Darren was to accompany me to a local lake in pursuit of jumbo fall smallies today. He had experienced these fat, fall footballs before and was looking foreword to getting into more of them. As luck would have it for the end of November, the air temps were to reach into the 50’s with sunshine and no wind. Water temps were almost 50 degrees and climb throughout the day. Within the first 5 minutes, there were a couple landed and a few others lost. We moved all around trying to locate a mother load of bass and caught a few every where we went. Bass of 3 to 5 pounds were the norm and an occasional walleye as well. The best areas were located on rock piles with some weeds adjacent. Depths of 4 feet to 30 feet held fish with the better areas once again being 14 to 20 feet deep. Tubes were also the lure of choice as these fish were feeding on crawfish as well as minnows. Certain areas held better fish and larger concentrations but by making long casts and covering water, fish were caught all over. There were no real giants today, but 50 or more bass fell victim to the tubes with the largest ones going just over 5 pounds. All in all a great day with unbelievable weather for this time of the year.

I thought I would try again today to locate the mother load of smalies and decided to hit the lake with my brother. He hadn’t fished with me since early in the season and had never before been out this late in the year for smallies. The day was quite similar to yesterday except for the lack of sunshine. Instead, we had overcast skies throughout the entire day. I decided to start in the area that produced the best fish late in the afternoon yesterday and gave Mike first crack at the spot. I had told him that he would hook up on his first cast and obviously had forgotten who I was dealing with. It took him several casts to finally get bit and of course, he lost that one. Eventually, he locked up and landed a real nice one around four pounds. I didn’t even put it in the live well as I was sure there would be plenty more much larger to follow. The fishing was a little slow to get started as we only landed around 10 or so in this area and I moved on. Just like yesterday, there didn’t seem to be too many concentrations and we had to cover water to get bit. Some of the hits were so light that they were almost impossible to detect. It almost felt like there was weeds on the jigs as they just picked up the bait and held on. Fortunately, not all the fish were acting this way and others were easier to detect. A few fish came from as shallow as 6 to 10 feet of water and others were in the usual areas of 14 to 20 feet. We even caught a couple that were closer to 30 feet deep as we covered all the usual holding areas, looking for bigger & better. Mike managed to hook into what I thought was a real giant, only to find out that it was a Northern Pike just under 10 pounds. There were plenty more smallmouth hooked and landed as we neared the end of the day. I decided to make one more stop on the spot we began on and fished it for about 30 minutes more. Unfortunately there were only a few hits in that time and only 3 fish landed. I did manage to bring one aboard that weighed in at just under 5 pounds and my brother caught a nice one on his last cast too. Overall a pretty good day with about 30 fish landed in a five hour period once again. This fishing is definitely not over yet as I will be back several more times before the temperatures drop so low that it becomes an impossibility. It looks like this year I will be fishing into December, with all the mild weather we have had lately!!

After a few days of successful Muskie fishing, I was back on the water today with my wife Christiane for more smallie action. The weather looked great for this trip and I knew it would be her last chance for the season to tackle some feisty smallmouth. There was little to no wind present and the sun was out making for a pleasant day of fishing. Water temps were 45 degrees and the air temps went to about the same as we took advantage of this spectacular, fall day. On my first cast I was tight to a smaller than usual bass of around 2.5 pounds and I thought we were in for an amazing day of fishing. As a rule, it’s bad luck to catch a fish on your first cast and this was to be no different! It was quite a while before we got a second bite and it was definitely a tough one as we covered plenty of water looking for the mother load. Unfortunately, every time we got into one, it was just that. Every place we hooked up only produced a few fish and we continued looking once again. There were several decent smallmouith caught, but no giants as of yet until we finally found the right area at the end of the day. These fish were situated on a drop off and mostly holding in 14 to 20 feet of water as we constantly hooked into big smallies for over an hour. Right at the end of the day, Christiane finally got the hooks into a real giant and managed to land one of 5.5 pounds. This was a great way to end her season as the last time she was out was in August. Way too long!! Several photos of the live well fish and we were off for the day. All in all about 25 bass were caught in about a five hour period. Not the best day, but a great one nevertheless!!

All I have to say is « Holy Cow » when it comes to the fall smallmouth bass! Just when I thought it might be slowing down a bit, we have one of the best days ever for absolute giants! I fished with Mike & Mark again today on a lake that just keeps getting better, every time we’re out. The weather wasn’t the best with overcast skies and a high of 38 degrees, but the fishing was on fire. With water temps cooling a bit overnight now, the shallower water has slowed down, but the mid & deep has improved. Winds were from the W/SW at 10 to 20 and the water temps were around 45 degrees throughout. I can’t remember just how many 4.5 to 5.5 pound smallies were caught & released, but it was plenty. Every where we fished, it produced just giants! Tubes were still the lures of choice as both Mark & Mike loaded the livewells so full with these pigs, that we started throwing back anything that seemed under 5 pounds by the afternoon. Whoever thinks that when the water gets cold, smallmouth don’t fight should experience some of this action. Most of the fish hooked, jumped between 2 & 6 times and had no intention of coming in quietly. As one of my clients from this season said, « They All Come In Ass Backwards. » All I can say is unbelievable! We actually lost count with all of these footballs we were catching, but the consensus was that there were at least 50 or 60 or more of these smallies actually landed. Who knows how many we lost as well! This has to be experienced to be believed!!!

I was back on the water once more with Darren today. We hit another local lake for smallies and on his first cast, a 4 to 5 pounder was on! Unfortunately for him, she went airborne and threw the tube right back in his face. « Oh well, that’s a good sign when the first cast is locked up », I said! With the weather looking pretty good once again, I knew we were in for a great day. The air temps were only 37 degrees when we arrived, and went as high as 42 by days end. Fortunately, the water temps were 48.5 and the winds were 5 to 10 knots from the west making for a comfortable day. With the exception of the first 15 minutes in the sun, the rest of the day we were in the clouds. This was nothing new as there have been about 5 days in the last 6 weeks that actually had sun! Plenty of smallmouth were attacking the jigs soon afterwards and some of them actually came aboard. We decided that it would take at least 4.5 pounds to make it to the livewell and just threw everything else back, immediately. The last few trips saw 4 pounders hand over fist and multiple photo shoots. The first smallie to make the cut was a five pound fish and the games began! For the next few hours there were many close calls, but we practiced restraint, letting anything that resembled 4 pounds go. The fishing wasn’t fast and furious, but there were a few areas that produced multiple hook ups on almost every cast. One place actually had a fish pretty much every cast for almost 15 minutes! Darren got into one area that produced about a dozen hook ups but only 4 landed. These fish were like rockets as they charged the boat as soon as they were hooked making it difficult to keep them on. Plenty of them got off as soon as they went airborne while doing « Mach 1 » and were just frustrating. One of the last spots of the day seemed like there was nothing you could do wrong. A drop off on the edge of a flat that was situated in pretty heavy current had many fish just stacked up in one area. By actually throwing the jig down current and doing nothing, the fish would pick it up on the fall. The hits were like freight trains as they practically hooked themselves! Unfortunately, we hit this area about 45 minutes before dark and had to leave too soon! I will be back!!! All in all a good day with 50 or more smallies caught and plenty of others either lost or just missed all together! Most of the fish were above 3.5 pounds with plenty of mid fours as well. There were at least two of the smallmouth over 5 pounds and I think we threw a couple back before the pics that were in the same calibre too!! I love the fall fishing!!