Looking for fall smallies? Here's a tip.....

[BillM]

Decided to do a solo mission for a few hours today on a local lake.   Hit up my late August spot and nada, fish had vacated.  Not surprised as that pattern only lasts a few weeks.  So I sat at the console and rode the sonar for a bit.  Edges, rock piles, flats, weeds, nothing too interesting.   I pull up to a spot and I see a few fish swirling.  I'm thinking awesome, maybe that late August pattern is back.   Nope, these bass were eating flying ants I kid you not.  Surface was littered with them and the bass were slurping away.   Of course my 4wt was at home so I'm not even going to try and pattern those little buggers out.  Although the water they were doing this in was 30+ft.   So I'm thinking to myself, these fish aren't staying at the surface this entire time.   Then the graph lights up.   Wolfpacks of smallies 15-20ft down over 30+ feet.   I grab my fav vertical jigging bait and it doesn't make it to the bottom before I get slack and the first big boy is in the boat.  Did this 3 more times in the span of 2 mins and then it stopped dead.   Moved 50ft and repeat.   Any basin at this depth held all kinds of fish.   I was finding pack after pack of smallies just roaming around in featureless water.   The key here was depth though.  30+ feet?  I'd find fish.  25 or shallower?  Nada, nothing.   Every single pack of fish I'd mark and spot lock I'd get 3-4 then move onto the next.  What a fun few hours...  I know a lot of guys have a hard time with bass in the early fall.   Go deep fellas and use your electronics.  If you aren't marking fish, don't fish until you do.  Proof is in the pudding.   No fish pics, didn't wanna waste any time getting them back down.   They were spitting bait and crapping all over my boat though, lol!!    The best part about this pattern is that it's not lake specific.   I've done this on GPool, GBay, Parry Sound, Upper Severn, you name it.   

Edited September 18, 2019 by BillM

[woodenboater]

that would have been insane with the fly !

[BillM]

2 minutes ago, woodenboater said:

that would have been insane with the fly !

Right?   I keep telling myself to leave it in the rod locker with a small assortment of flies and maybe a strike indicator.   I had the same thing happen to me last Oct out on Gbay.   Late season hatch and the whitefish were going insane.   Swirling everywhere, thousands of them.   And of course, the flyrod was at home

[Terry]

great tip

[Old Ironmaker]

Great read Bill, well written. 

[AKRISONER]

Gonna do some of this this week and I’ll report back. Haven’t found a total pack like this in a while, but maybe I’ll go deeper.

[BillM]

16 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Gonna do some of this this week and I’ll report back. Haven’t found a total pack like this in a while, but maybe I’ll go deeper.

I'll be out Friday/Tuesday.  Lakers and bass.  Should be on fire.

[Rattletrap2]

Sounds like a lot of fun Bill! Thanks for the tip!

[AKRISONER]

Hilarious Bill,

went out Saturday and had my best day of the entire year...started deep, got skunked and went shallow lmao. Turns out the heat had the fish back in a spring pattern we were sight fishing them in 3fow it was absolutely nuts!

[BillM]

11 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

Hilarious Bill,

went out Saturday and had my best day of the entire year...started deep, got skunked and went shallow lmao. Turns out the heat had the fish back in a spring pattern we were sight fishing them in 3fow it was absolutely nuts!

I didn't find any deep at all on Friday.  Water temps were almost 70?!?!?!  lol.   We fished lakers (Did ok) then finished up shallow like you mentioned.   These water temps need to drop.  

[AKRISONER]

15 hours ago, BillM said:

I didn't find any deep at all on Friday.  Water temps were almost 70?!?!?!  lol.   We fished lakers (Did ok) then finished up shallow like you mentioned.   These water temps need to drop.  

they were close to 50 the week before and then back up to 68 on saturday. Craziness. I have a small derby for family and friends up at my cottage on the 5th, and i have no idea what the heck to do!

[singingdog]

Lots of smallies still shallow here. I was on one of my favourite lakes on Saturday: 110' deep, lots of rock, points, humps. Smallies are often suspended over featureless water in the fall, but on Saturday they were anywhere there were softball to basketball sized rocks in 3-10 FOW. 

I love days like you describe BillM, although my arms get tired chasing them around.

[AKRISONER]

just a sample of one of our double headers sight fishing! was an absolutely magical day to say the least.

 

Edited September 24, 2019 by AKRISONER

[jimmer]

17 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Hilarious Bill,

went out Saturday and had my best day of the entire year...started deep, got skunked and went shallow lmao. Turns out the heat had the fish back in a spring pattern we were sight fishing them in 3fow it was absolutely nuts!

I was out on Friday and finding them in 4 fow. Had one nice pack of fish around 4 pounds each follow in one I had on the line. Of course the one on the line was a pound and a half.

[OhioFisherman]

On Lake Erie I had about an 8 mile stretch of water that I fished regularly for smallies and I considered them roamers, at least the bigger ones. They could be on one end of the stretch or the other, or anywhere in between searching for food. You could fish an area for hours and just catch smaller ones and all at once the bigger ones would appear, and 15 to a half hour later disappear or shut down.

One reason why trolling a crankbait that would bounce bottom or get very near bottom was a good way to locate them, I really didn't like spending hours in one area waiting on them to show up.