The first Smallie I brought in the boat was a respectable fish at about sixteen inches. The thing that surprised me was the fight this fish put up. Everyone that’s chased the smallmouth bass knows that for a fresh water species this fish is second to none in the pound for pound fight factor. I caught this fish on a crayfish colored rattle trap while Largemouth Bass fishing.

I had previously caught nearly every species of fish in Wisconsin and although I preferred Largemouth Bass fishing, I also fished for Northern Pike, Musky, Walleye, Trout, and pan fish.

The next time I caught a smallmouth bass I was walleye fishing on lake Owen in northern Wisconsin. Talk about a fight. I caught this fish on six pound test using a black jig and crappie minnow. Although we didn’t weigh the fish, it measured 23 ½ inches. I guessed it weighed around six and a half to seven pounds, a big fat female about to drop several hundred thousand eggs. It was the second week in May and the bass fishing season in northern Wisconsin is only catch and release until mid June. Luckily for the smallies we had to put her back in the water. If the season would have been open she probably would have ended up on my wall.

I started catching more and more smallmouth and began targeting the fish regularly. I soon found out that one of their favorite foods was crayfish. On a Lake Erie fishing trip exclusively set up for September smallmouth, we quickly found out that crayfish bait was scarce. We did come up with a hundred or so live crayfish and left the boat landing for the first day of our two day trip.

We soon started bringing the fish in the boat. Although it was more like a walleye bite, once hooked you knew it was a smallie. We hooked the crayfish in the tail, pitched it out ten feet or so from the boat, reeled up the drag and slowly lifted up the rod. When we felt the fish on the line, we set the hook. Several times we tried tube jigs and other artificials but had no success. We even scented some baits, but nothing. The only thing these fish would take were the live crayfish.

When we arrived at the boat landing we had a hundred and twenty five pounds of fish. Including a nice six pounder and several four pounders. The rest were two to three pound fish. We weren’t surprised that no one at the boat landing even came close to catching what we had. Then again I didn’t see or hear of anyone else using the crayfish. The next closest boat had caught their fish on minnows while walleye fishing. Nearly every bait shop was sold out of the live crayfish.

Although we can’t use crayfish on Wisconsin lakes we can imitate the crayfish quite easily with lures. 2 to 4 inch tube jigs bounced on the bottom are great crayfish imitators. When a crayfish swims, it makes a clicking like noise. This noise is similar to the sound given off by a rattle trap lure. For those of you that don’t know, the rattle trap is a crank bait that used to be primarily lipless (but now several depth choices are available) and makes a rattling or clicking noise when retrieved. Bill Lewis was the inventor but now variations of the original lure are available from companies such as Cotton Cordell and Rapala.

It’s no secret that live bait usually will out produce artificials on a small section of water. But, most live bait situations require slow fishing. With artificials you can generally cover a lot more water and catch fish that are "catch able" quicker than you can with live bait.

The exception is in trolling. Where legal, trolling with live bait gives you the speed of artificials while still using the preferred bait. The walleye guys using lindy rigs and the like catch red eyes like crazy.

A great way to stick some smallies is hooking a minnow through the back, put a tiny split shot eighteen inches up the line, installing a "thill bobber" use a extremely thin or invisible bobber) and cast to some sunken logs in a northern Wisconsin lake. Generally most lakes up north are quite clear. You can see the logs from far away. Use long casts and keep it quite in the boat.

While up north on a family camping trip near Minocqua Wisconsin my son Sean and I looked at a topo map and noticed several walk in lakes. We left the boat at home and could only fish from shore. These lakes were several miles down dirt logging roads and the scenery was spectacular. Not only that but we slayed the smallies. These lakes were literally filled with Bass. Using minnows, we quickly ran out of bait. After trying nearly every lure in the box we accepted the fact that the bass would only cooperate if we tossed out live bait.

After deciding we weren’t going to catch anymore smallies we tied on some poppers and caught some nice bluegills. All spawners. We did catch a few smallmouths on the poppers, but nothing like when we had minnows. We released all the fish and had a great time, and learned again that the live bait certainly performs.

So when the water temperature gets in the fifties and you feel like tangling with the toughest fresh water fish out there, grab some live bait and catch some red eyes.