I went bass fishing American Falls Reservoir in Idaho, and was stoked on what I found. I only fished for a couple of hours, and found a stellar pattern. I caught two of some of the biggest smallmouth bass I’ve ever landed. Here’s where I fished, what I used, and a video clip of how I crushed some toads smallmouth bass fishing American Falls Reservoir.

Bass Fishing American Falls Reservoir

I’m always on the lookout for new places to try, and heard about American Falls Reservoir in Idaho. I made a brief stop their on my way home from work for a couple hours, and was blown away at the quality of the smallmouth bass I caught. Here are the logistics of my trip including; baits I used, a map of where I fished, and logistics of how things shook down. Plus, I caught a little bit of the excitement on camera, so I’ve added a little video about bass fishing American Falls Reservoir.

American Falls Reservoir Fishing Conditions

I stopped and fished for two hours on Thursday September 17th, from 9:30am – 11:30am. Here were the additional conditions.

Water Clarity

Muddy. Visibility was only 1ft or less.

Water Temperature

62 degrees.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, and Cool. Air Temperature was about 67 degrees.

Wind

Flat Calm. 0-5 mph

Baits for Fishing American Falls Reservoir

Surprisingly I threw about 6 or 7 different things before I landed on what worked. I caught all my smallmouth on these two baits.

Baby Brush Hog

The Zoom Baby Brush Hog in Green Pumpkin caught the majority of the Smallmouth bass. I doctored it up a little to try and make it more appealing. I colored the tips of the tails orange with a garlic orange marking pen. Plus, I added some crawfish smelly jelly. The water was really dirty, so adding little things like this can make a big difference in dirty water. The brush hog was texas rigged with a 3/0 gamakatsu worm hook with a small 1/8oz bullet weight added on the line in front of the hook.

The key to working this bait was to lightly pull it over the rocks, and let it fall back down. The smallmouth were sitting on the backside of the current behind those big rocks. It had to fall right in front of their face, and they would suck it up.

Yamamoto Senko

A 4″ green pumpkin amber laminate senko also smacked a nice smallmouth bass. I rigged it exactly the same way as the baby brush hog, minus all the doctoring with the smelly jelly and the orange marking pen. I texas rigged a 4″ senko on a 3/0 gamakatsu worm hook, with a light 1/8oz bullet weight.There was a current flowing around the rocks, and without the extra weight the senko just didn’t seem to get down to where they were hanging.

I fished the texas rigged senko the same way as the brush hog. Slowly pulling it along the bottom over the rocks. You had to be right in their face to get bit in this dirty water.

Spot for Fishing American Falls Reservoir

Here is the place I caught these sweet smallmouth bass.

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I found this spot by doing a google search and looking at google maps. It’s pretty obvious in the video I found about smallmouth bass fishing American Falls Reservoir where the guys are fishing. Plus, it is easy to see on google earth there isn’t many places from the shore with obvious rocky structure for smallmouth bass. Hopefully, next fall I can make it out here again to crush a few. [/optinlock]

Fishing Report on Bass Fishing American Falls

This quick little stop was a blast. I only caught three bass, but two of them were toads. They were both over 3 pounds and hit the tape at 19 inches. It took me awhile to figure it out, and I tried so many different things. I was feeling a little frustrated. Once I felt the first bite and landed the first bass, the stoke juices were flowing.

When I arrived I started off throwing a weightless texas rigged senko. The current seemed to be moving my bait around a lot. I then pulled out a small keitech swimbait with a 1/4 oz head and started throwing that around. I didn’t get any takers. The water was so stained, and I was worried the fish might be shallow right up on the rocks. I threw a white popper along the edges, but nothing came up for it either. I knew I needed to try to thump them on the nose, so I tied on as light a weight as I could get a way with on a senko. Hopefully, this would help me to slide the senko down and around in the rocks.

The Senko with a little weight was the magic ticket. On my fifth cast with the lightly weighted senko I felt a tick. I set the hook on a stud. Here’s the first beast I caught on a senko.

My senko was tossed during the battle, so I went to my box only to find one senko left. I decided to try a baby brush hog, since it was a similar color and shape. The brush hog has some appendages I felt would also make it more noticeable. On my next cast, I smacked another one. He was just a 1 pound stud. Still it was stoking to know they would hit a different bait.

On my next cast, I pulled the bait along the rocks, and boom! Another stud of a smallmouth was on. This guy was even bigger. Here is a picture of him. He weighed in at 3.29 pounds. I could’ve swore he was at least 4 pounds. Good thing I had a scale to keep me honest.

Time was running out for me, and so to speed up the process I tried banging some squarebill crankbaits along the rocks. The squarebill didn’t produce a bite. I threw a few more casts again with the brush hog, and lost a bunch of baits combing the point until I had to bail. I’m sure there were a few more hanging around off the point, but I did my best and left with smiles.

Here’s some of the footage I have of the trip from my Go-Pro. It shows how I doctored up my brush hog, and how I would work the bait over the rocks. Good times for sure!

Hope you enjoyed this report on smallmouth bass fishing American Falls Reservoir. Please share with those you know looking for places to go bass fishing. I know I learned a lot on this trip, and hopefully you can use what I learned to go “Krak” some bass yourself! Don’t forget to leave a comment about your thought on American Falls Fishing. I’d love to hear more about the place.

As Always,

Stay Stoked!

Gear Used

The links above and below in this post are affiliate links were you can pick up baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else I used to “Krak” some bass on this trip. Krakenbass receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. I only use links to baits, and gear I have personally trust and know work. I put these links to make them helpful for you, and not for the small amount I make for the sale of the products. I hope these products can help you “krak” some bass! Thank you for your support.