4 to 5 inch walleye sucker minnows, rigged from lower jaw through nostril, is most ideal and hearty, followed by blacktail and redtail chubs. What to use: Weights vary depending on water depth, so carry various sizes. Better yet, while topwaters are often considered early-morning and late-afternoon producers in the summer, they’ll entice bass all day long in the fall. Smallmouth fishing has been fair while fishing jigs on points in 20-to-25..." Dale Hollow Lake The mainstem and larger tributaries of these rivers are full of smallmouth. It was the fastest smallmouth bass fishing I've been into for a long time. Lindy walking sinker with a size 1 Gamakatsu Octopus hook. The Smallmouth eat insects, crayfish, and smaller fish. Photo by Meghan Marchetti/DGIF. For those willing to brave the elements on the lake, however, the reward is some of the best smallmouth bass fishing of the year for some of the biggest fish of the season. Bronzebacks pile into dense schools come autumn. 4 Tactics For Catching Late-Summer Smallmouth Bass. Blade baits. Amatoâs typical approach and drifting technique is relied on the wind. The night before his trip, Amato ties all of his leaders and usually carries a minimum of 10 pre-made fluorocarbon Lindy rigs before hitting the water. On inland waters, the cold, deep lakes with good smallmouth fishing are easy to identify. On the finesse side, drop-shots and wacky rigs work well, but Stroschein is lethal with a … Fishing a blade bait vertically is an effective way to catch bass keyed in on bait during the fall feed up. Use baitfish imitations and target the transitionary water that smallmouth occupy during this time frame. Bronzebacks, as they are also known, are one of the best fighting fish in North America. See Photos; Techniques to target smallmouth through the seasons. Not only are the fall colors abundant and beautiful, the fish are biting too! But itâs become acceptable when all else fails like when our preferred traditional fall strategies of deep water cranking, drop shotting, swim baiting, and jigging isnât catching them. This late September tanker was caught from a wintering area. âDepending on the wind/weather patterns for a specific day, you must get in the right mindset of what the day calls for, and game-plan the effective ways to use the wind to your advantage to catch fish. âThis way, itâs noticeable by every smallmouth in the area. Amatoâs favorite producing water temperatures are from 55 to 48 degrees. Another important point to mention is smallmouth will often drop the bait during the fight due to the small hook. That’s the macro overlay, but the micro magic is all about fine detail. âNo angler can escape the fact that a gut hooking will happen occasionally, but this is where having the proper hook extraction tools comes into play,â he exclaims. Photo by Alex McCrickard/DGIF. Often, the greatest challenge is locating these fish and their likely wintering areas as you could easily spend more time motoring around several hundred surface acres searching for schools of fish with your electronics rather than actually fishing. But what if live bait rigging is fished properly and responsibly with conservation and care in mind, with no mention of GPS coordinates and precise locations? Greg McCrickard with a healthy early fall Virginia smallmouth. If you choose to fish during the pandemic it is essential that you follow, Fish alone or with family members or others that you live with and are isolating with during the Governor’s. Also, as water temperatures drop, dissolved oxygen will increase. If catch and release is not made mandatory this time of season, the affects of fall smallmouth harvest are devastating to the point of no future recovery. This is where 10-12lb mono or hybrid fluorocarbon coated mono works well. Exploitation and cruel intentions harms wintering smallmouth populations the most. Channel swings become primary staging areas when bass start moving back to the main lake in late fall. Start with tubes. Late fall and early winter are some of the best times to catch giant smallmouth bass from Lake Erie. Do not float in a raft, drift boat, john boat, or canoe with friends that you are not isolated with during the “stay at home” order. Mid-October fall foliage on the New River in Southwest, Virginia. Amato has had plenty of incredible, memorable days of fall fishing with live bait rigging, including days of numbers and others of trophy size. Fall smallmouth fishing is patterned by the stages of turnover, and fishing locations revolve around wintering migrations. Companies size their swivels differently, so for example from Bass Pro Shops I like size 24, and Eagle Claw I like size 18. Strolling and precision rigging livebait often transforms a non-bite into a very good bite, like this portly 20 incher. ... Top 5 Smallmouth Bass Fishing Hot … Chuck Kraft’s Clawdad and Harry Murray’s Hellgrammite are also productive patterns to fish lower in the water column this time of year. Anglers will enjoy cooler temperatures and wearing waders when fishing these rivers during this time of the year. The Rebel Crawfish, a crayfish crankbait, should also be in your selection of subsurface lures as smallmouth will prowl pools and flats for crayfish in the fall. The good smallmouth fishing in February is best on the lower half of the lake. With aid of the wind and Minn Kota Terrova trolling motor to help keep us on course and spot lock us when necessary, we then run a precise drift course over the region fish are at. Hereâs his personal best and my boatâs largest from the 2016 season; measuring 21.5â and weighing 6.4 lbs. I don’t like to go finesse in the fall, but when I have to, I’ll go to a tube or a ned rig. This will give your lure an erratic motion and imitate a stressed and injured baitfish which