on a retirement for me.

In recent seasons, it’s making a comeback in my tackle box. In mid-summer, it is now one of the boat’s best options for catching smallmouth during the crayfish molting period, and when bass are heavily feeding on crayfish.

The 2.5″ Craw Bug fishes well on spinning gear with smaller 1/8 oz. and 1/4 oz. football heads. This smallie snack is a fabulous finesse fishing jigging option. It may also be worked with tube jig inserts, as well as Texas Rigged with my favorite tungsten bullet weights and a Trokar Tournament Tube Hook in 1/0 and 2/0 sizes. The 3.5″ Craw Bug meanwhile is fished in similar ways, except with heavier jigs and weights.

For best durability and the most snag-proof rig, consider fishing the craw bug with a weedless ned, as pictured.  Gregg Kizewski, of 3G Smallmouth Solutions in St. Germain, WI produces his Next Level Jig that can be Texas rigged. It avoids snags beautifully.

When it was introduced in the mid 2000’s, it seems to me that more color options were available back then. My box of craw bugs is mainly comprised of colors and unique shades of crayfish that are currently not in YUM’s color lineup or available for sale anywhere on the web.

Built to satisfy the hunger of bass, the Yum Crawbug delivers an ultra-realistic crawfish imitation is able to fool the most seasoned large bass. Designed with three-dimensional detailing never-before-seen in a soft plastic, the Yum Crawbug features a super-soft texture that makes it incredibly lifelike. Molded with a hollow body and flapping appendages, the Yum Crawbug perfectly imitates a fleeing crawfish as it scurries along the lake floor.

St. Croix Rod used:  / Legend Tournament Bass (Versatile) LTBS71MF

Jimmy D’s River Bug Jigs

Standard River Bug

St. Croix Rod used: Legend Tournament Bass (Hair Jig) LBTS710MLXF

If you’ve located the fish, try these smallmouth bass baits and tactics for next year. Adapt and adjust your approaches and presentations when necessary, and hopefully you quickly identify what works or does not work. As you learned with this season’s edition, downsizing can pay dividends on an everyday basis.

These aforementioned top baits all highlighted our season of excellent catches. A diversified lure selection will not only make you a more versatile angler, but allow you to catch more fish. Prime patterns and favorite lures can be revisited each year, especially as the environment and behaviors of smallmouth bass dictate their locations and influence their feeding habits.

Chasing trophy smallmouth bass year round requires a good lure selection of fish catchers like this. Be diverse, and not one-dimensional. Don’t live by and die by one strategy. Learn to fish as many strategies as you can. Downsizing in profile and lure weight will make a difference on today’s pressured fisheries with a growing number of conditioned fish.

What were your best of 2022? Feel free to comment in the space below!