This past weekend on the upper miss had brought a dose of humble pie my way as I had anticipated a strong aggressive bite from the smallies that I have been chasing all summer long. Instead, we got faced with a nasty cold front that made us work for every fish that made its way to the boat. The good news about this however is that the fish have themselves stacked in very tight schools on the river right now and makes for some quality finesse fishing!
Saturday I was joined by John Duhon and his nephew Joe. We got started right away in the morning hitting a milk route of high percentage spots that been very active in the last several weeks for me. After a few spots and no fish, I figured the weather had these fish into a bit of a negative mood and decided we best slow down and methodically work slow and try to coax these fish into biting. After a handful of experimental casts with various finesse techniques we finally connected with what the smallies were looking for. 4” YUM Dingers rigged on a 1/0 Gammy hook with a small split shot about 18” up from the Dinger. With a fairly strong breeze up against us, feeling these light bites was extremely difficult but our persistence paid off well for us. By days end we put in a solid day of a respectable days catches of about 25 fish and a couple 20” fish taking top honors. The bite was surely not hot and heavy, but the rewards of some hard work surely made the day enjoyable. Thanks John and Joe and I look forward to fishing with you guys someday in the future!
Sunday morning I was joined by Rod Wright and his son Adam of Newton, Iowa. At sunrise, we were once again greeted with overcast skies, stiff winds and some cool morning temps to give us a shove off for the morning. Upon Saturdays results, I decided to start out the day finessing right out of the bat. Our first spot Rod got busy with a monster smallie that drilled a dead stick 4”cotton candy YUM Dinger. This fish hit the tape at 20-1/2” long and heavy. (Little did we know that this particular fish would take top honors for the day). Congrats Rod on a nice smallie! Rod, Adam and myself proceeded to visit about a dozen of my true honey holes for this time of year. Most every spot we stopped at we boated fish, however the action was still not hot and heavy, the bite was a bit more consistent than the day prior. A couple times throughout the day we decided to try to use the stiff winds to our advantage and fish aggressively on the windward shorelines, but the smallies wanted nothing to do with any faster horizontal presentations. Once again by days end we put together a strong day that provided each one of us with several nice big smallies to hold for a few quick pictures before we put them back in the water. Thanks again guys for spending the day in the boat with me! I look forward to the next time we can share a boat again.
Some of the structures that has been producing best for me the last several weeks have been sand and gravel areas adjacent to deeper water and some kind of vegetation. These “edges” have been prime spots for these fish to stack up on. When we are having a tough time locating them shallow, these fish seem to simply slip off the break a bit and hold down a bit deeper. This past weekend our best depths were considerably deeper of 7-13 feet of water being best in these above mentioned areas. I suspect these fish will hold here for the remainder of the fall and be ready to roll again with a couple days of some stable weather. Now is the time to be on the water for these beautiful creatures!
See you on the water.
Look for more pics to follow!
Those are some absolutely beautiful fish Steve!
Good job on chasing them down and getting some to go!
Here is Joe with a nice deep water smallie.
Those are some nice looking fish Steve
Great report during a tough cold front.
Here is a fish that hit my Yum dinger while I was talking to my wife about the tornado that went through an area close to our house. I asked her “Can yo uhang on a minute while a snap a picture of this fish?”.
Another..
one more for now.
Absolutely beautiful early fall fish Steve.
Steve,great report,awesome looking smallies.Dumb question,but do you ever run into largemouth in these areas? Or is it just smallies? I also see the Hi-Vis solar,do you do a lot of line watching?
I look forward to the day when I can get up there and fish with you.
Ryan Hale
Thank you for reminding me. But so far this fall I have caught more largemouth in smallie spots than I can ever remember. As of late we have been catching about a 5-6 LM a day. As soem may not know is overall the largemouth bass population up here is fair up here compared to some of the pools in southern Minnesota. But the last several years the largemouth bass have blossomed somewhat and they are making a significant dent in there population race. I think its great to see…because they are all fun to catch!
The Hi-Vis monos are nice for line watching on those overcast and misty days. The smallies are not skittish of it at all. You certainly do not need to have it, but its nice to have in certain situations. I have it rigged on a handful of rods in the boat each day.
See you this weekend Ryan!
A couple more pics….
This last one I think is precious.
Its my 4 yr old son James, 2 yr old daughter Megan and 9 yr old yellow lab Bailey in the background all fishing for a smallie out of the livewell.
Wow!
Those are some nice looking smallies.
Nice report Steve!
JWB
Great report and pictures Steve!! Unbelievable fish!! Hey, how long do you expect the good bite to stay going? I might be heading up again in the next few weeks, is it going to be worth-while?
Luke,
This bite will last until about middle to the third week in October or later if mother nature decides to give us a prolonged period of moderate weather. For me, when the water temps reach that 40 degree range, the bite usually slows down to a hault.
Is it worthwhile? ABsolutely. I think the best is here now and will be for the next 4 weeks for sure. Give me a hollar if and when you come on up!
I will be sure to do that DZ!
Great fish Steve, Having a little luck up here too. Not quite up to par with your boat but still catching them. Nice to see the pics. If you get the urge to fish up here without dragging the boat with look me up. Nice report. Have you noticed more lighter colored fish this time of year? Randy
Randy,
We have been meaning to hook up all summer long. We need to do that soon. I will let you know as soon as I get a free day in the near future.
Light colored fish? Yeah, I know what you are saying. Typically for me the further we get into October the more light colored they seem to get from my experience. I see more fish relate to the sand as the water gets colder and colder and the water clarity gets clearer and clearer. This could be partly the reason these fish turn lighter as well as many fish will hold just a tad deeper when they become inactive.
Have you tangled into any muskies lately up your way?
Steve, Just let me know! As far as muskies, just two dinks boated this year. I’m quite sure that I had seen one about 35″ about a month ago. A few w-ends ago I took my bro-inlaw he had what we thought was a snag, as I motored up to it his rod got a few head shakes and the line was instantly cut clean, big pike or muskie I would guess??? Would of loved to see a guy that fishes twice a year to have hooked up but that’s usually how it goes. I’ll pm you my # if you get any time to get up here. Later,Randy
Steve,
Great Report,
and as usual,
Great Looking Smallies….
Jack..
Congrats..