The lipless crankbait bite continues on the bay. Yesterday despite the continually changing weather including lightning which forced us off the water the smallmouth fishing was excellent. I want to thank Mike Scheer and his friend Gary for fishing with me yesterday. Mike has been fishing with me for about 4 years now and this was Gary’s second day of fishing ever. He quickly found out how much fun catching smallies on Rattlin Raps was and caught a beautiful 26 ” steelhead which battled him for more than 15 min. Below are pictures of Gary’s first ever smallie and the two biggest fish we caught on the day. Hot colors were Baby bass and shad. We also did well on Stanley Big T spinnerbaits. The fish were up in 5 to 10 ft of water over slabwood and feeding in large schools of baitfish. Ithink if the lake wouldve gone flat calm we may even of had a topwater bite. I like to fish live bait as well as the next guy but my clients really enjoyed casting artificials all day with great results. Looks like a nice week of weather ahead of us so the smallmouths should continue on this shallow water pattern. Enjoy these warm fall weekends!
Chris Beeksma Get Bit Guide Service
Chris,
Thanks for the excellent report! How long does your smallmouth bite go into the fall?
John
John, the fall smallie bite usually continues into the 2nd wk of Nov. of course depending on the weather. We are having a pretty stable weather pattern now with above normal temps so will keep these fish active. In fact, the water temp yesterday (Sun) was 3 deg higher than Fri. We caught 34 smallies 17 to 21 inches yesterday and added 18 and 27 inch bonus walleyes. Rattlin Raps and gold jigging spoons were the ticket.
Chris