Kawartha smallie report

[siwash]

Hey folks,

Hit the Kawarthas today with a good friend.  Great day weather-wise and the fish were pretty cooperative but mostly small sized! We caught a a few dozen bass, but most under 12".  Several were in the 14" range, and couple over 16" and one largemouth  close to 3lbs. All fish except for the LM were smallies... had a small muskie follow too! 

So for the first time I used a drop shot rig and boy does that thing work well!! Often first cast in every new spot was a hit.  Used mostly Roboworms and some minnow-like plastic that looked pretty natural. I also used a spy bait (the cheaper ones from bass pro not those crazy expensive Japanese ones! They work ok too.. Interesting bait.  The fish hit the spy usually when it was paused. As for the drops shot, I was using 1/4 weight (all I had) but next time I will get some different sizes like 1/8. 

We targeted shoals, drop offs, weed lines and got in the weeds too.  One thing I noticed is that the weeds are starting to look ragged.. in some cases lots of algae growth on them.  I guess this is normal at the end of the summer?

[AKRISONER]

Very challenging time of year to target smallmouth, they are deep and scattered. You’ll find a lot up shallower but they will essentially all be small.

I just spent over 30 hours this weekend targeting smallmouth exclusively.

in a couple of weeks, maybe even a week, suddenly that will change and you will start coming across them again up shallower and putting on the fall feedbag.

put it this way, I was pulling out of an area today and noticed a mark on livescope in 49fow

caught my biggest fish of the day.

weeds are starting to die off, just like the leaves are changing on the trees. 

[siwash]

Interesting.. and water still quite warm after that last warm spell.. 

Might hit the same lake and same spots in a couple of weeks then.. thanks!

[AKRISONER]

The last couple of weeks of September/first few weeks of October on a nice warm stable weather pattern…you will probably have some of the best fishing days of your life. 

im talking, throwing back 2 and 3lbers with disgust because they aren’t big enough.

These past couple of weeks, you can lock in on them and they are stacked up when you find them, they are just deep and the spots won’t be blatantly obvious. Yesterday we didn’t catch a fish over 2lbs unless it was 20fow or as I referenced as deep as 50. 

It seems to change like a light switch though, no different than other animals that migrate, when they decide it’s time, they make their move. 
 

to be honest, we’re almost hopeful that they don’t move this week, we spent so much damn time pre fishing for the derby next week and the big fish pattern is so hard that if it gets easier it’s to our detriment lol. Id rather it stay super tough, it will eliminate most of the field!

Edited September 11, 2023 by AKRISONER

[BillM]

9 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Very challenging time of year to target smallmouth, they are deep and scattered. You’ll find a lot up shallower but they will essentially all be small.

I just spent over 30 hours this weekend targeting smallmouth exclusively.

in a couple of weeks, maybe even a week, suddenly that will change and you will start coming across them again up shallower and putting on the fall feedbag.

put it this way, I was pulling out of an area today and noticed a mark on livescope in 49fow

caught my biggest fish of the day.

weeds are starting to die off, just like the leaves are changing on the trees. 

Yup, fish are definitely scattered.   Once mid Oct hits watch out!   If you've still got the rig up on PS, we should drown some big sucker minnows.  It's kinda like cheating but man it's fun lol. 

[AKRISONER]

59 minutes ago, BillM said:

Yup, fish are definitely scattered.   Once mid Oct hits watch out!   If you've still got the rig up on PS, we should drown some big sucker minnows.  It's kinda like cheating but man it's fun lol. 

Bill, you know I'm too much of a purist/tournament nutcase to use live bait, but with livescope and 3 different looks/options for the fish to eat, I dont often find fish that wont eat at least something I present to them.

Ill shoot you a PM

[siwash]

Would you say this applies to most fish species? And would you figure that they could show up where the little guys are now? 
 

 

[AKRISONER]

9 hours ago, siwash said:

Would you say this applies to most fish species? And would you figure that they could show up where the little guys are now? 
 

 

That 100% is dependant on the lake you are fishing. In the kawarthas not necessarily because I find those lakes are essentially overrun with small fish. However if you did notice that one particular spot allowed you to catch a bunch of fish in a row, or had somewhat better size, then certainly.

if you are Georgian bay, or other shield lakes, they typically have significantly more dead water. As such, spots that hold multiple fish will typically improve as the bite gets better. The challenge on Georgian bay is then locating those “big fish spots” there will be lots of places that will hold 2lbers, but few that will produce 4’s and 5’s. If you locate a 5lber on a shield lake…that’s a spot essentially forever more. Even better, if you find a group of 4’s there will be days you’ll sack up a 20lb bag on consecutive casts.