i have seen a lot of guys catcing smallmouths wiht spinnerabits but i recently read an article that said in-line spinners like rooster tails, mepps, or panther martins and the best smallmouth bait. which one do you think is better and/or what is your favorite smallmouth bait.

I prefer the spinnerbaits to the in-line's but they both work great. My favourite lure for bass would have to be a black spinnerbait or a zora spook.

Smallies, I would have to go with brown or anything crawdad colored grub or tube. We catch a few on spinnerbaits on the rivers but have the best luck with plastics.

in line spinners for me tend to work better on streams and small rivers. my top 5 are(not in any order):1/16th silver jig head with a 4" white twister tail, chrome/black Storm Thunderstick, YUM garret mega tubes in cray colors texas rigged with a 1/8 oz bullet sinker and 2/0 Gamakatsu EWG or a Diachi 2/0 Fat gap bleeding bait hook, Rebel Crawdad crankbait(my go to for small rivers), High Roller topwater lure, and a Zara Puppy or Spook.

slayer

I perferr a #5 or 7 rapala.
I will try anything if the smallies are not hiting what I am throwing.

I fish both streams and rivers and Lake Erie.
I have never seen anyone use either spinner in lake Erie but in the river both work .

Johnch

I live all summer on the susquahanna fishing nearly every day for smallies. The first lure I always throw is a craw colored tube with 1/8 oz tube jig head. If that doesn't work I usually switch to a chartruese fat albert (basically a 3 - 4" mister twister) and just reel it nice and steady without jigging, white also works well. Another old faithfull that you're garaunteed to catch at least one fish on is the rebel craw. These three things are must haves in any smallie arsenal.

What works for you bearklr works on Champlain. I live all year round on the big lake and during pre spawn, white 4" twister tails rigged on an 1/8 oz chartreuse jig works real well in shallow water. A little later the tubes rigged either Texas or Carolina work well. They will always hit a Kalens 5" salt and pepper grub on a 3/8 oz unpainted jig. Spring fishing with a white spinner bait thrown right on a rocky shore works wonders. You can't real it back fast enough. I just remembered you got to try either buzz baits for largies along the weeds or top water like pop-R early in the day before the sun gets too high.

I fish some small local streams around where I live and have caught some decent sized smallies on an in-line spinner and fresh worm. real not artificle.

I used to use mostly tubes, but last year we started vertical jigging spoons for them on Lake Erie and had excellent results. We were using gold Hopkins spoons and other spoons of similar size and weight in a variety of colors; dark green seemed to be the best.