It’s still Summer but usually things start to change late August into Sept.
Today was a good day, a handful of 18-21 inchers. Largest 5.86 lbs.
What worked? A new Neko/Shaky worm I’ve been experimenting with and skipping weightless plastics under docks.
What didn’t? Jigs in/near pads. Frogs..
Water temps 79 degrees.
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Over the weekend it was tough in the tourney I was in. Dock bite was on fire but lots of shorts. After throwing the kitchen sink at them we finally found an isolated weed patch about 20×20 in 10-12 fow. With the weather being blue skies and no wind we were throwing all kinds of finesse at them with no luck. My partner finally switched to a KVD 2.5 squarebill and started picking off fish. I put on a chatterbait and started picking off some as well. Helped us win the tourney. Definitely a surprise to see them want the moving bait with those conditions.
So were you throwing the 2.5 and Chatterbait hitting the perimeter of the isolated weed patch? I hit one of those yesterday that I’ve had luck with before and flipped it without a bite. I wouldn’t have thought to hit the edges with a crank but maybe that would have worked.?
So were you throwing the 2.5 and Chatterbait hitting the perimeter of the isolated weed patch? I hit one of those yesterday that I’ve had luck with before and flipped it without a bite. I wouldn’t have thought to hit the edges with a crank but maybe that would have worked.?
We were running it through the tops of the weeds. Changing up boat positioning as well to run the bait in different directions over the patch as well. I should have mentioned the tops of the weeds were still 5-10 ft below the surface.
8/28 report: A lot of times a shaky head can work after a storm/front… however this morning an hour after the storm, the shaky didn’t work when other things did.
Chatterbait didn’t do much either, but I expect as the temps start to drop and fish move to flats/mid-depths they will work very well.
Skipping docks as the sun rose higher did work, especially around any aerator system… sometimes a forgotten opportunity when it gets ugly out..
79 degree water temps west metro.
Don’t know that it shows any dramatic trend, but interesting that water temps on a local river yesterday were 66 and on a lake a only few miles away was 76 degrees. That’ll force you to adapt!
Skipping docks as the sun rose higher did work, especially around any aerator system… sometimes a forgotten opportunity when it gets ugly out..
It still worked for me last weekend. I started around 7am and most of the area I was fishing was covered in shade so I started with a faster moving lure and caught a few fish. By 8:30am, all that shade was gone so I had to target docks and there were still fish present. My Father even caught a couple burning a green spinnerbait past the corners of docks too. Finished with 16 bass and 1 pike in about 4 hours. Biggest bass was 17 inches. Water temp was mid 70’s.
With a full moon this week and the wild swing in temperatures, I don’t know what to expect next time out.
Haven’t been on the boat in a week…. 
Hoping to get out Monday morning for some topwater and jig action. Chatterbait/cranking time is coming up for me with the cool down so I’m looking forward to power fishing again.
Upper Mississippi is dirty and current is swift. Smallies are hitting cranks.
Thanks S, what pool?
North of Brainerd
Spinnerbaits and cranks were not working today the fish are mixed up with this weather I think 2 different lakes very slow marked most shallow but not many takers temps 68-76 degrees.
Thanks S
Minnetonka yesterday – averaged 71 degree water. Some topwater early worked, but fish not really on flats yet… so Chatterbaits, swim jigs were a dud. Drop-shot, Ned just got pecked to death by gills. Some fish setting up under docks as the day went on but not like last week.
Hadn’t been on Tonka in 5 years even though it’s 10 minutes from my house… can’t see going back when so many other lakes have as good or better quality fish and not all the other stuff to put up with..
The fishing in my area has made a real change in the last week. There are still a few fish on the deeper weedline but not near as many. Got a few on buzzbaits and spinnerbaits on shallow flats but the #’s are not there yet either. I think they are in transition right now. If it’s like most falls the bite will be a little slow for the next week or two.it works well for me as I am headed up north the next two weekends to chase some panfish.after that the fall bite should be in full swing.
