On Wednesday the winds were light enough to fish Lake Pepin in a small boat. My bass boat has been in the shop for service so I fished out of my 14’ flat bottom until Thursday. The morning started slow but in the afternoon the bite got started. What was interesting is the difference in the techniques that worked. Smallmouth are notorious for being very selective feeders. Seems like they are either looking down for crawfish or looking up for pelagic bait fish. If you are fishing the wrong technique for their mood, your chance for success is very slim. My go-to technique to find the smallmouth is to swim a grub or Northland Mimic Minnow high in the water column. After an hour of with little success it was clear the feeding mode was on the bottom. I switched to a melon colored Yum Mega Tube and started catching fish in about 6 feet of water.
Once the water temperature hits the 50’s a suspending jerkbait can really get the smallmouth going. Even though they were not chasing shad imitation lures they can be teased into hitting an erratic retrieve. The jerk-jerk-pause did the trick. The fish in the picture and about 15 more hit a Suspending Super Rouge. My experience this time of year is the bigger the bait the greater the success. The 5” Super Rouge will out fish the 4” standard Rouge 2 to 1. The Rouge in the picture was last seen in the jaws of a 30” plus northern a few minutes later. The final score, northerns 2 (jerkbaits)…fisherman 0
All in all it was an OK day. I caught somewhere around 20 smallmouth with the best fish about 17 inches. Both fishing a tube on the bottom and working a suspending jerkbait produced fish. As the water temperature continues to drop, more fish will migrate to the lake to winter. From what I’m seeing right now many of the fish are still in the current, in the river. The movement is dependent on the weather so the next major cold snap might start the migration. You don’t want to wish for bad weather but I’m kind of hoping for a cold weather to get the fish up to the lake. The picture doesn’t do justice but it’s hard to keep your eyes on the line with the fall colors right now.
Nice report John!
Any color working better on the Rogues than others? How long of pauses were you having the most luck with? Being a part time smallie fisherman, I don’t often get a chance to experience the cold water bite due to other
committments….so dumb it up for me!
How deep of water were you working the cranks over?
Steve,
Thanks, The actual body color doesn’t seem to make as much difference as the belly color. Smithwick paints the super Rouges with white or orange bellies. I try to have a stock of both in my box. This fall the white bellies have worked better but that can change. The activity level of the fish dictates the length of the pause. If they are actively feeding a second or so is all that is needed. If they are tentative a pause that’s long enough to drive the fish and fisherman crazy (10-15 seconds) may be required. If I know I’m in a fishy area the entire retrieve may take several minutes.