Was at Tapps on Sunday. Caught 4 smallmouth (dink, 12", and two 14"). Had another three that got away. Used a 3.5 inch brown tube which works best for me at Tapps. I caught multiple snags - lost ten tubes (five on first cast after replacing the last one). I'll be trying a weedless setup next time.

Kevin, tubes are always weedless for me. Still loose one now and then. How are you setting it up? Exposed hook point?

@AMX: Yep, exposed hook. Might try those "Little Pek-T" tube hooks: http://tackle.redshad.com/tips/LittlePek-T.php to set the tube up as weedless but still having the hook exposed.

Tapps smallmouth fishing has slowed somewhat lately, but judging by the lures you mentioned using, I take it you were banging the shorelines and docks. Except for an hour or so after daylight when there are some smallmouth cruising the shoreline and up on points, as the sun rises in this time of the year the smallies move out in 18 to 25 ft of water off points and drops. A friend and I went out Saturday. Right at daylight we had a couple massive blow ups on topwater but no hookups. Which can be so typical for smallmouth. We then began casting Carolina rigs in 8 to 16 feet of water on points. That caught fish till the sun got higher, then we began dragging the same rigs in 18 to 25 ft. We only put 12 fish in the boat that day, which for Tapps is not that many, but 10 of the 12 were two pounds up to alittle over three. The good part about fishing smallmouth deep is they have a tendency to school up, whereas when they're shallow they scatter. Hope my humble opinion helps.

thanks for the tips ricky,yeah we fished the docks and shore line. we didnt have a depth finder/fish finder, just tried to cover a lot of water(docks). appriecate the report.