It’s Smallmouth Time on the Mississippi

It’s no secret the Mississippi is a fantastic year round fishery, but for the month of September, it’s arguably a World Class destination for Huge Smallmouth. This body of water is absolutely teaming with these incredible fighters. Mix that with falling water temps and shorter days, and you’ve created the perfect storm. It’s like someone flipped the switch on these guys and they go on an absolute terror. They will literally eat as much as they can each day putting on weight for the long winter ahead.

Sunday my Father in Law, Alex and I hit the water with great anticipation. It didn’t take but two minutes to see we weren’t going to be let down. On Alex’s first cast of the day, he pulled a healthy 17” smallmouth on a 1/4oz X-Change jig and plastic minnow combo. The extra wide gap on the 0/2 hooks really increased our hook ups. After a quick picture we got that smallie back in the water. I was throwing a surface plug, and on my very next cast I had a great looking fish blow up right by the boat. The seasoned vet Alex is, he dropped his jig right next to the boat and was instantly slammed by that sumo smallie. After a great fight, and a number of spectacular jumps, that fish taped out at a solid 19 inches.

Not to be out done, I changed up my presentation to a suspending 7” minnow bait. I hooked this bait so I could give it a side to side or “walk the dog” action. This proved to be a great method for me and I put some great looking fish in the boat. I had a number of fish actually hit the bait before it hit the water. It’s amazing how efficient these fish are at eating. These smallies only have one thing on their mind, and that’s eat anything that moves.

In the few hours we were out we boated dozens of 12″-16″ fish, along with a good number of fish in the 17”-19.5” range. It was a great day to be on the water, and the fishing was outstanding. This Fall bite will stay strong for most of September, so if you enjoy fishing until your arms are sore, now is the time!