UL creek fishing for smallies

Water's too cold now for kayak fishing, so I've branched out into more creek fishing. I did a bit of wading this spring but didn't catch much beyond a few little sunfish, rock bass, and a very small smallie. Now I have a bit more experience, and the fish size and frequency is ticking up.

Today's adventure took me to a local creek known to hold big smallies. My best so far has only been 11ish inches, and I tied that best today. All the rest of the smallmouth were in the 4-8in range...but still fun! The rock bass and shiners were hitting, as well.

I fished exclusively a 1/50oz jig, changing out the plastics between microcraws and a little Moondog Baits thingie. 1/50oz. seemed to be the sweet spot for the shallow creek, 40-80 feet wide and mostly 2-12in deep with a few holes maybe 3 feet deep. That weight gave a little more casting distance than 1/64oz. and would sink slowly and drift in the current.

Rod was a this new Gray Wolf extra-fast 6' UL I picked up recently, paired with a Kast King Zephyr SFS 1000. I'm a "meh" on the reel, but really like the rod. It gets a solid 45-50 feet with that little jig and picks up the bites from tiny creek chubs and shiners too small to get the bait in their mouths. Line was an Aliexpress nano braid (Zukibo 5.3lb, I believe) with a 4lb. Trout SOS leader. No issues with knots slipping, which pleased me.

Lately I've been rocking a 4'6" Magic L with 2lb mono on these small creek trips. That one would have worked fine here, too, but I liked having a longer rod for the extra casting distance.

Great fun on this trip! My next challenge is to get a smallie over 12" before winter sets in.


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Nice. Sounds very enjoyable

If the creek is known for big smallies, look for an undercut bank or maybe a rootball in a deep hole …pulled more than one monster small mouth from under the bank in super shallow creeks ….
Still remember a really big one in an ankle deep creek that had a trough by the bank and apparently the bank was undercut and deeper out of sight, that fish came out like a flash and just exploded on my bait right in front of a big crowd of folks thinking I was just a silly boy trying to ketch fish in a gin clear ankle deep wading creek ….them there wading folks sure did get them some entertainment that day ….just saying

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

If the creek is known for big smallies, look for an undercut bank or maybe a rootball in a deep hole …pulled more than one monster small mouth from under the bank in super shallow creeks ….
Still remember a really big one in an ankle deep creek that had a trough by the bank and apparently the bank was undercut and deeper out of sight, that fish came out like a flash and just exploded on my bait right in front of a big crowd of folks thinking I was just a silly boy trying to ketch fish in a gin clear ankle deep wading creek ….them there wading folks sure did get them some entertainment that day ….just saying

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Exactly what I was hoping for!

I put a few casts under any cutbanks I saw, which wasn't many. Not a lot of lumber in the creek, either. I only hit a small section -- 200-300 or so yards upstream from the access point and about same distance downstream -- before I got stopped by water deeper than my muck boots and steep banks. I ordered some cheap hip waders form Amazon to get me past those parts next time.

Congrats on having a good outing!
I have a creek nearby that has a population of shoal bass in that size range .
I fish the upper end above the reservoir and just below the dam , there’s a short section that’s available to fish . Both ends have the shoalies.
That size does make for a fine UL opponent.

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Originally Posted by INFrank

Exactly what I was hoping for!

I put a few casts under any cutbanks I saw, which wasn't many. Not a lot of lumber in the creek, either. I only hit a small section -- 200-300 or so yards upstream from the access point and about same distance downstream -- before I got stopped by water deeper than my muck boots and steep banks. I ordered some cheap hip waders form Amazon to get me past those parts next time.

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I used to chase big smallies in small creeks , found them in spots most would think did not have any big fish
tiny ankle deep creeks most of the time , from west Virginia and Pennsylvania and a few other states in that area
silly boy , 12 years old thinking he can ketch a big smallie in such a tiny creek
good times for sure , a few a them bronze bass doing a couple double back flips and all the while trying to take my rod and reel from my lil skinny hands
yeah buddy :cheers2

I’ve not done much in the creeks but them small ones are all over these lakes I fish and they’re the best. Good to hear you’re having a good time with em.

Appreciate all the anecdotes!

I fished a ton as a kid -- 1000s of hours -- but stopped about the same time I got my driver's license. I even saved my allowance and bought a fly rod when I was 13-14 and used it off the docks and bank and padddleboat. The lake I fished at had smallmouth in it, but I never caught one. One of my dreams was to fly fish streams for trout (didn't know about creek smallmouth back then).

Well, now I can hit creeks to my heart's content pulling smallies on a UL. It's not fly fishing and the fish aren't trout, but good enough for me right now!

Awesome post! Thanks for sharing with us

Very nice fish. Thanks for the walk along.
Bob