Mississippi River Smallmouth bass report 9-17-08

What a difference a few days can make this time of year when chasing smallies on river systems. All summer long the fish seemed to be about as predictable as the next morning sunrise. Well this past weekend started out with a big change in the weather. With cool nights starting to set in and a couple all day rains set the mood quickly as the fish completely changed their behavior pattern in a couple days to dictate patterns for the rest of the fall periods. The swim jig bite that I had going the last several weeks proved to be pretty much non-existent for my boat for the weekend and changes needed to take place in order to salvage a days fishing. As good as the swim jig bite has been I was a little reluctant to change over. Typically the fish had been a little reluctant to chase early on and by 11:00am or so the fish would flip a switch…..not so this weekend and I think this change is here to stay for the most part.

With a couple of soggy days of fishing Saturday and Sunday and scrounging up 12-15 fish per day, Monday morning I had better swallow my pride and look for a alternate presentation and sense the transition in the fish behavior. The few fish we caught each day on Sat/Sun proved to show me that these fish were no longer hanging around these fast moving current slick areas. The better fish came consistently from the slower water adjacent to these areas. This told me a lot and that I better stay on the move and find those key spots where fish like to congregate this time of year for my best chance at some good fishing.

Monday morning came to a chilly 35 degrees and I knew I had my work cutout for me. With some presentation tweaks and location shifts we were back in the game in a big way and the fish responded. Instead of having one fish here and one fish there down a shoreline or on a structure, they were all bunched up like they should be setting up for the long haul of fall/winter on its way. Light weighted YUM Finesse tubes and YUM 4” Dingers were our key to success for the next several days. Slower water of 4-10 fow adjacent to even deeper water nearby seemed to be the key to success for us. Boating big smallies and seeing even bigger ones chasing those to the boat is a thrill every angler need to see in his/her lifetime. On several occasions the stickworm would slide up the line and another follower would swim up and pluck it off the line. That’s how aggressive these fish can be this time of year.

As a reminder Minnesota has a statewide catch and release restriction in place for all smallmouth bass and all fish caught (regardless of size) must be returned to the water immediately. So careful handling of these fish is a must to ensure our future of this wonderful resource.

Look ahead as some of the best fishing is upon us! Take advantage while you can as we all know fall in Minnesota can mean 80 degrees one day and 35 degrees and snow the next. Either way these fish know what’s coming and are starting to feast!