Frydog thanks for the update made me feel better I to did not do so well as my last post said. They are getting fussy I did not find any on the deep weed edge. Bass jig with a trailer was the best but for 2 fish doesn’t really make a pattern 
I caught 18 largemouth on Friday from 7-11pm. The best action was after the sun had fully gone down and all the other boats had left. 17-18 inchers were the biggest I caught (other than a walleye) using nothing but a black spinner bait. Water temp 74
Love my T-1 black spinner with the yellow colorodo blade-Bass, Pike , walleye, catfish, crappie, all on that thing.
Was out yesterday and the fish were spread out and seemed like they didn’t want to eat anything. Marked bass down at 20 ft and caught them up in as little as a foot. Only thing I could get them to eat was a Okie Craw (orange/brown) Rage bug on docks. Windy as all hell too so off shore was pretty tough.
tough for me yesterday, on what has been a reliable lake. Keeps it interesting.
Honestly, I’m looking forward to the number of people fishing to go down now that we’re past Labor Day. Great that people are outside doing something, but the additional pressure on the lakes this year has really been apparent at times. Can only imagine what it’s like in some of the other states with less than 10,000 lakes!
Fished in the cold on Labor Day the bass were starting to move shallow right on the reed beds got 6 nice bass and a pike, wife was cold so we left but for the conditions pretty happy all on spinnerbaits with a long worm tail.
Fished in the cold on Labor Day the bass were starting to move shallow right on the reed beds got 6 nice bass and a pike, wife was cold so we left but for the conditions pretty happy all on spinnerbaits with a long worm tail.
Be sure to throw a Buzzbait along with the spinnerbait. I often do as well and sometimes better on the buzzbait than the spinnerbait. Exciting way to catch them as well. Some of my biggest fish of the season come on Buzzbaits in the fall.
Saturday we targeted smallies on the Mississippi up by St. Cloud. First time we have specifically targeted smallies and the first time fishing this portion of the river. All in all a great day, we caught somewhere around 40-50 in 6 hours, a lot of that time was figuring out what we were doing. After that is was pretty much chaos for two hours!
A lot of things worked but a ned rig crawz was the clear favorite. Caught the biggest (17.5″) on a white chatterbait. Also caught them on jointed shad raps, rip stop jerk bait, jig with craw plastic, jig/crawler, jig/gulp. Nothing on topwater, didn’t get around to trying a spinner bait or rippin rap. Had bites but didn’t hook up on soft plastic jerk baits, senko style bait, neko rig.
Was an absolute blast, saw 2 other boats all day and I can’t wait to do it again.
Was an absolute blast, saw 2 other boats all day and I can’t wait to do it again.
Nice, rivers are so under fished here. Smallmouth fishing on them is really quite good with a lot less pressure too.
Thanks for the advice Fishthumper This cool down should really get things going the lake I was on was 70 degrees on Sunday by Monday 65 degrees
I’ll be going up to Monti one morning next week. Have to pick up a Clam hub and am looking forward to shorefishing my favorite spot up there. Hoping to get out real early for some topwater action.
From Shore (9/10 and 9/11) :
The only thing working for me now are small crankbaits.
My “go to” Texas Rigged worm got no interest at all. I fished 3 different kinds of worms both unweighted and slightly weighted (#B, #BB, #3/0). I gave the T Rig worms a long try both days. Also no interest in spinnerbaits, spinners and spoons. Lesser tries with these.
Unfortunately my hook-up to catch rate on small crankbaits is pretty low. As I said in a previous post, I tend to lose them close to shore when trying to get them in over the rocks. I can see why it’s happening by looking at the ones I landed. I see how little bite the small #6 trebles get into the mouth.
SLow weekend for me. Friday was the best day got 6 bass and 2 nice pike on spinnerbaits water temp 63 degrees. Went to to 2 different lakes on Sat/Sun very slow had a total of 4 fish for 9 hours of fishing the water temp cooled to 62 degrees. they are in the weeds on the edges but very hard to get going. Cranks worked but so many short strikers.
It was OK for me. It was kind of a drizzly, overcast morning and gradually cleared out by noon. I caught all the fish on moving lures, both pike and bass. I actually caught two of the bigger pike I’ve caught all season too, both 32-33 inches and healthy specimens. The water temperature dropped 10 degrees in a week. It was 74 last week and 64 on Friday. Looks like a warm up for a few days and then some more cooler weather coming.
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