By Ted Peck

No matter where you live in Wisconsin, you are never more than an hour's drive away from superb riverine smallmouth bass fishing. The dog days of August are prime time to target old bronzebacks on streams both big and small, with waters generally at low pool levels and the smallie's "eat" button stuck in overdrive mode.

It doesn't take a major investment to be a serious player for these fish on smaller streams. All you need is a light-action spinning outfit, a small tackle box with a couple of spinners, small stickbaits and a topwater or two, and an old pair of tennis shoes to protect your feet.

Watercraft will open more waters, with a canoe or cartopper ideal for floating some of our small to medium-sized rivers. On our major rivers like the Mississippi, Lower Wisconsin and St. Croix, it's nice to have a motor on the back of your boat. The recreational value of paddling or rowing against the current on these wide-bodied rivers feels more like work in short order on days when you can break a sweat just standing still.

Big waters also usually hold a potential for producing larger fish and maybe more fish once you figure out the pattern. Some anglers conclude that taking home a few bass for the pan is all right, "because there's gotta be a million of 'em." It's true that another smallmouth will likely move into a prime niche in a riverine ecosystem shortly after you've killed the fish that called a particular area home, but it takes five years to grow a 3-pound smallmouth in most waters. Consider how much fun you can have practicing catch-and-release on this critter over that time span, and how big she will grow if you let her go.

That said, let's grab the polarized sunglasses, bug juice and camera, and head on down to the river.

Look for rocks and shade, tossing crawdad-imitating lures like the No. 4 Mepps Black Fury and copper-colored Vibrax spinners, Rebel Teeny Craws and similar crankbaits, and even crawdad-pattern topwater lures.

The author with a dandy smallmouth bass he caught while wading in one of the many tributaries that empty into Green Bay. Photo courtesy of Ted Peck

There are nearly 40 miles of prime and rugged smallmouth water between Riverside and Grantsburg in Burnett County, with the run of river between Danbury and Norway Point also very popular with local anglers.

Numerous tributaries dump into the St. Croix before its eventual confluence with the mighty Mississippi, with many holding tremendous smallmouth potential in their own right. This river starts to grow true shoulders down around Danbury, where there are good boat launches on both the Wisconsin and Minnesota sides of this boundary river. Don't be surprised if a walleye intercepts your lure here. Both smallies and walleyes are present in incredible numbers, according to Department of Natural Resources fisheries manager Larry Damman. On the lower river you can run a larger boat and move more quickly between likely smallmouth haunts. From Stillwater to Prescott, the St. Croix slows, with habitat that is more like a lake than a river.

Contacts: National Park Service, (715) 483-3284; DNR, (608) 266-2621; guide Dick Gryzwinski, (651) 771-6231.

The Wisconsin River is a boating minefield pretty much from one end to the other. The only thing that changes is the character of the mines. The ideal watercraft is an 18-foot johnboat with a jet-drive, allowing both mobility and stability while preventing almost certain damage to the outboard's lower unit. It's a little easier negotiating several flowages found in between the north country and Wyalusing State Park downstream. But the very best smallmouth action is on the river proper, and it gets exponentially better with each mile traveled away from easy access.

The most memorable days I've had on this river were with guides Todd Koehn and Ron Barefield. Koehn guides on the upper river, targeting the run between Merill and Brokaw, and beyond. The last time we launched his jet-drive boat in a place where the Wisconsin is just becoming a river, it took my 4x4 truck tethered to his 4x4 truck to launch and recover the boat. Our efforts were rewarded with several fish over 20 inches and a couple of muskies. All Koehn throws are No. 4 and No. 5 Mepps Black Fury Spinners, noting that most strikes come when you cast upstream and retrieve with the current. This spinner is ideal for the upper river because it approximates the crawfish forage base and effectively covers the entire water column.

On the Lower Wisconsin, Ron Barefield likes to target deadfalls and snags on islands next to current with big spinnerbaits, throwing small topwater lures and plastic fliptails - usually yellow - in those areas below the breaking edge of a sandbar. Anchoring up here is a great option. Get set just right and you can stay hooked up for hours. Rocks are few along the lower river, but always worth a cast.

Float-fishing is a great way to experience this river. One word of advice - if you're taking just one vehicle, always motor upstream. River levels can change drastically north of Wausau in just a couple hours as the numerous dams regulate levels to generate power. Better to be up the creek without a paddle than downstream without one.

Contacts: guide Todd Koehn, 1-800-710-8020 or www.rivercatch.com; guide Ron Barefield, (608) 838-8756 or barefish@chorus.net.

