Big-Water Smallmouth Bass Strategies – Shallow Fishing vs Deep Fishing

Some of the world’s finest fishing for smallmouth bass occurs in the Great Lakes and other large bodies of water in the United States and Canada. Anglers can easily get overwhelmed by the scope and complexity of these fisheries, not knowing where to begin finding and catching these fish. Videos in the Finesse Boot Camp Series by Great Lakes Finesse do an outstanding job of answering such questions.

Big-water smallmouth strategies can largely be divided into deep and shallow fishing. The Finesse Boot Camp videos featured below dig deep into each approach, helping you know when to focus efforts shallow and when to go deep and explaining how locate and catch big smallmouth bass in either situation.

Sneaky Pro Tip for finding shallow smallmouth hotpots: Look for the thing that’s different from whatever is abundant in the lake.

5 Deep Smallmouth Tips:

•  Start your search at home with your computer or phone.
• Think about deep structure the same way you would think about shoreline structure when you look at maps.
• Realize that bigger fish tend to be in smaller groups.
• Use the lightest weight possible to reach the zone to present your bait as naturally as possible.
• Dial in your rod/reel/line set-up. Check out GLF Finesse CX Rods.

Season 1 of Finesse Boot Camp by Great Lakes Finesse is on the books and can be found on Great Lakes Finesse YouTube. This important instructional series begins with the foundational building blocks of finesse fishing and digs deep into everything you need to know.