yup, thats the problem....i guess i should rephrase and say "sometimes we find em...sometimes we dont"....instead of saying "they are off and on", because that isnt really true. if you find them they are on, good luck finding them again tommorrow though....or in an hour for that matter. they are not really relating to anything visible, other than a school of baitfish here and there, im sure there is a temp or current break they are relating to though.
i dont know anybody who is catching anything other than a dink or two on the banks right now....i didnt say they arent being caught, i just dont know anyone that is catching them on the banks, including me. the last smallmouth i caught the other day was a 20.5 incher , he hit a live bait set at 60 foot , which with driftback figured in was probably in the 55 ft range, the boat was sitting in 114 feet of water, and he hammered it so hard and started ripping drag we thought it had to be a big ol stripe....wrong.
the first reaction to this condition would be to tie a jigging spoon or a tube on, but like i said you have to cover territory to maybe run across the school, your arm would be jellow trying to pick apart a 1000 acres with a jigging spoon looking for a school of fish that is on the move . i guess ill just keep draggin bait around until i bump into them.