I would say you are doing something right! I would take a smallmouth over a largemouth any day of the week.

However, if you must catch the lesser species ( ), they typically inhabit very different water. Or more specifically different types of water in the same body of water. Smallmouth are usually in the faster water, with more rock ledges, etc. Largemouths will rarely hold in the faster water and tend to be more prone to vegetation. The two must carve out different niches to coexist and survive. So I would change where or how you are fishing first to see if that changes anything.