Winter
Smallmouth bass spend their winter months on steep or 45 degree main lake banks as well as deep main lake points. Smallmouth may also hold on main lake bluffs. The key to finding them in these locations is to look for rock and gravel.

Prespawn
During prespawn big smallmouth will begin to move into staging areas. The preferred staging areas are deep edges and breaklines on main lake gravel flats or slow tapering points. They will often hold in water 15 to 20 feet of water most of the day and may move shallower to feed.

Spawn
Smallmouth spawn in much deeper water than largemouth bass. Depths of 12 feet or more are not uncommon especially in clear lakes. Water clarity often dictates the depths they spawn. A good starting depth to look for spawner would be around 6 feet deep. When the water temps start reaching the mid 50's begin looking for spawning bass. Not all bass spawn at the same time. Larger fish often start a little earlier. The key spawning areas for smallmouth are large gravel or pea gravel flats. The exceptional areas would also have cover like stumps, sparse vegetation or large boulders. Another area to look for spawing smallmouth would be shallow main lake gravel humps.

Post Spawn
After spawning smallmouth may hang around any available cover for a couple days before heading back out to deeper water adjacent to the spawing flats. The may suspend as deep as 20 to 30 feet deep, but will move shallower to feed on schools of baitfish. Smallmouth often will come out of deep water to feed on the surface.

Summer
During the summer months smallmouth often suspend in deep water if available, depths of 50 feet aren't uncommon. They will suspend over river or creek channels, reefs, rock piles and other main lake structures. Nighttime feeding is common, smallies will move shallow on main lake points or steep rock banks.

Fall
In the fall smallmouth will hold on main lake points to chase schooling baitfish. Some smallmouth will head toward steep rock banks, they may remain as deep as 50 feet deep.