Summer is here – what’s working??

grubson wrote:

I see a lot of guys struggle this time of year and for me it’s the best bite of the season.
The biggest mistake I see anglers make on the water is moving too fast and covering too much water. The bass are schooled up right now, in very tight and specific locations. Specifically deep weed patches and hard bottom areas.
You can literally catch a dozen fish from an area the size of a pool table but if you miss that spot while casting through an area you’d assume there is no fish present when in reality they’re all there.
Slow down, be meticulous about combing water, and you’ll get into some of the fastest action of the year.

It is my favorite time of the year to fish. Usually can hammer schools of fish on deep structure but they just wouldn’t bite Saturday.

Friend of mine would fish some of the city lakes at night and did well on large fish, read somewhere that bass bury in slop during the day but all that vegetation uses O2 at night and those fish move out. Could use punch jigs and fish the slop, not my idea of fun.

I got out by myself on Sat. Was on the water by 5:15. The lake I fished gets a fair amount of Please boat traffic once it warms up. Thought it was going to be a great morning. Conditions were ideal. Bite was just so so at the best. Tried several mainlake humps that are normally really good ( and were a week or so ago ) got a few small fish. Checked 2 other main lake humps and same. Decided to try s few points that normally have a good deeper weedline bite. Once again only a few small fish here and there. Was off the water by 8:30 just as some of the pleasure boater traffic started to show up. My struggle for the year continues. We have not been on our normal best lake for a few weeks now ( Due to poor fishing the last few outings ) Going to maybe give it another try one morning this week. I really feel like the bite has to turn on at some point out there. I hope so anyway

The small feeder stream into the Mississippi that I have been fishing is now too shallow. I managed to find a 2 lb smallmouth today, but that was it. I had decent luck the two times I went last week, including catching my largest smallmouth (or bass of any kind) ever. It was in the 5 lb to 6 lb range. I couldn’t take a picture because I haven’t figured out how to hold a fish in one hand and snap a phone camera pic using the other hand. I didn’t want to put it down and de-slime it. There were no grassy areas around for me to lay it down.

I stumbled onto this spot two weeks ago. It was probably good for a few weeks earlier also. I’ll remember it for next year, but there are no guarantees. The spot that was hot for me in 2020 and the first part of the 2021 season has been dead ever since. Last year the water level got very low and it seemed the fish disappeared, never to return, even though the water level was good this June. It’s low again now.

Being a bank fisherman, I have limited access to good spots, and it seems they come and go.

Bob P wrote:

Last year the water level got very low and it seemed the fish disappeared, never to return, even though the water level was good this June. It’s low again now.

The section of river I fish in midsummer for smallmouth was unfishable last season too because it was so low. The worst drought since 1988 will do that. I can recall one other year in 2012 when it was so low that I couldn’t drift it. I could probably wade a couple sections, but I prefer to drift from one point to another and cover more water. Plus the bottom is all rocks so walking in it is pretty tough.

My first trip back there in almost 3 years on Saturday…I didn’t know what to expect. Turned out pretty good though. Water levels back to normal, and maybe slightly higher than normal. Crayfish everywhere too. There’s no shortage of food for them in this river.

On the river today for some brownies. Hair jigs, plastics… most between 14-16, a couple 19’s. 75 degree water and still a bit chocolate colored runoff from the heavy rains up north a few weeks ago.

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FryDog62 wrote:

On the river today for some brownies. Hair jigs, plastics… most between 14-16, a couple 19’s. 75 degree water and still a bit chocolate colored runoff from the heavy rains up north a few weeks ago.

Very nice. River smallmouth fishing is starting to heat up. I’m gonna go on Thursday.

FryDog62 wrote:

On the river today for some brownies. Hair jigs, plastics… most between 14-16, a couple 19’s. 75 degree water and still a bit chocolate colored runoff from the heavy rains up north a few weeks ago.

Nice looking SM. I have to get out on the river here. I only live a few miles from the landing just North of the Sartell dam. There is probably 8-10 miles of decent water North of the landing ( For my boat anyways ) I normally only get out on the river a few times each year. Always manage a few SM but not much for #’s I don’t have much experience fishing rivers for SM so I’m probably wasting far to much time each outing fishing poor water. To me a lot of the river all looks the same ( all looks good ) I seem to catch fish each outing in different places than prior outings. Just seem really hard to pattern. I’m sure if I spent more time out there I’d get better at reading the water and cutting down on as much dead water. Normally its a place I head when I have limited time and the wife wants to jump in. She likes to fish and gets a kick out of looking at all the high $ homes on this section of the river.

