Where are the smallies?

[Ggiusti]

I live in Ontario,Wayne county used to slay the smallies around hedges and the bluffs. What gives? No fish even showing up on sonar!! Need help locating fish! Any answers?

[yakfish]

Your Sonar knows they're out of season and won't show where they are LOL!

[Consigliere]

go deeper

[Ggiusti]

Haven't been out yet this year but yea sonar is rigged by the DEC. that's where my 25 buck goes!! I've been out to 60 feet no luck

[Dylan585]

Last year I didn't find a ton but I did find quite a few. The year before that I found a lot and they were all decent sized. I didn't get them jigging, I got them trolling crank baits. Just keep looking... You'll find them eventually

[Mortigan]

Same out of Sandy - trolling cranks for browns nabs these guys occasionally:

Edited April 16, 2015 by Mortigan

[Xxx]

The last five years or so we noticed that our go to places weren't producing like they used to some of this due to water clarity and no weed lines and also we caught some slobs that spit up 2-3 gobies at a time. Two year ago we just happened to be at the right place at the right time and myself and Skip had the absolute best fishing ever, we caught one right after another for a hour then just like that someone shut the switch off we shook hands gathered our bearings and took noticed to the debris floating on the water soon the sea gulls were all around us picking up these floaters, so we motor around looking at this stuff that actually was dead minnows and a closer look the majority of them were gobies, and I mean lots of them. So the smallies are feasting on the gobies which is a wonderful thing, but it makes it that much tougher for the anglers. We still catch some fish fishing rubber wacky style but most productive for us is deeper drop shot style 30 plus feet.

[BSmaster]

Pap's response is really accurate.  There is a lot of food.

 

I would try a drop shot with an actual night crawler loosely hooked and long line (back troll around 50ft of water.)  light line 4-6lb (I love pulling that one out when nobody is catching anything with their high price baits).  The other thing I would try is sending Kevin Legg a PM and ask him what his pattern is on the Larry / eastern bays.  The 3rd thing I would try is going to Auburn and talk with the bass pros.  I have learned from them.  I share with them and I think other fisherman have shared with them so they have decent knowledge of what works.  Its not like talking with the high school kid that works at Dicks.

 

I never had good days for prespawn bass and always tried to leave them alone anyways (until summer).  Trout, crappie, perch and soon walleye and pike - Why fish for bass anyways?  That's my summer fish!

 

Good luck and tight lines.  I hope you get some 3 foot jumpers.

Joe

[Xxx]

Thanks BS, we do rather well with the bass, mostly target the smallies, I feel they have a hard enough time trying to reproduce with the gobies being their enemy eating their eggs, while the male tries to protect the nest. I watched a show called Invaisive Species, and it showed how much the male and female bass goes through to try to protect their nest, that the male actually died from exhaustion trying to keep the gobies away, we certainly don't need to be pulling the hen off the nest during this time, they will wack at anything during this period. I agree with most NY laws but making catch and release during the spawn is not one of them.

[eatsleeptrout]

Was looking for browns and found bronze

[BP Swing]

Isnt it catch and release only during the early season? Hope so

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Dylan585]

So... I was talking to someone in canada about smallmouth and he said that I must be doing something wrong... He said he and his buddies go out and just slay them and they're huge.