The bite right now on the Upper Mississippi River has been overall a little slow with all the rainy days we had…..until the sun finally came out on Sunday and the smallies turned around and put the feedbag on almost immediately. After 8 straight smallie trips of nothing but drizzle and wind, I am not sure who was more excited to see the sunshine, me or the smallies. Either way, it was a blessing to finally dry out! This weekend marks the first time I have allowed live bait into my boat for smallies for at least 6 years. After all the cold drizzly days we have had, the smallies were there you just had to really work hard to get bites with plastics. Dig out a feisty 6”-7” chub minnow and you had a fish on the first or second cast with that minnow. Just goes to show that smallies can be awfully naïve this time of year but also be VERY selective at what they eat.
This past Saturday fellow IDA staffer Ryan Hale and his 12 yr old son Austin made the 4 hour trip from Iowa to hop in with me for the day. Unfortunately it was yet another wet and rainy day. The smallies were there to be caught, but were in a very neutral to negative mood and a lot of coaxing was involved to get these fish to bite. As I mentioned earlier this marks the first time in many years where I have brought minnows along in the boat (I have always considered it to be cheating!:)). Throughout the day on Saturday after we gave each spot a thorough test with the plastics, I dug out a big minnow just to se what happens….Bingo! Surprisingly enough the minnow lasted about 20 seconds before a smallie absolutely smacked it and started to run with it from his buddies. Being a die hard plastics guy, this is about as discouraging as it can get to see livebait work that well in certain situations. Together we hopped through my milk route of spots probing the area with my solid producing techniques for this time of year only to find that the minnow was the way to go. I tried to hold up a front thinking I did not need them…..I wished I would have given in a little. By Days end we tallied some nice smallies on a not so typical smallie day. Thanks Ryan and Austin for making the trip up here. Look forward to the next time we can do this!
Sunday I was joined by FLW touring bass pro Scott Bonnema and his son Kevin. Sunday morning we got started to a actual sunrise and no rain and relatively no wind. This was what I was hoping for to kick start these smallies into biting like they typically should bite like for this time of year. Learning from my Saturday outing, the minnows were pride swallowing close by and ready to go. Right out of the shoot I rigged Kevin up with a split shot and a 1/0 Gammie offset hook and a lively 6”-7” chub or sucker minnow. Kevin proceeded to put the hurt on Scott and I throughout the day with nearly non-stop action and nearly depleted my 4 dozen minnows that I had on board. Kevin boated some awfully nice smallies throughout the day and he had a grin on his face that went ear to ear. Thanks again Scott and Kevin for spending the day in the boat with me, What a difference a day can make this time of year. I had a fantastic time with you guys as well.
Nearly the end of September already and I cannot believe there will be only a few weeks left of this magnificent bite. Anyone looking for a good selection of bait can find some really good chubs at Actions Fishing right off of Hwy 10 in Anoka, Mn. Jack Kordiak has a great selection of Red tails, River Mix (various chub mix), rainbows, sucker minnows of all sizes and your run of the mill fatheads and crappie minnows to fit your need. Smallies love real lively minnows and a semi active minnow this time of year will just not cut it, so make sure you got a real lively minnow on and hang on!
WOW! Those Smallies look huge!! Too bad you had to cheat and use live bait…
Just kidding Steve! Wonderful report. 
Steve, Thanks for the excellent report. It’s really nice to hear that someone as talented as yourself struggled with this weather a bit too. I put in a few hours this weekend and really had a tough go of it. I refused to go to live bait and from your report it sounds like I may have been a little too stuborn this time. I’m taking my father-in-law out next weekend and I’m thinking I’ll have a little live bait available if needed. If it was just me I wouldn’t care so much but I hate to see anyone in my boat have a slow day. Thanks for reminding us that fishing isn’t always so easy, even for the best of anglers.
Thank you Wade!
Using livebait obviously has its share of benefits as well as drawbacks. The benefits are a little added confidence when times gets real tough and you want to optimize the school of fish when the bite is off cue.
The drawbacks are it is VERY easy to foul hook a smalllie this time of year with how aggressive they chomp these things down when they have friends around trying to steel from them. With that said, I tend to use a big hook and set the hook very quickly. The smallies almost always take these big minnows head first, so hook sets should come within 1 or 2 seconds of feelign the intitial pickup. IF you do not feel that first bite, set the hook immediately. For the record, we had no fish foul hooked this weekend with these minnows thanks to these pointers above. All the fish made their way back into the water quickly and safely. Its a real eye opener to see how a lively minnow can be far superior at times even with how far we have come in todays plastics shapes, scents, textures, etc…. Like I said before, this is a rare occurence. Hopefully my next trip, I can leave them at home!
.
One other key note….Biggest fish of the day yesterday came on the biggest minnow we had in the box!
First of all a big thanks goes out to Steve from Austin and I.We had a very fun time fishing with you.Steve is a very good guide and for those of you who read his reports and wonder if a trip with him would be something you might want to do? Do yourself a huge favor a book a trip with him.
I always enjoy jumping in the boat with other anglers.It is a good way to learn a few new tricks,plus fish different waters.
The weather was not good on Sat.It rained on us most of the day making it cold and wet.The fish bit well the first 3-4 spots we hit, I thought we were really going to have a good day of fishing.But by mid-morning the plastic bite slowed way down.It was crazy,we would make 100 cast into a spot with nothing,Steve would put on a chub and within seconds he would have a fish on.
The livebait issue can be a hot topic at times.Like Steve said it has been years since he has had to use it.I did a article for Iowa Game and Fish this summer about smallie fishing the Iowa Great Lakes.I did West O,another angler did Spirit Lake.This other angler who did Spirit Lake swore off livebait years ago-said he would never use it again.Well I ran into him just a few weeks ago and he said it was time to go back to livebait as he was having a very hard time getting any smallies to bite on plastics.Sometimes as a angler,I think you have to bite your tongue,adapt,and make changes to what needs to be done.I sure wish I could catch all my smallies on a 3″ Powertube,but I know at times they just don’t want platics.
Again I want to thanks Steve for the great day on the water.I really enjoyed it and would love to fish with him again someday.He is one of the best anglers I’ve ever been around.
Thanks Steve,from Ryan and Austin.
Here are a couple fish pics…
Here is Scott with a nice smallie!
Here is Scott’s son Kevin.
First cast of the day!
Another early morning aggressive fish!
A shot from the rainy Saturday.
Kevin with yet another minnow fed smallie.
Wow!
Another great report with some great pictures of huge smallmouths. Awesome!
I’m not much of a bass man but still I never get tired of looking at smallies like those.
Nice job Steve!
JWB
Awesome report as usual Steve.
I saw the latest issue of Cabels Outfitter Magazine (I think that was the name
). They had an article on Fall top water smallies on the upper Miss. Some guy in a Ranger was up there in your territory. 
He has a sticker on the side of his boat that read ” STEVEDEZURIK.COM” .
Nice article Steve. How old was that picture???? I think you had a Silver Ranger.
Steve- Great report- awesome bronzebacks!!
Sent you a PM!!
There’s that darned lucky cap again. Guess I’m just going to have to break down and buy one!!! Might have to try minners too, at least my hands won’t smell like garlic for two days. Great job as always.
Randy,
This St. Croix rod hat has been very kind to me this summer. My wife tells me the thing smells like old diapers, but hard to let a good thing go!
To all,
Some one left me a voicemail this past weekend about a guide trip and I accidently deleted the message. I apologize. Please give me a call back and I would be happy to talk about any open dates that are still availible. Sorry once again.