Unlike the fall and winter months when smallmouth bass attitudes are defined and structured, the transition from spring to summer fishing this time of year can be perplexing. In river situations, smallmouths are on the move with the spawn behind them, and they're jockeying for position on food sources and favorite ambush areas.

It's no longer cold enough to hold them in deeper water sanctuaries, but it's not warmed up enough to force all of them to the shallow oxygenated faster water below shoals and rock bars. The fast and furious topwater fall action is behind you and still a little down the summer road--where do you turn?

Beating river-run smallies from late spring through early summer will test the wariest of brown fish pursuers. They're a little scattered, a little harder to pattern, but as always--they're looking for a fight. To take advantage of transition river smallmouths, you just have to transition with them.

Unlike the pre-spawn and even fall fishing, the smallmouths now have the upper hand. It's time for you the angler to go on the offensive and hunt them down. When you find them--you'll know it because river-run smallies are a force to be reckoned with.

The smallmouth bass defines transition fishing. He's tough on anglers and their equipment, but the ever finicky crown prince of freshwater adversaries can still be caught during the swing from spring to summer on moving waters.

You'll want to have two rods at the ready for this timeframe. Don't leave home without at least a six-foot medium-heavy spinning rod and reel combination as well as a baitcaster spooled with a minimum of 12-pound test. All-Pro has several selections of spinning rods suited for river smallies. The APX graphite rod combined with the Pflueger President reel is my personal weapon of choice that's savvy and seriously backboned for fighting smallmouths in current. With the six-foot spinning rod and six-pound test line, you can pitch light tackle into cover or tight situations as well as fire a cast upstream.

The All-Pro baitcasting twin is the APX model rod that's also suited for brown fish anglers and has gained my favor when coupled with 12-pound monofilament since it handles casting big spinnerbaits in and around springtime cover. The late spring can often bring more fronts and accompanying rain causing higher than normal water conditions that force smallies tighter to cover.

A 6.2 to 1 gear ratio model baitcasting reel is a plus for getting smallmouths away from cover like limbs and laydowns once you've hooked a big river bruiser. We're not talking about pulling a big lazy largemouth out of stumps with 30-pound test, but you need a baitcasting setup in your hands to handle that surge smallmouths are famous for in current.

Smallies haven't totally abandoned all deep water areas on a river in late spring, but they're definitely not congregated in the deeper winter holes any longer. In transitioning with them, you'll want to target in-between water. That means the banks above or below winter hangouts and spawning areas. There's usually plenty of water in the river this time of year compared to the summer and fall timeframe. It often pushes smallmouths tighter to cover and closer to the bank.

Key areas to consider include not only the upper and lower ends of rock bluffs in river bends and long stretches but deep water next to a flats and secondary water below shoals that still has enough current for holding smallies. Primary water below a shoal is immediately beneath that structure and is the fastest water that's more productive in warmer summer months. The secondary water begins to slow down somewhat but is usually a little deeper and offers plenty of cover for ambushing unawares baitfish.

These prime late spring hotspots have features that you need to pay attention to as well. Any section of bank with an outcropping of river rock or a bed of pea gravel should draw you like a bear to honey. Other features to focus on are logjams, laydowns, and subsurface limbs or brush. Any treelike structure shouldn't be passed by without being worked over with the select transition baits below.

We're pinpointing baits for transition river smallmouth fishing. Not so much a seek and destroy mentality but one of hunt and catch. River smallies have gone through the rigors of the spawn, met with high water in most cases, and are nearly ready to settle back into a simpler summer routine in a few weeks. But in the meantime, you'll want to cast baits at them that not only focus on their feeding instincts but more often than not irritate them into striking. To draw a reaction strike, a bait has to be either irresistible, the perfect baitfish imitation, or just plain irritable.

The three baits I prefer for hunting late spring smallmouths do those three musts that make smallies strike. Go to the plastics section of the bait shop and look at the grub selection. What you're staring at is one of the most productive smallmouth baits ever designed. It is the perfect river baitfish imitation.

The three-inch grub has and always will be one of my river mainstays. You can swim it, jig it, or rip it through the water to gain attention from smallmouths of every size. It's hard to find a better bait for working rock structures from bluffs to shoals. The two best river run smallmouth colors have to be pumpkinseed and smoke.

The "do-nothing" type worms have made great leaps in recent years. They've become extremely popular for lake fishing for largemouths on the tournament circuit. Not all river anglers have discovered how successful these small but deadly finesse baits can be on river-run smallmouths.

The YUM Bait Company has developed one such do-nothing worm that I like to say does a lot. The YUM Dinger is available in a variety of smallmouth catching colors and two smallmouth like sizes. The three-inch and five-inch versions are good, but the four-inch Dinger should be illegal. The highly salted worm has a cutout that's perfect for hiding a 2/0 Daiichi Bleeding Bait Hook. The Bleeding Bait Hook really does draw more strikes. I fish the finesse worm without a weight and let the bait's natural action do the work. It can be pitched or tossed right up on the bank or into tight cover. Simply raising and barely twitching the rod puts an irresistible action on the worm. If the smallmouth doesn't hit it out of hunger, he'll hit it out of desire.

The third springtime transition bait is the ever popular spinnerbait. The 1/2-ounce models can be very productive this time of year. Anytime your boat drifts by river structure called wood--pick up your spinnerbait. With the heavier line, don't be afraid to throw it into thicker cover. When placed properly in there with the smallies, the spinnerbait's bumping of a limb or log will draw the reaction strike you're looking for.

This time of year, a spinnerbait is all about reaction. Cast to each spot more than once--this is one bait that truly irritates smallmouth into striking. Another spinnerbait to test on the river this year is the Strike King Compact Premier Pro-Model. Its design is river current perfect, and it casts like a bullet. And look to hear good things from their new spinnerbait coupled with a Bleeding Bait Hook.

That should get you started or at least make you long to be on the water. It's hotter than normal already this time of year, and the smallmouth river action is heating up as well. Shed the waders for a pair of shorts, the river couldn't feel any better.