According to DNR fisheries biologist Patrick Short, those river pools that are farther away from population centers like La Crosse, Prairie du Chien and Dubuque typically hold larger bass. "When bass reach 14 inches, a lot of them get removed from the system," Short said. "For some reason, folks like eating bass - both largemouths and smallmouths - as much as catfish or panfish over here on the river."

The Mississippi is the site of perpetual bass tournaments every weekend, making midweek a good time to hit the water if you're looking for a quality bassin' experience. But there are plenty of places for bass to hide in every river pool. If you don't mind boat traffic, getting hooked up is usually just the first rocky structure away from numerous boat launches on either side of the river.

River level - and whether the river is going up or down - is a prime key to fish location and subsequent success. Beyond a doubt the best source of information for fishing the Mississippi is www.in-depthangling.com, which provides a constantly updated table of current flow in the different pools, with links to guides, bait shops and other amenities along the 150 miles of potential bass water that is our western border.

The Upper Black from Greenwood to Neillsville is a great place to target earlier in the summer when there is typically a little more current flow. But with a canoe and a "wet-foot" approach, this 20-mile run of river can be fun all summer long.

Probably the most consistent late-summer fishing is found between the Opelt Avenue launch about three miles outside of Neillsville down to Highway 95. It takes the better part of a day to float these seven miles, with an almost-sure-thing chance of hooking into members of the Esox clan along the way in addition to smallies.

Contact: Black River Falls Chamber of Commerce, 1-800-404-4008 or www.chamber@cuttingedge.net.

I'll never forget an outing with Dr. Brad Bourkland here some 20 years ago when Brad and I were both young paramedics on vacation from the Beloit Fire Department. Bourkland is now an accomplished angler. But his first smallie encounter was on the Red Cedar where a 16-incher that garwoofled a triple-trebled topwater bait danced right into our small johnboat. One hook was in the bass, one hook was in the boat cushion and the third hook was firmly impaled in the good doctor's backside. And the bass still had plenty of fight left. I did what any good paramedic would do. I reached for the camera the moment hyperventilation and tears from laughter subsided enough to take a photo.

The Upper Red Cedar is quintessential canoe water, especially the 30-mile stretch between Chetak to Colfax, launching at County D.

Contact: Menomonie Chamber of Commerce, www.chamber@menomonie.com.

The best late-summer stretch of this river is the 29 miles from the Crowley Dam in Price County to the confluence with the Flambeau's South Fork, with a canoe your best way to travel. There are several places to put in and take out along this float, so you can tailor fishing to your available time frame. DeLorme's Wisconsin Atlas & Gazetteer is invaluable in logistical planning.

Contact: Park Falls Chamber of Commerce, (715) 762-2703.

There are boat launches located above and below every dam from the White Rapids Dam down to the Menominee's confluence with Green Bay a couple miles below the Hattie Street Dam in Marinette/Menominee. Fishing below the Hattie Street Dam usually produces a duke's mixture of fish, with a shot at salmonids during coldwater periods.

From a bassin' standpoint, the pool directly above the Hattie Street Dam is probably the best. You can launch larger boats here and navigate without too much difficulty on this pool's lower reaches. Several bass tourneys are held here each year, with the big fish typically pushing 5 pounds.

An almost cookie-cutter similarity is in place on pools of the Upper Menominee, with fast, rocky water immediately below the dam. Rocks and fallen wood are obvious places to look. But don't overlook weeds! If there is a single major key to smallmouth location on slower-moving runs of this river, it is weed edges where a tube jig rigged weedless can offer phenomenal results.

My favorite Menominee River pools are those that lie above "the Oxbow" just east of the town of Wausaukee, particularly the two pools that lie about 10 miles east of the little town of Amberg, where my friend Umberto Spataro creates some of the finest meatballs and pasta on the planet every time I stay at his Italian Inn motel.

Contact: Marinette Chamber of Commerce, 1-800-236-6681.

Access is possible at a number of road bridges, with almost the entire length of this wadeable stream bordered by private lands clear down to the Illinois border. It is important that you honor the landowner's rights and stay in the stream at all times if you haven't obtained permission. DNR easements have been obtained for considerable access along the Galena, but you want to avoid posted lands without permission for access.

Although it is possible to cast across this stream at any given point, one large lure that doesn't even come close to resembling anything swimming here is red hot. Try an X-5 yellow Flatfish with red and brown spots. Truth be known, the big Flatfish in this color scheme is an ace on just about any smallie stream.

Contact: Platteville Chamber of Commerce, (608) 348-8888.

This river is no place for a new canoe because of plenty of rocks and overhanging brush that is almost impossible to avoid. But few fish here see a lure in an average summer, and Jump River is full of smallmouths.

Contact: Taylor County Tourism, 1-800-257-4729.