The thing about rivers in midsummer for smallmouth is that you don’t need a big boat to do it. I float a smaller river in a 12 foot jon boat. No motor, no electronics. We just float with the current from one access point to the next and steer with paddles. The average depth is less than a foot. The jon boat can float through inches of water. A kayak or canoe would also work.

These rivers are extremely underfished for smallmouth. I rarely see anyone else out there and the fish fight hard. I think they also tend to see less pressure than their lake-dwelling largemouth cousins. Plus, the bite if often best in the heat of summer whereas it can slow down in lakes this time of year. There’s also no recreational boating traffic to deal with.

Fish hold along the shoreline near undercut banks, logs, and in eddies behind boulders. Deeper holes may hold several nice fish. The key is current. If there is only minimal current, there are no fish in the area. Precision casting accuracy is required. Its about the size of a dinner plate. If you cast too far, you get hung up. Too short, and the fish won’t bite. I normally use a topwater or a small shallow crank bait but a follow up plastic like a ned, tube, or wacky rig works on fish that swipe and miss.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FryDog62 wrote:</div>
On the river today for some brownies. Hair jigs, plastics… most between 14-16, a couple 19’s. 75 degree water and still a bit chocolate colored runoff from the heavy rains up north a few weeks ago.

Nice looking SM. I have to get out on the river here. I only live a few miles from the landing just North of the Sartell dam. There is probably 8-10 miles of decent water North of the landing ( For my boat anyways ) I normally only get out on the river a few times each year. Always manage a few SM but not much for #’s I don’t have much experience fishing rivers for SM so I’m probably wasting far to much time each outing fishing poor water. To me a lot of the river all looks the same ( all looks good ) I seem to catch fish each outing in different places than prior outings. Just seem really hard to pattern. I’m sure if I spent more time out there I’d get better at reading the water and cutting down on as much dead water. Normally its a place I head when I have limited time and the wife wants to jump in. She likes to fish and gets a kick out of looking at all the high $ homes on this section of the river.

If you are ever interested, there is a guide who frequents this site by the name of Joe Scegura. Joe is originally from Sartell and does smallmouth trips on the stretch of the Mississippi near Sartell each fall. I have done this trip about a half a dozen times and it is absolutely epic. Joe knows where every rock and hazard is but more importantly knows where all the big fish are. I have taken family members and friends and just about everybody gets a personal best smallmouth on those trips.

Caught a few smallies on a Carolina rig on Blackwater today. My buddy got a few on a weighted wacky worm, too. Deep weed edge.

Another poor outing for me. I’m about ready to cross this lake off the list for the summer. hard to do being its been by FAR the best lake for bigger fish the last few seasons. Everything just feels off out there this year for some reason. We keep checking it thinking that at some point the bite is going to turn on. At this point I have my doubts. Fished Jig worm, Dropshot, Neko rig, and Jig and Pig – Nothing on any of them. I did finally manage a few decent 18″ fish on a Buzzbait fished around matter cover and a few smaller fish under bank cover on a weightless wacky rig. The weed growth is just not there. For some reason the deeper weeds died off earlier than normal last year and have never returned. I don’t think there is any spraying going on so I have no idea what the issue is. Last Year I thought the weed die off was due to the low water and extreme High water temps. Maybe it will take a few years to recover from that. I think it time to start trying a few new lakes and see if I can find a new Favorite lake.

fishthumper wrote:

I did finally manage a few decent 18″ fish on a Buzzbait

Nothing wrong with that! An 18 inch bass is definitely bigger than average and catching them on a buzz bait is awesome.

gimruis wrote:

Nothing wrong with that! An 18 inch bass is definitely bigger than average and catching them on a buzz bait is awesome.

