So at every show I work Vic's booth at someone asks me what selection of Vic's stuff should they get for smallmouth. So Sunday when things slowed a bit I grabbed a few things in the booth that would make an okay "starter" selection and I'll give my reasons why. I do think it is important to keep in mind that more and more studies all the time show that bass can remember things for a long time. And amazingly enough even learn that something is bad by just watching another fish get caught on it. So these colors are not set in stone and in my mind should be rotated in and out with other colors to be the most effective. I have seen two studies where bass were found to be less shy of soft plastic lures after being caught on them than they are of a hard bait like a crankbait and require less of an interval between capture and recapture on one tho. Anyways here my choices and why. First off is a chartreuse metalflake grub. For some reason unknown to me smallmouth everywhere seem to have a fondness for chartreuse. If I fish the same stretch of river often I'd rotate in a plain chartreuse grub without the metalflake and one of the grubs that has a different color body with a chartreuse tail. Another "attraction" bait that smallmouth love is clear with gold flakes as well. I almost always have a grub with me that is in the "shiney" family, that is clear with metalflake, smoke with metalflake, and clear or smoke with colored metalflake. Smoke metalflake and clear with metalflake just look extremely "fishy" and natural under a wide range of conditions and have always been my answer to the "if you could only use one color" question. I think it is a good idea to have a smaller and larger version of the classic curly tail as well. I'd want at least one or two grubs in darker colors as well. Many riffle species are darker and rounder in profile than pool species and a darker grub is a good choice the closer you get to the riffle. In the photograph I have an electric blue grub as my darker grub. In my eyes it makes a fine imitation of many darter species which have a lot of bright blue in them. Other colors I'd rotate in here would be a brown or motoroil grub with or without glitter. A brown with orange tail grub would also fit right in here. I'd include a couple curly shad which have the great action of a curly tail but also a flatter deeper profile to imitate species like shiners, chubs, shad etc. Most of these minnows are lighter and shinier than the rounded riffle species and I go with something like a pearl with a painted back like the green one I have pictured here. You can get these with different colored backs to change things up. You can also do that with the other curly shad I have pictured which is one of the clear with mylar ones. These come with if I remember right, black, blue, red and clear backs and are just about the fishiest things out there. Speaking of "fishy" last fall Vic came out with a new family of baits, the curly swim, the paddle swim you see pictured (second up from the bottom on the right side) and the fork tail which is the same bait with a fork tail on the back. I just started using these guys late in the year last year but have fallen head over heels in love with them. In my eyes no lure I have ever thrown looks more natural than these guys. And they are tough as nails and last forever. Although I haven't used them nearly as much as other baits they are already number one as my confidence lure. With several different tail styles and colors to rotate in and out I'm sure they will stay that way too. I simply love these things. Last but not least is a USB swimbait (top right). In many of our smallmouth streams shiner species are very prevalent and emerald or spotfin shiners are quite often the most common little fish in the stream. And nothing does a better job of looking like a shiner than a USB.
So there you have it. No hard and fast, you gotta use this, but instead a few proven choices but with reasonable alternatives. I know I'll get some " I kill them on such and such" and I believe you, that's part of the magic of fishing. But the above choices and similar ones work for me and I think are a good starting point for someone new to the game.
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