Love it or hate it, forward-facing sonar has become an undeniable part of bass fishing. You certainly don’t need it to go out and catch some bass, but it has become a tool I use interchangeably with “old school” methods. By reading water and topographic maps, I know where to start, and when I get there and drop my FFS transducer into the water, I can make sure each cast is around a smallmouth.
Although this style of fishing can be used for almost any species at any time of year, I have found it to be most effective for locating and catching post-spawn, moving smallmouth that would otherwise require a lot of luck to get a bite. After the spawn, summer largemouth generally stop into deep structure, although summer smallmouth prefer to wander into the depths in search of bait balls hanging in the cooler water.
Here are three tips for catching smallmouth with forward-facing sonar this summer.
Tip #1: Go old school to find bait and bass
To efficiently target summer smallmouth, you first need to understand their preferences during the dog days of summer. For the most part, smallmouth are a cold water species, or at least they prefer cooler waters than their largemouth counterparts. So, as water temperatures rise in mid-July, it’s safe to say that smallmouth won’t want to stay shallow for too long. Rather, they will head deeper where water temperatures remain cooler despite extreme heat waves. Like smallmouth, bait anglers such as shad, alewives, smelt and other schooling baitfish will seek out cooler water temperatures. This provides an easy meal for smallmouth to chase.
I rely on free mapping options like garmin marine map web viewer. Nearly every major lake and river has topographic data available, giving you a handy button to find deeper water before you sink your boat or kayak.
As you can see in the image above, these deep bowls are very easy to identify in the app. Once you locate one, you need to know exactly where the wind is coming from and position your boat downstream of the bowl. This will make your bait look more natural when you’re ready to cast the bait for the first time.
Tip #2: Learn How to Identify Smallmouth on Your FFS
If you are doing this then this tip will not be necessary your homework And spending a lot of time on the water with FFS. But if you haven’t then you’ll quickly realize that identifying bass on screen is not as easy as you might think. Your boat is moving, the fish are moving, and your bait is moving, so it will take a lot of patience and practice to finally get everything lined up and ready for your first cast into a smallmouth.
The key to finding bait and smallmouth is to cover water efficiently. Line up your trolling motor and scan left and right while watching your screen. The bait will usually be easy to locate due to the large number of baitfish forming a bait ball. Once you have a stained return, scan to the left or right of the bait and you will see one (or hopefully several hard, large marks). This will be the smallmouth you are trying to target.
Once you find your mine, you’ll want to cast fast but also pass the bass accurately. If you miss your mark, quickly reel in and cast again. You may only get one or two good shots at it before the bait and bass disappear from view. Once you have the correct line and cast ahead of your target, let the bait sink to fish level and begin tossing your minnow or favorite lure toward the mark. As you approach, make sure your bait remains just above the mark, otherwise smallmouth will question the unnatural presentation. Once your bait and mark collide, you’ll likely see the bass begin to chase the bait. This is your signal to speed up your retrieve and continue adding a flutter action through your rod tip.
This escape motion motivates the smallmouth to bite before the opportunity is lost. When the bite is done, I assume you can take care of the rest. If everything goes according to plan, but the smallmouth don’t commit to a bite, you may want to change baits and try again. These summer smallmouth are incredibly aggressive when you offer them the right selection, so listen to them if they refuse a certain color or bait profile.
Tip #3: Bait size and jighead selection matter
Unlike some bottom dragging techniques where you can throw with a ⅜ ounce offering or a ½ ounce offering without really changing the presentation, the going for smallmouth is very different when using FFS. I’ve noticed that a ¼ ounce jighead can be perfect one day, but very slow the next. It’s important to have the ability and foresight to have a variety of weight options to piece together the FFS puzzle every time you get in the water.
The same can be said about the size of the bait. Sometimes smallmouth will be chasing larger bait, so it will be necessary to throw a 5” or 6” soft plastic minnow to match the hatch. Other times, you’ll need to size down to a 3″ minnow style bait to get bites. The only real way to find out is to experiment and listen to what the fish are telling you.
To make sure I have a variety of options every time I get in the water Plano Stowaway 3500 Packed to the gills with every size Berkley Fusion19 Hybrid Jighead Imaginable. This lets me fish for bass located higher in the water column, or target bait chasing bass deeper in 50 to 60 feet of water.
As far as bait offerings go, I rely heavily on four different options in a variety of colors and sizes ranging from 2.5″ to 6.25″. Rapala Crush City FreeloaderThe Rapala Crush City Mooch MinnowThe Berkley PowerBait Drip Minnowand this Strike King Z too. These options allow me to offer summer-hungry little guys everything they need on any given day, without needing to buy an entire tackle store to throw at them.
Final Thoughts on Catching Summer Smallmouth with Forward-Facing Sonar
no matter what happens old fashioned fishermen might sayCatching bass with FFS is not as easy as they claim. After four seasons of fishing with the FFS I have found that it is a very effective tool that requires a lot of practice to become remotely proficient. But once you start figuring it out, it can be a lot of fun for you and your fishing partners.
If you’re looking for some smallmouth action in mid-summer while they feed, there’s no more reliable way to locate and catch them than FFS in deeper water. Before FFS, these smallmouth would spend months without seeing a lure, but now, you can take advantage of new technology and have a banner day of smallmouth fishing even during the dog days of summer.
