Larry--

I've got little experience with smallmouth on the west side of the state or in natural lakes, for that matter. On the east side, though, you can catch smallies a lot earlier than you might think.

The key is water temperature. While most folks think of bass, even smallmouth, as warm water fish, smallies are a lot more active a lot earlier than I thought possible.

I was turned on to a great approach by a friend who worked for Berkley and was an avid smallmouth fanatic.

Smallies go on a great crankbait bite very early. It's weird because you won't catch them on tubes, grubs or worms, but they will hit a small crankbait.

So here's what my friend told me to do: Get some small N's and Baby N's made by Norman lures. Take a long spinning rod (I use a 7-footer) and a fairly large reel. Load the reel with Berkley XT in six pound test. With this rod and reel setup, you can cast a mile, and the thin line lets the bait run deep. Then head out for rocky-gravelly banks close to a spawning area.

And that's it. The coldest water I caught smallmouth in was 37 degrees, and that was in Lake Roosevelt. That day I caught something like four or five smallies on the 1/4-ounce Hot Lips plus several big trout. I had one bite on soft plastics, and it was a very soft bite. The smallies just hammered the cranks.

My guess is that you can go out now and start prospecting for fish with this rig. An added bonus is that many of the weeds are down, so you're less likely to get hung on junk than later in the year.

Another thing you might try is the float-n-fly technique that is pretty popular for winter smallmouth in the Mid South. You can probably do a google search and come up with a lot of info.

Good luck,

Keith