The river came up a couple inches this week, but is still wadable. There is some color to the water on both branches, but it is very fishable.

Summer smallmouth is the focus now for many anglers. Smallmouth numbers are down, but there are very nice-sized fish out there. There are a lot of ways to catch smallmouth. In the live bait department, minnows of various types and hellgrammites are good choices. Most anglers use a single hook and little weight, naturally drifting the bait in the current. Nightcrawlers are also a deadly, but often overlooked bait for smallmouth.

The artificial bait side of the aisle is almost endless. Top-water lures are particularly fun to catch bass with. On the river, the Heddon Tiny Torpedo is an all-time favorite. It is a small, hard, plastic lure with a propeller on the back that spins and sputters along the surface, imitating an injured minnow. There are a host of other popular and effective top-water lures, including the Gaines Crippled Killer, Rebel Pop R, Heddon Spooks and Crazy Crawlers, and the venerable Arbogast Jitterbug. There is also a new genre of premium top-water lures by companies such as Lucky Craft, Yo-Zuri and Rapala. All of these lures will work at one time or another, and there is nothing quite as exciting a big smallie exploding on a surface lure.

Sub-surface lures are even more numerous. Between hardbaits and soft plastic lures, there are literally thousands of choices. The Rebel Crayfish is an all-time favorite. Shaped exactly like a crayfish, the smallmouth's favorite summer food, the lure has a tight, fast wiggle that elicits strikes from just about every species of fish in the river. Soft plastic tubes are another crayfish imitation that are very effective for smallmouth. They can be rigged in a variety of ways, but simply inserting a jighead in the hollow body works. The tube needs to be slowly moved along the bottom, imitating a crayfish crawling along the rocks. Greens and browns are usually the most effective colors.

In the hardware department, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, once known as largemouth lures, have established a place in the smallmouth world. Buzzbaits have a single blade and are retrieved quickly on the surface. Spinnerbaits can have a variety of blade arrangements, but generally have two blades, with a jig and hook underneath, dressed with a rubber or silicone skirt. Many people think spinnerbaits don't work for smallmouth, but they do, in the right time and place. There is almost always a combination of blade configurations and colors, combined with the right skirt color, that will trigger smallmouth. A typical effective spinnerbait would have one silver and one gold willow leaf blade, with a white or shad-colored skirt. In the summer, a good time to throw them is at dawn and dusk, during wind or rain, and when the water gets dirty. They work well around weedbeds and wood.

This was a very brief summary of lures that smallies like to eat. The soft plastics category is expansive, with new offerings showing up all the time. Senkos, beavers, otters, and spiders are all part of the picture.

The smallmouths are out there, waiting to do battle. Try em, you'll like them.

n Ken Maurer, Herndon, is a licensed fishing guide and a regular contributor to the Outdoors section. E-mail comments to kenrose@tds.net.