By Andrew Ragas Smallmouth bass prefer sand, rocks and wood in conjunction to major depth contour. However, they can also be found using weedlines at certain times of the year. On natural lakes and reservoirs, anglers can expect to find big smallmouths in the underfished habitat of weeds. The late summer/early fall period is a perplexing time for smallmouth bass anglers. Predictably on most days, fish may be located on the same hard bottom deep water habitats they’ve been using all summer long. Even though finding these obvious late summer locations can be easy with electronics and mapping systems, catching the fish is another story. Other days they’re nowhere to be found on rocks, or in deep water for the matter, and are eluding the very best anglers. The fish have definitely gone elsewhere. If smallmouths aren’t using rocks, where can they be? On the large natural lakes, flowages, and river systems encompassing weed habitats, it is common for smallmouth bass to dwell amongst the jungle of weeds and their corresponding weedlines. Smallmouths in weeds happen far more often than anyone thinks. Largemouth bass anglers understand the dynamics of fishing weeds. H