On most any other body of water a few 18″ fish would be a good day. But after the last 2 summers on this lake where a 18″ hardly would have gotten noticed – Its still seems like a letdown. You are correct about the buzzbait bit though. That was fun. I also failed to hook up on several other big blowups on the buzzbait. I wasted far to much time trying to find fish where I wanted to find them. By the time I tied on the buzsbait the topwater activity around me was dying off. If I make it back out to this lake early again I’m going to come ready with a Buzzbait and frog tied on and start fishing them both right away.

fishthumper wrote:

I wasted far to much time trying to find fish where I wanted to find them.

This statement sums up our league night last Thursday to a T! I also agree with your other statement about things just being off this year. Out of 7 weeks of league to date, fishing different lakes each week, only one has had a bite similar to the last few years. And we fish each lake at basically the same time each summer. We’ve caught fish, but we’ve had to adjust much more than in the past. Last week we fished a lake that has a nice 13′ weedline and typically pretty good clarity. Weeds were there, but the clarity was not. Most fish in the past came on dropshot or jigworm fished on the deeper edges. We struggled last week only to find out that the vast majority of fish came in less than 3′ on either wacky rigs or chatterbaits. Looking forward to fishing Sugar tomorrow night. Which, fingers crossed, is usually a good deep finesse bite. But, if not, we’ll know to switch things up sooner.

Joe – is this the Sugar near Annandale? If so you are correct it’s usually a good deep bite out there. I had a few good outing out there last summer. Not much for size but some great #’s and a added bonus at a Muskie as well. Good luck tomorrow !!!

fishthumper wrote:

Joe – is this the Sugar near Annandale? If so you are correct it’s usually a good deep bite out there. I had a few good outing out there last summer. Not much for size but some great #’s and a added bonus at a Muskie as well. Good luck tomorrow !!!

Yes, by Annandale.

Joe Jarl wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
Joe – is this the Sugar near Annandale? If so you are correct it’s usually a good deep bite out there. I had a few good outing out there last summer. Not much for size but some great #’s and a added bonus at a Muskie as well. Good luck tomorrow !!!

Yes, by Annandale.

Will be curious how you did Joe. A friend and I fished a lake near Annandale hard today – sunrise til Noon and overall it was a tough bite. We junk fished and threw everything at them, no real pattern. A few 16-17’s and one 18 incher, but not many fish after 5+ hours of fishing. Must be the full moon ~

I went back to the river today and caught 11 smallmouth, 2 pike, and a walleye. They weren’t as aggressive today as last time. Most fish came on a small dark colored tube. Nothing real big.

I was there this morning! Deep, finesse, #s yes x3. When you get a 3lber out there it is exciting, well and you are using your finesse rod so that is part of it. They did not want my spinner or topwater. I had one solid bite shallow but it could have been anything. Good Luck.

Was on Sugar this morning not the river.

tim hurley wrote:

I was there this morning! Deep, finesse, #s yes x3. When you get a 3lber out there it is exciting, well and you are using your finesse rod so that is part of it. They did not want my spinner or topwater. I had one solid bite shallow but it could have been anything. Good Luck.

A 15 incher feels like a giant in the current. Those things fight twice as much as their lake cousins.

I’m hoping to rebound on Waconia next weekend. I’ve never fished it, but have heard good things and it sounds like it fishes a little similar to White Bear as in good off shore bite. Some big fish in there too. Sure hope the bite gets better by then. I’ll be on White Bear in the morning too. Gotta keep getting more comfortable with that damn drop shot.

The bite was very good last night. I’ll preface this by saying our league is multi-species. 10pts each for bass, double points for over 20″, minimum 13″. We pulled up on our mid lake hump and both of us hooked up with unders on the first cast. One on jig worm and one on drop shot in about 15fow on the weed edge. Proceeded to weed through several small ones, but had our 6 keepers in about 20 minutes. Largest was 17″, which is a decent bass out there like Hurley said. Think I went through 5 senkos in that time. Then switched to targeting pike with spinner baits and cranks. Caught several unders and never did catch one over our minimum 20″. While throwing spinnerbaits and cranks over the weeds in 5-15fow, we continued catching bass on those as well. Ended the night with our 6 bass and 2 sunfish over 8″ for 64pts, which tied with 3 other boats.

Should add, we caught bass on dropshot, jigworm, ned, swim jig, spinnerbait, DT10’s, and husky jerks in depths from 5′ out to 20′.

