What is the best way to fish for smallmouth bass when they aren't hitting top water?

I generally have spotty luck with a rattl'n Rapalas. And when I go with the standard jig, I spend half the day fighting snags on rocks.

Fishing2day:

Smallmouth Bass can usually be caught sub-surface by tempting them with a small single bladed spinnerbait. Chartrusse, white, black and orange are some good colors to have in your arsenal. Let them sink then rip them back or bounce them off rocks. Work them deep or throw them right up on shore. Then nice thing about those little spinnerbaits is there almost snagproof.

I also will use a floating leach rigged lindy style if the bronzebacks are not interested in artificals.

Good Fishin'

Artificial lures are fine and dandy(Rapala's shad rap #5 is my first choice), but when things slow down, the real deal is a leech on a slip bobber.

On windy days you can cast into the wind and just let the bobber drift across likely spots and the poor smallies just can't resist.

Sure bobber fishing isn't as exciting as top water fishing or shad raps, but it is really effective. Last year we found a river mouth where the smallies were stacked up and we just let the slip bobbers drift down stream and we literally caught a fish with every cast.

Pros: effective, easy to rig, fairly snagless
Cons: so easy it seems like cheating, hassle bringing in the leeches

Jimbo

I've had great success floating a small zara spook and also popR's for surface fishing. I've had my best success fishing 1/4 oz foxee jigs, 2 feet below a bobber. I now reside in the Nortwest, and it's refered to as jig and bobber fishing out here... Funny thing, as that for the folks out here, it's considered a new technique for salmon and steelhead, however I've been fishing smallies and crappies like that since i was 14 years old. Old timer on the Mississippie near saint cloud introduced me to it.

also keep in mind the biggest mistake people make when surface fishing it bringing the rig in too fast. Once the lure hits the water, wait 30 secs to 60, the give it a twitch... repeat that, moving the lure only a few feet between each pause. The other thing to consider is how the fish are hitting. Sometimes, they swipe it with there tail, or just nudge the lure along, or sometimes they litterly smash it-- don't try to set the hook too soon, let the fish grab it 1st.. biggest mistake people make when fishing surface lures is:
retrieving too fast
too quick on hook sets,

My best lure on smallies is the Banjo Minnow...casting on shores and jig it a couple of times and pausing it will make the minnow zigzagging like its dying. Smallies loves free meals. I remember ordering the 2000 - 2001 minnows on BanjoMinnow.com just before my trip to the Boundary waters and i had the best fishing ever up there. throughout the 4 day trip i caught smallies, largemouth, crappies, notherns on three minnows.