Bassmaster Elite pro Brandon Palaniuk targets smallies on waters like Dworshak Reservoir and Lake Coeur d’Alene in his home state of Idaho.(Photo courtesy of Brandon Palaniuk)
April 28, 2025
By David A. Brown
Brandon Palaniuk has fished the nation’s top-rated smallmouth waters, from Pickwick Lake in the Deep South to Lake Champlain and the mighty St. Lawrence River in the Northeast. However, the two-time Bassmaster Elite Angler of the Year’s personal-best smallie—a 7 3/4-pound beast—came from an Idaho reservoir.
Sure, not all Western smallmouths are that big, but there are plenty of them, and if you do your homework and put in the water time, western fisheries can produce epic smallmouth bites. And while hefty largemouths, like those giants of the California Delta, and spotted bass that live in meccas like Shasta Lake are more common targets of the West’s bass aficionados, when it comes to aggression, cold tolerance and a “don’t-care-gonna-eat-it” dependability, western smallmouths are well worth the effort, especially come springtime.
Palaniuk’s fellow Elite, Bryant Smith, says Western smallmouths tend to roam like their Eastern counterparts do. Except for during the spawn, these aggressive sight feeders can’t resist running down anything that looks edible.
“They’re just chasers, that’s in the smallmouth nature,” Smith says of the species’ endearing appeal. “They like to hunt something down, so if you get a bait around them, they’ll do the rest for you.”
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No doubt, wherever smallmouths roam, you’ll find a mostly cooperative fish that attacks with bad intentions and fights all the way to the boat. Their preferred habitat is pretty straightforward: Smallies like the hard stuff, so check out any current-breaking, baitfish-guiding rock structure, from boulders to drop-offs to gravel. Add some current, and you’re in smallmouth territory.
Arizona pro Cliff Pirch, an Elite Series veteran, caught his biggest bronzeback, a 6-14, on the Columbia River in a classic Western smallmouth scenario.
“It was in heavy current, on an outside bend with lots of rocks, and I caught it on a jerkbait,” Pirch says. “I had just lost a big one, so I threw back out and caught that one. It was a wolfpack of giants, which is something you see in Western fisheries. You don’t always find the big numbers like you do on the Great Lakes, but a lot of times you’ll find little groups with four or five big ones.”
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WARM-WATER WONDERS Palaniuk calls Northern Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene his favorite Western smallmouth fishery, and while cold-water bodies like this certainly parallel a lot of what he fishes during his eastern tournament travels, it’s hardly the only option. In fact, western diversity is precisely what makes anglers like Palaniuk, Pirch and Smith so formidable.
Smith, who won last year’s WON Bass U.S. Open on Lake Mohave, notched his personal-best Western smallmouth—a 5 1/2-pound fish—in that mid-fall event. In any season, he’s a fan of Western desert lakes, which showcase the region’s smallmouth bounty across the calendar.
“Lakes like Mohave, Havasu, Mead—they’re not your normal smallmouth fisheries because they’re in the desert, but the fish excel in clear-water environments, and that’s what those desert lakes offer,” Smith says. “Especially the Colorado River chain, where the quagga mussels filter the water and make it super clear. Smallmouths are notorious sight feeders, so if they see it, they can eat it.
“That clear water bodes well for the smallmouths because the water’s clear year-round,” Smith continues. “They have a long growing season and plenty of forage. It’s a weird place for smallmouths because you tend to think of that colder water in northern fisheries, but they definitely do really well in those California, Arizona and Nevada lakes.”
Cliff Pirch, another Bassmaster Elite angler, enjoys the smallmouth fishing on the desert lakes of the Southwest. (Photo courtesy of Cliff Pirch) SPRING PREFERENCES As the year’s first quarter advances to the vernal equinox, fish sense the lengthening photoperiod even before air and water temperatures make noticeable shifts. Instinctively readying themselves to shed their winter patterns, the fish will slide up to their pre-spawn areas with the first hint of warmth. That’s when it gets good.
“If you catch that first warming trend, you can have some of the best fishing of the year,” Smith says. “They’re very aggressive, so they’re susceptible to getting caught when they move up shallow. You can kind of follow smallmouths throughout that whole pre-spawn journey. Starting from the river channel (or the nearest deep-water access), you can almost follow them from point to point all the way into the back of a bay.”
For staging pre-spawners, Smith says he likes to find a point right in the middle of a spawning bay. Spawning destinations typically will comprise a flat with a mix of clean sand and gravel positioned out of the current.
“The good thing about smallmouths is they’re incredibly consistent,” Smith says. “Once you get a few bites doing one thing, you can run that same pattern all over the lake.”
Palaniuk shares that view and notes that while smallmouths may feed near their green cousins elsewhere in the nation, western fish tend to be segregated.
“In a lot of the places, they separate themselves more than you see in the Midwest and East,” he says. “Very rarely, other than in spawning bays in the spring, do I catch smallmouths and largemouths back to back. Even in the same bay, one section will be smallmouths and one section will be largemouths. Smallmouth definitely lean toward a gravelly, sandy bottom, while largemouths will get in a softer, weedier bottom.”
During the early spring, before waters have had a chance to warm, smallmouths favor smaller soft plastics, either threaded onto a ball-head jig or Carolina-rigged. (Photo courtesy of Brandon Palaniuk) THRILL IN THE CHILL Warming trends certainly fuel the spring smallmouth progression, but in the upper reaches of their Western range, Palaniuk knows that early-spring days may bring the kind of weather that has anglers heavily layered, with a portable heater tucked below the console.
