Upper Miss River smallie report 9-12-03

This past week the smallies have made a significant move to their fall locations and the bite has even got better than it has all year long! This is the time of year that you all read about being the best smallie fishing that the river has to offer. I have fished a lot of prime big smallmouth waters over the last 15 years and I can honestly say that this bite on the river this time of the year remains the best I have ever seen in any other system. If you like loads of 18”-20”+ fish…….right now is the time to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

The biggest change that I have noticed over the past week has been that the fish have made a significant move to out of the current areas or backsides of their summertime haunts. When you find one, STOP and fish it thoroughly because chances are that there is more than one fish utilizing this area and by more than one fish, I mean more like 10-15 fish in one tight knit group and very vulnerable. The areas that I have been looking for have been sand/rock areas that have a small to medium shallow feeding shelf that drops quickly to deeper areas that is very close by. The fish have been using these areas to sneak away in different times of the day and come back up and feed at peak opportunities. The mornings and evenings have been overall the best time of day right now unless you have a overcast of clouds during the day. The fish then seem to willing to hang around a lot longer than they would in high skies conditions.

Fish aggressively until you make contact with a fish and then slow down and pull out the ultra slow presentations to maximize your efforts and less likely to spook the school of fish. One thing that I have noticed recently is that you can fish a topwater or a spinnerbait right now to find your fish, but continuing to throw this aggressive natured presentation will severely cause the fish to respond negatively. Because the hits are explosive with these techniques, the fish nearby get a little spooked and you can really catch about half the fish that are there. The slow techniques that I have found to be the best for my boat has been very light texas rigged Yum 4” garrett tubes or a new soft plastic that has been tearing up the fish right and that is called the “Houdini Shad” made by Yum. This is a 5” soft plastic stick bait that has been my #1 go to bait for taking fish when all other presentations normally peeter out. I have been fishing the Houdini shad unweighted on a wide gap gamagasktsu 2/0 hook. You can work these plastics in just about any fashion you can dream up but my best luck has been letting it fall ever so slowly without moving it. Use the weight of the plastic to take it down and be patient and then give it a slight twitch and let it be again for periods up to 30 seconds or more. If there are fish in the area, they will have a hard time passing this gem up.

Water temps are slowly starting to fall and the fish are responding appropriately. These fish are exceptionally vulnerable right and be sure to practice catch and release right now as an over harvest situation could dramatically hurt a fishery this time of year. Expect this bite to continue at this pace until mid October or the water temps dip into the high 30’s or low 40’s. The fish are still there, but livebait may become a better option for catching a good handful of fish. My smallmouth season will come to an end within the next week or so due to walleye trips approaching on the calendar.

Good luck to all.