Cold weather Bass’N in God’s Country

The same massive front that dropped a ton of water on Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin annoited us up here in the Upper Peninsula. It was closely followed by some extremely cold windy conditions. My good friend Dr. Dave Lamborix of Marshall MI. had wanted to fish some October Bass during the peak color period. Well he got his wish but I knew with 40 degree temps and 20+ mph winds it wouldn’t be easy.

We were targeting Smallies on a beautiful Lake near Republic Michigan called Squaw Lake. The lake is deep and clear, typical Canadian Shield topography. It has Lake and Rainbow trout plus some mega Splake. But over the years some whopper bass have been on the increase here. Especially Smallmouth. The one Dave holding here boldly attacked a jig/craw combo.

Even though the air temps had plumetted to a wind chill in the teens the surface water temps were still near 60. The Laegemouths were lurking amid the many logs and blowdowns, while the Smallies were found along deep boulder edges and drop offs in 10-24′ of water. We rigged up 6’9″ St. Croix ML XFast DropShot rods with 8# Sensation Solar line for working the tubes and jigs. I caught this frisky boy on a tube.

We stuck it out until about 4:30 when Dave became completely chilled…Ironically as we neared the boat landing I had dave pitch his jig/craw next to a fallen tree and BAM! Success on the “last cast” again! Well inspite of the weather we managed to boat about 15 feisty October bass…the whoppers eluded us but it was a very satisfying outing.
This may be the last Bass trip for me as the late Walleye bite nears…but who knows? Maybe there is still a little Indian Summer to come?