is exactly what the smallmouth are looking for. To me, itâs almost as bad as taking a big bass off of a bed and keeping it,â says Amato. As liberal as Wisconsin fishing regulations are, neither Amato nor I see the state implementing further northern black bass management to make our world class inland smallmouth bass fisheries catch and release-only, like they are managed in spring, unless there is overwhelming angler support and we experience a major trophy decline in our world class inland fisheries. Most well-stocked bait shops in the north will carry these minnows, making them an ideal fall option. Minocqua, Wisconsin. Go-to smallmouth patterns. Fishing large streamers is a great technique for targeting big smallmouth bass. In late fall when water temps fall to the mid 40’s, prioritize locating cisco schools that … A detailed-oriented angler, Amato has observed preyfish and forage relating to the same locations as wintering smallmouths; notably with crayfish, followed by massive schools of yellow perch and bottom-dwelling juvenile suckers. Join me on another new season in pursuit of trophy Wisconsin bass 2021, beginning as soon as the Monday after Mother’s Day (May 10th). In early fall and during balmy Indian summer days, a topwater can cause the biggest bass to become unglued. Consider fishing a sinktip or full sinking line in mid to late fall on our larger Virginia rivers, especially in higher flows. No need to set it too hard, itâs more of a medium hookset. Wired2fish's Ryan DeChaine shares some insight on catching late fall smallmouth bass on natural lakes and rivers up north. Theyâre bigger than fatheads, liveliest of all minnows available, and present themselves as a heartier meal for a hungry fall smallmouth,â says Amato. On some northern U.S. and Canadian rivers, migrating fish congr… The best areas have a combination of these things – bait, rock, and what residual grass is left over from the fall. Entering the picture is an assortment of minnow and baitfish species. Mother Nature brings out her palette of colors and paints a beautiful picture for our enjoyment. Blade Baits for Smallmouth Bass Maples, tulip poplars, oaks, and sycamores turn red, orange, yellow, and brown as air temperatures cool to a comfortable range in the 60s and 70s. Smallmouth can also disperse when large rain events occur throughout fall and river levels rise from typical low late summer and early fall flows. Amato and I commonly live bait fish on lakes with deep thermoclines, a lot of deep water structure and contour, and established smallmouth wintering locations. Receive news and information about Northern Wisconsin bass fishing, trip dates and schedules, fishing reports, and other bass fishing content. Pre-spawn smallmouth bass has yet to arrive but the weather is breaking enough to hit the water. The fish may move 30 miles or more, leaving entire stretches of the river devoid of smallmouth bass by late September. As the season progresses from October into November, it’s important to bring a dry bag with a towel and an extra change of clothes for safety precautions due to cooler water and air temperatures. During the hottest summer months, smallmouth often congregate at the heads of riffles in broken water where dissolved oxygen levels are highest. The fall feed commences when water temperatures dip into the low 50s, and it will continue right up to … In Amatoâs experience, north and west winds seem to have the fish biting best in the fall. You can catch smallmouths a lot of ways in the fall, but here’s Stroschein’s best rule to fish by: On calm days, finesse fish with plastics. Late in the season, smallmouth are usually found near their deep-water winter hangouts. Comments comments. âFall success varies by lake, and the smallmouths usually come in waves once located,â describes Amato. Late summer is an ideal time to catch big smallies. The next issue of concern is over-feeding the fish your line, which leads to deeply swallowed hooks. When the water starts to cool down in mid to late September, the fall smallmouth start to feed up for the winter months. âItâs all related, so if we canât take them in spring, we shouldnât be able to take them in late fall either,â says Amato. âItâs a balancing act of not waiting too long to set the hook, but also giving enough time for the fish to eat the minnow before setting the hook,â says Amato. This fish inhaled a boogle bug popper twitched along a log jam. Waiting too long raises the chance of the fish swallowing the hook, and setting too soon will pull the hook right out of its mouth. In order to give the walleye sucker ample action, Amato drops the rig in a vertical position beneath the boat and lets out enough line for the sinker to make bottom contact while the boat drifts. A … Big smallmouths get harvested in the fall months, usually from walleye anglers and pan fishermen, and people looking for a trophy on the wall. That’s about twice as deep as he usually catches them in … “The best shot at the largest smallmouth comes in late fall, when 6- and 7-pounders are more … Some of the largest bass are caught in spring; anglers have a better chance of catching a 6 pound plus trophy bass in spring than any other time during the year. âThey are hearty and easiest to get, for one. Smallmouth will actively ambush smaller forage fish during this time of the year as they attempt to put on weight for the upcoming winter season. If we all thought May 2020 was difficult fishin... Hi everyone! Photo by Meghan Marchetti/DGIF. Because of the smallmouth’s widespread range in Virginia, they are readily available to anglers fishing west of the coastal plains above the fall lines of our major river systems. When you’re fishing for open water, structure-oriented smallmouth in the late fall, let the wind guide you to