Much better weekend. Friday got 10 bass and 1 pike got very hot fast early morning about 11 am it died for me. Most fish were near but not on the weed line pulled most off the tops of weeds with a jig and pig (craw). Saturday same lake bass on deep weed lines where deep drop offs were 8 FOW going to 25 FOW within 20-30 feet. Used Ned head jig and a mixture of Berkley chigger craws and Rage craws I prefer the Rage but tried to use up my chigger craws. Fished it like a Ned but before I reeled it back in I would violently pop the jig 1 or 2 times this sealed the deal. Got just under 15 bass. Today My bride was with on a shallow weedy flat dumping into deep basin. We threw Ned head jigs on the edge of weeds and than let them tumble down. Same lake different location mid day had 2 very nice small mouth between the 2 of us just shy of 30 bass. 4 were 20 inchers nice fish I think. They definitely seem to be staging better on the weed edges. Finally pulled out of my slump. Just thought I would ask does any one fish lake John near Annandale? You can PM if you would like all I want to know is can you get your boat out from the landing with the weeds? Many years ago I went and had a bad time my motor kept clogging up and never got out far the bride does not want to go back but it seems like a good bass lake to try. Again I want nothing more than to know if it’s a fishable lake or just a massive weed bed to navigate. Thanks everyone

Kinda getting fixated on the GOAT Toadz topwater bite, but it’s really working on pads, and that light green scum on the windward side of the lake. Boom!

I was finally able to have a decent outing on Sat. Hit a lake really early to avoid the heat and the pleasure boat traffic. I got to the lake by 5:15 and there was already 1 bass boat landed, another landing, and another one in the lot. I was a little worried there was some type of a tourney or league outing going on. This lake seems to get plenty of both. Asked the guy landing his boat and he said not that he was aware of. Those 3 boats ended up being the only boats to land from the time I landed till I left. I had a buddy who decided to jump in with me. He’s not done much targeted bass fishing and wanted me to show him a few things about fishing deep weed edges. We pulled up to the first spot and I caught a fish on the 1st cast. It ended up that the outside weedline bite was on fire everyplace we fished. Caught a ton of fish, Mostly on a dropshot and a Neko rig. My buddy mixed in a jigworm and also did fairly well on that. With the temp and clear sky I kind of figured the weedline bite would die as the sun got a little higher and it did. Normally on this lake the weedline is out to 13-14 Ft but right now it was only in the 10-12 Ft range. As the sun got higher the fish got tighter and tighter to the weed edge. Early we were able to catch fish 20-30 Ft from the edge. Towards the end ( 10:00 ) you had to have the lure within a few feet of the edge. I’m sure we could have switched to a texas rig or a jig and caught more fish as they tucked into the weededge but we had enough fun and the pleasure boater were just starting to show up. Overall a fun outing. Lots of fish with a few decent ones mixed in. Nothing over 20 but a few in the 18-19″ range. I’m really starting to like and get the hand of fishing that Neko rig.

I managed to meet up and fish with Frydog this morning. We decided on a local lake here that I’ve fished a few times and that Frydog had heard a few things about. on my previous outings at this lake I had limited success on #’s of fish but managed a few really nice ones. We both thought this may be a great lake to get into a good lilypad bite. Frydog started with a frog and I fished the edges and just inside the pads with a Jig. It didnt’t take long to realize this was not going to be the pattern we had hoped it would. Ended up just covering ground while junk fishing. Ended up catching a good # of fish in the 16-18″ range ( More than I expected ) and a few better quality fish over 18″ ( Less than I had hoped ) Mostly on various reaction type baits. Overall a fun morning of fishing. Frydog did a excellent job of keeping us in the zone to continue to catch fish even as the winds picked up a little. I was able to see both Garmin Livescope and hummingbird Mega 360 in action. Thanks frydog for the lesson in how to read both of them as well as a chance to jump in and fish with you. Here is a picture of a few of our better fish for the day.

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It was a fun morning sharing a boat with thumper. No surprise he catches his share of big fish. He’s got a good approach and knows how to look for whatever pattern works any given day.

The gale force winds this week have really stirred things up. Could be awhile yet for the fish to re-position again in their usual places. Hence the junk fishing today…

Thumper knows how to work a swim jig for sure!