With October upon us now it means a few things the arrival of Autumn,cooler air temps,dropping water temps along with heavily feeding Smallmouth Bass. With dropping water temps the Bass will begin to vacate their summer haunts and begin to move close to areas that they will winter over.
Areas that I will look for these fish are in areas that are very close to deep water.Depending on the area that I am fishing the fish can be as shallow as 15 FOW to depths as deep as 35 FOW. When targeting shallow fish a number of presentations can be used such as spinner baits along with tube jigs.
When targeting fish in deeper water such as depths of 20 FOW or greater you are limited to your presentations this is where I run succer minnows or red tail chubs on Lindy Rigs. The effectiveness of these live bait rigs are uncomparable this time of year to most other presentations including being able to keep baits in the strike zone at all times.
My rigs consist of 10lb mono main line with a walking sinker small bead to a barrel swivel which has a two to three foot fluorocarbon leader of 12 lb test tied to a 1/0 circle hook. When using circle hooks it is very important to remember not to set the hook. When a bite is detected give the fish a second or two to take the bait and turn away followed by just coming tight with the line and allowing the hook to slide into the fishes lip. Most of your fish will be hooked in the corner of the mouth or in the lip as apposed to the fish being hooked to deep. Remember Fall is a prime time to take advantage of some fantastic fishing opportunities so get out and enjoy some cool fall weather as opposed to the very hot summer we all had.
Paul Delaney
Lateeyessportfishing.com
(920) 421-0896
Those fish are some of the most incredable smallies I’ve ever seen, 6 too 8 lbs?…Unreal smallies!
That looks like a BLAST
Some of the most impressive smally photos I’ve ever seen. Nicely done!
The smallie pics in the recent report are 19 to 21 inch fish I did not weigh the fish but they are 4 to 5lb fish but very healthy and thick.
Paul Delaney
lateeyessportfishing.com
4 and 5lb. fish is close to 8lb isn’t it? Nice and thick anyway you look at it.
Great fish Dan,
I’ll be heading up to Mille Lacs for my annual Fall runs soon.
Best last Oct was 22″; many 19’s and 20’s.
Sure IS a fun time.
Jack
Paul, are you picking up many walleyes on the lindy rigs yet?
Randy
No Walleyes as of yet but surprisingly we dont get many walleyes on the live bait rigs but when we do they are very nice size fish 8 to 10lb fish which are not uncommon for our area.
Paul Delaney
lateeyessportfishing.com
Paul, that was how last fall went for us on the deeper ledges/reefs fishing smallies in late Oct. Not a lot in the way of numbers, but when we hooked up on eyes, they weren’t dinks! 4″ gobies were our go-to on a Lindy rig.
Wow, great looking SM Bass!! I bet you had a blast