So for anyone who likes dragging tubes, bumbling a jig/grub over the rocks or even working smaller crankbaits, being able to fish in other ways is really important. Those big bass are there and very much catchable, you just need to adjust how you fish. I use a lot of fairly standard smallmouth techniques, just with little tweaks here and there.

Even though they’re at their best when crawled and dragged along the bottom, tubes are still very good and you can fish ’em in that sea of sloppy moss and algae. I use them in 2 main ways. Number one, is as a ‘spot detail’ lure. Any time I run across an open, sandy patch inside a rocky section, I pitch them in. Just like when I pitch for largemouth in heavy wood or weeds, I keep the pitches short and on target. The tubes I like are typically moderately weighted. I really like 3/8oz. I feed it straight to the bottom. I don’t want it gliding off target too much.

That whole time, I’m keeping very slight back pressure on my line to feel any ticks on the way down. But most of all, I’m watching my line. Lots of the time, you’ll simply see it start streaking off or it will do a little hop. Reel down fast and drive the hook in. After settling to bottom, I’ll pop the tube up once or twice, and then burn it back out. There’s no point working the bait back over the rocks. It’ll get fouled fast. Weighted or unweighted soft stick baits work really well for this stuff, too. They tend to ride a bit higher in the water, making them a bit more efficient when working back to the boat.

Tube method number two is simply as a throwback lure to big bass I’ve spotted cruising or that have followed/blown up on other lures. Again, it’s an accuracy thing. Pitch in as tight as you can, watch your line on the way down and make sure you let the tube thump down, on bottom. Pause for a few seconds, give it a little pop, then reel it back.

In both cases, the fishing line, rod and reel all work together---and being set up right makes a huge difference. For any kind of free-fall jigs or plastics where I’m line watching, being able to actually see my line is huge. Not surprisingly, I fish yellow, high-visibility line. Thirty pound Maxima Braid is my favorite. In that clear, Lake Simcoe water, I black out the last five feet with a marker and usually run about three feet of ten pound fluorocarbon down to the jig. Super fast spinning reels have really caught on in the past couple seasons and techniques like these pretty much kick started that trend. With smallmouth that eat the jig and run at the boat or out to one side, you want all that slack gone before drilling the hook in. With their 6.2:1 retrieve ratio, Quantum’s Speed Freak series of Smoke spinning reels are absolutely ideal, here. They’re feather-light, too. Lower weight tackle is more sensitive tackle, it really is.

​We also fish a lot of dropshotted plastics. There’s absolutely nothing better for pinning a little snack safely above the moss-covered bottom. Not only that, but gobies have a pretty solid ‘upper limit’ for how far they’ll swim up to mess with your plastics. Much above about ten inches and you’re in the clear. With a dropshot rig, you can cast, drag and work directly on bottom much, much easier.
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Friend of www.busheyangleguidedfishing.com, Jesse Long with a fat swimbait smallmouth he tagged out in 14 feet of water.

Here's an example of good pike country in low 50s water temps: flooded up tag alders, old reeds and rock/wood combos. On colder, nastier days we fish this stuff real slow. When it's warm out, we fish faster. For picking your way through, floating and suspending minnowbaits/twitchbaits are pretty much King. You can fish 'em at a variety of depths and speeds.

Floating twitchbaits are super versatile and walk through cover way better than suspenders. What happens when you pause a 6" Jake and let it rise around old, rotted weed clumps? Ask Joseph! On one of my custom paint jobs, too! 

What's a May in Ontario without a little walleye action? Cory from Toronto released this Georgian Bay gem during a mid-week trip. See that white thing dragging in the water, behind the boat? It's a sea anchor (5gal plastic pail on a short rope). Moving at a slow crawl right now is one of the keys, for walleye. This one nipped at a gold/yellow Mepps Trollng Rig baited with a three inch shiner. We were power trolling with the big outboard that day, and the pail helps me slow way down. For even shallow water walleye, I like my guests trolling heavy, heavy bottom bouncers ahead of their spinner rigs. Helps them feel changes in the bottom much easier and keeps their line as close to vertical as possible, while we slowly move along. Staying vertical means way less snags and more fishin' time, too. Cory caught this one on a five foot snell behind a 4oz bouncer. Bottom bouncing for walleye is a money method all season long. Nice fish buddy!