the fish. Best time of the year to fish here is late..." North Creek "worms caught me a 8 pound catfish..." Holmes Creek "Several largemouth are being caught in the rivers on crankbaits and jigs on channel banks. In his mind, nothing beats jigs and craw imitation plastics, and skirted hula grubs worked through deep rock structure and steep breaklines. While many northern Wisconsin live bait shops do splendid service in stocking the freshest and widest assortments of minnows, several of them fail anglers in equipping shelves and display racks with industry-standard fish hooks. With a lot of deep structure and potential locations, Amato is forced to jump spots back and forth as activity slows and picks up again on these locations. However, my favorite for livebait smallmouth fishing has become Eagle Claw Trokarâs TK 15 Wide Load Hook and TK7 Extreme Hook in sizes 1 and 2. Minocqua, Wisconsin.All information and photography is protected under United States Copyright Laws and may not be reproduced and used without written permission of Andrew Ragas. The rigged minnow swims while being pulled slowly, so their fins are constantly moving and the restriction of the pulling weight prevents them from burrowing and hide from smallmouths,â concludes Amato. These flats can range anywhere from 25 to 50 feet deep, with typical winter zones in the 25 to 40 ft. range. However, itâs not an easy presentation to deliver when dealing with deep coontail or sandgrass. A unique behavior inherited from previous generations of the populationâs members, these fish will home on the same wintering areas for life. As rivers cool below 57 degrees, dramatic changes in smallmouth bass behavior occur. Fish need to build energy reserves to survive the winter. In shallower waterways across the northern portions of the species’ range, smallmouth actually migrate. These hooks have a wider gap than most traditional livebait hooks, and theyâre the next most-effective model to a circle hook that Iâve found. Otherwise, in the summer and fall months when fish move deep, 30 to 40 fish days, like the day we experienced together, is the norm. The respected jerkbait is an ideal pick for late fall fishing. "Largemouth, Spotted Bass, Smallmouth, Crappie, Panfish of various kinds, and Catfish. However, these game fish have been introduced all across the Piedmont of Virginia and are truly a worthy opponent on rod and reel. During the fall you will generally find the Door County Smallmouth Bass in deeper water than you would have found them in spring or summer. âIf you have a good idea where the outside boundaries of the weedline are, or the open pockets between patches of deep sandgrass, slow drifting these areas can be deadly, especially if it leads to a deep flat.â. Smallies are fueling up for the fall, and now is the right time to get on the bite You can choose to fish for them, or you can look for them elsewhere like Amato and I often do. Many locals donât have internet access or the same luxuries many of us do for buying specialty livebait hooks. Back in February, with 2 feet of ice on your favorite smallmouth bass lake, the possibility that summer could ever last too long seemed unthinkable. Feider shares many of his favorite smallmouth bass baits and how to fish them for each stage of the season, early fall (including Seth's go-to tough bite bait Poor Boy's Erie Darter), late fall (including tightlining finesse swimbaits and jigging blade baits), winter (including the Rapala Jiggin Rap Ice Jig). The majority of anglers in the bass fishing community theorize that itâs not a good idea to pull bass through the depths on live bait rigs. In northern Wisconsin, smallmouth bass tend to set up in their wintering locations by end of September. Despite the effectiveness, live bait fishing in fall for smallmouths poses several issues that most anglers seldom take into consideration. Look for smallmouth to be on the edges of drop-offs as well as congregating around river points and bends. Smallmouth bass home to wintering areas and will not vacate them regardless of angling pressure and the exploitation that is on them. Despite this designation smallmouth remain active and feed often late into the fall when the water is anything but warm. Lindy rigging just doesnât work well without a wind, and your sucker minnow doesnât swim to entice smallmouths,â Amato shares. A 3 1/2-inch tube jig consistently catches fall smallmouth. Topwater and shallow crankbaits are the baits of choice in the fall months. The predator and prey relationship between the two always drives year-round smallmouth location. As we know, smallmouth populations are most vulnerable during the spawn, but their heavy concentrations and vulnerability in fall and winter seasons mirrors it. May 2020 was when fishing and guid... By Andrew Ragas Small lakes abound throughout t... © 2021 Northwoods Bass Fishing Adventures, LLC. Itâs acceptable to lower your fishing standards and have no shame with the live bait game. In the North Country, as fall fades and sportsmen settle in for the arrival of winter, many people put the boat away and forsake the water for the woods. We have been finding success catching our fish in water depths ranging from 15 to 30 feet of water. If the state of Wisconsin implemented a mandatory catch and release fall season on smallmouths, identical to Minnesotaâs fall regulations, the argument against live bait fishing and targeting smallmouths at wintering holes lessens. Another factor that plays a key role in success during “late, late Fall” smallmouth fishing, patience and their bite. âAnything from 6-12 mph is a good wind to drift in. Over the years Amato has acquired the skill and knowledge to identify likely wintering locations through mapping and applying his success from one lake on to another.