Soft plastic lizards will work well for smallmouth bass, however, most anglers prefer to fish with the smaller lizards for smallmouth bass compared to largemouth bass. The lizards in the 4 to 6″ range work great for smallies, but don’t rule out some of the bigger lizards because they can be effective too.
Best Techniques
Flipping & Pitching Around Cover
Flipping and pitching around cover is very effective when smallmouth bass move into the shallows during the spring. Fish the wood along the shorelines with this technique and you’ll have success. Later in the year, you need to find wood or docks in deeper water for this technique to work well.
Hop Them Along the Bottom
Hop these baits along the bottom with some pauses mixed in. Find some rocky bottoms that hold smallmouth bass and you should catch some fish.
Swim Them
You can also swim lizards for smallmouth bass. A slow and steady retrieve along a rocky bottom can be effective.
Best Rigs
Carolina Rig
The Carolina rig is a great rig for fishing with lizards. Most anglers use this rig for fishing deeper water. A heavier weight will help give the bait more action as you pull it up through the water column and let it drop back down to the bottom. Drifting with a heavy wind or a slow troll can also be productive.
Drop Shot Rig
The drop shot rig works well with lizards. Make sure you use a heavy enough weight to help give the worm more action.
Florida / Texas Rig
The Florida rig is a great rig for lizards. Rigged weedless, you can fish around all types of cover.
Standup Jighead
The shaky head jig is another great rig for fishing with lizards. By rigging it weedless, you can fish it around all types of cover just like the Texas rig.
Swimbait Hook
A swimbait hook works great with lizards. Fish it similar to how you would a texas rig and you’ll catch plenty of bass. Most anglers think of swimbait hooks as the preferred rig to use for swimbaits. You can swim lizards with a slow and steady retrieve if you want, but most anglers would fish it nice and slow like they would with a Texas rig. The swimbait hook gives the bait a gliding action down to the bottom, so a quick jerk and pause will give the bait awesome action on the drop. This helps with reaction strikes.
