Massachusetts bass pro Mark Burgess spends a lot of summer days doing battle with the heavyweight smallmouths that reside in huge northern lakes, like Champlain and Erie. Let’s peek into Burgess’ tackle boxes of fishing lures and look at his five favorite offerings for big-water smallmouth bass.
-YUM MEGA TUBE, LEADHEAD RIG
For imitating gobees, which are the main forage for big-water smallmouths during the summer, Burgess has found no better plan than inserting a 3/8- or 1/2-ounce leadhead inside a YUM Mega Tube and dragging the offering across reefs and other rocky cover. The leadhead creates a slight bulge in the head, which Burgess believes makes it look just like a gobee.
Burgess’ colors of choice are watermelon gold flake and Erie green gold flake. His leadheads have 2/0 or 3/0 light-wire hooks, and he fishes tubes on 8-pound-test Silver Thread Fluorocarbon with a 6-foot, 6-inch medium heavy spinning rod. “I’ve experimented a lot, and with that combination, they get hooked and stay hooked,” Burgess said.
-YUM MEGA TUBE, DROP SHOT RIG
When the smallies are in jumbled rocks, a drop shot keeps an offering among the smallmouths without getting hung as often as a leadhead-rigged tube sometimes will. A drop shot has been critical in Burgess’ arsenal this summer.
Burgess uses exactly the same Mega Tube for drop shotting as he drags on a leadhead. He anchors his offering with a 3/8-ounce Excalibur Tg Drop Shot Weight and leaves a 1 1/2- to 2-foot leader between his weight and hook.
-HEDDON SUPER SPOOK
When the smallies start looking up, which will happen more and more as summer begins giving way to fall, Burgess wants to be ready with Heddon Super Spook. His favorite Spook is a saltwater model, but not because of its beefier hardware. He has discovered that golden shiner, which comes equipped saltwater hooks, will bring big smallies to the top like no other color.
“It’s a huge bait, and the big smallies absolutely crush it,” Burgess said.
BOOYAH BLADE SPINNERBAIT
Few styles of fishing rival the thrill of burning a big spinnerbait over big-water smallmouth structure and holding on for dear life. When Burgess wants to burn a blade, he ties on a 1/2-ounce gold shiner BOOYAH Blade, with twin gold willow blades. He uses 20-pound test fishing line, having found that smallies coming from the depths to hammer spinnerbaits have no hint of line-shyness about them, and fishes the bait on a flippin’ stick.
“A flippin’ stick is crucial for landing those fish. They are so tough, and people lose a lot of them.”
-BOMBER SUSPENDING PRO LONG A
The Pro Long A has an ideal shape, dive and action for big-water jerking, Burgess has learned. Unlike classic spring jerkbait fishing, which features controlled jerks and long pauses, Burgess jerks hard and fast during late summer and on into fall, moving the rod tip almost constantly to create an extremely erratic action. His color of choice is chartreuse flash orange belly. He works the flashy bait with a 6-foot, 6-inch medium-heavy baitcasting rod and 12-pound-test Silver Thread Fluorocarbon.