“If we’ve had a warm spell to position the fish and then get a pre-spawn snowstorm, it seems like the low pressure really turns on the reaction-bait bite,” Palaniuk says.
To that point, Pirch knows that even the chilly days of early spring typically find smallmouths ready to go. Compared to largemouths, which typically dial down the metabolism during colder months, smallies can be legit day-makers.
“I enjoy a good warmup, when they’re thinking about moving up and spawning and are guarding territory,” Pirch says. “But there’s a period in the early pre-spawn when the smallmouths might be a better target than largemouths. They can provide more consistency and they tend to dominate more of the tournament weights that time of year.”
MATCH THE MASSIVE HATCH Palaniuk says the big smallmouths in Lake Coeur d’Alene are more geared toward hefty offerings thanks to the ample population of kokanee salmon. Basically a land-locked sockeye, these chunky little protein bars provide a growth-fueling food source for bold smallmouths.
Here and in other kokanee-stocked waters like Dworshak Reservoir (also in Idaho) and Northern California’s Trinity Lake, smallmouths become not only accustomed to big lures, but often prefer them.
As Palaniuk points out, smallmouths in kokanee lakes often exhibit distinct migratory habits.
“I think it affects how they transition throughout the year,” he says. “In northern Idaho and Montana, the kokanee are our closest thing to a fall shad movement, where the smaller baitfish will work their way to the backs of creeks, so you’ll have some smallmouths positioning for that movement.”
Big-body jerkbaits like the 6 1/2-inch Megabass Kanata, and hulking topwaters like the 6-inch Strike King Mega Dawg, will tempt the Kokanee eaters, but Palaniuk also enjoys the line-slacking thump of a big smallie meeting a big swimbait. Here, he prefers the more traditional harness-style swimbaits like a Huddleston, or a 7 1/2-inch Megabass I-Slide, which resembles a Kokanee.
MORE MODERATE MEALS In waters lacking giant baitfish, pre-spawn smallmouth will still be looking to feed up before committing to a bed, so they’ll be on the hunt for meals enroute to their spawning areas. During this time, Smith stays on the go to cover water with moving baits like a Strike King KVD 300 jerkbait in brighter colors that always seem to interest smallmouths.
On windy days, Smith spends more time throwing a spinnerbait, which holds more drawing power in choppy conditions. The same can be said for a bladed jig with a profile-boosting swimbait trailer, while hard-thumping rattle baits also fit the assignment.
Soft-body swimbaits on ball-head jigs are standard for Western fisheries, but while winter and early spring see smallies favoring diminutive baits like a 2.75-inch X Zone Swammer or a 2.8-inch Keitech Fat Swing Impact, warmer months find the fish turning their attention to swimbaits in the 4.5- to 5.5-inch size.
Dragging baits is another effective technique for pre-spawners, and Pirch favors a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce football jig with a 4-inch Yamamoto Double Tail or a Big Bite Baits Ramtail. Carolina-rigged craws, creature baits and 4-inch stick worms also aid the search plan.
Even in fisheries like his Lake Roosevelt home waters, populated by smaller forage, Pirch knows the smallie’s inherent curiosity can work to his pre-spawn search advantage. Essentially, he’ll use a big glide bait to find the larger fish, then focus on the active area with drop-shots and Ned rigs.
BITES ON BEDS When sustained warmth tells him smallmouths are likely bedding, Pirch keeps his options open. While largemouths tend to spawn mostly in shallow zones, smallies may exhibit a broader range.
“The water is so clear you could have a smallmouth bed in 2 feet, but you could also have a bed in 12 feet,” Pirch says.</.P>
“For shallow ones, I might lean toward a really light Ned rig with a Big Bite Baits Ram Head and a Big Bite Baits Scentsation Ned worm. That’s a softer presentation, and you can sneak it in there easier. That Ned rig will work on the deep ones, too, but I’d be more likely to use a drop-shot with Big Bite Baits Scentsation Cliff Hanger Worm. I’ll typically use a 1/4-ounce dropshot weight.”
Smaller Texas-rigged plastics, light Carolina rigs and Neko-rigged stick worms also tempt bedding smallies. Details always matter, so keep your rigs straight and well presented, but as long as you keep your distance and avoid washing out a bed, the reaction’s usually pretty swift.
“Most of the time, if you get it around a pre-spawn fish or in their bed when spawning, they’re going to bite,” Pirch says. “That’s what makes them fun.”
SMALLMOUTH SMACKDOWN Top destinations for the springtime brown bass bite.
Lake Coeur d’Alene, ID: This natural, dam-controlled lake in northern Idaho, fed by the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers, stretches 25 miles long and 1 to 3 miles wide.Lake Mohave, AZ: Located in the southern end of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, this Colorado River impoundment stretches 67 miles in length and defines the Arizona/Nevada border.Lake Havasu, AZ : Another Colorado River reservoir, the 26-mile-long Havasu is famous for its London Bridge, one of the actual structures that once spanned the Thames River in London, England. Dworshak Reservoir, ID: Idaho’s largest reservoir, and the fourth largest in the Pacific Northwest, Dworshak is a 16,484.5-acre impoundment of the North Fork Clearwater River.Trinity Lake, CA : A Northern California impoundment of its namesake river, Trinity Lake was built in the early 1960s by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to provide irrigation and hydroelectric power to California’s Central Valley.Lake Roosevelt, AZ: Not to be confused with Washington’s Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, Theodore Roosevelt Lake is a 21,493-acre Salt River impoundmnet located within Arizona’s Tonto National Forest.This article was featured in the April 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe
