Fallser

Not sure I fall into the smart handsome people category, but I'll give it a shot. There may be some turnover in a lake that shallow. I think it would depend on how clear the lake is. How much vegetation there's. There's not going to be that much of a difference between the surface temperature and the bottom temperature. Since you're talking a 3 week period, odds are whatever turnover there is has happen and you're probably looking at 50 degree temperatures through the water column. Where did the bass go? Probably not far. They're going to be wherever the food is. They're cold blooded. It slows them down. They don't need as much food and they're definitely not going to chase after it. They'll be in the vegetation, near structure. They may migrate to deeper holes, but if there is no food there they won't be there long. I mainly fly fish and once the water temperatures get into the 50's in both fresh and salt water it's time for me to pack it in for the year. The water temps around here are still in the mid to upper 60's in both fresh and salt water. I'm recovering from knee surgery. So I'm not doing any fishing this fall Slow your presentation down. You may have to change up baits. Probably the shallow running crank bait needs to go. You can slow roll the spinner bait. Slow down the retrieve of the jig worm.

I just like fishing. Smallies are my favorite, followed by big bluegill. Most of the creeks and rivers around here have smallmouth and largemouth in them. So do the lakes. Since I don't own a boat, I'm dependent on my fishing buddies to get me out on the lakes and sometimes the rivers. Winter is my off time. If I get a warm day, mid-forties or higher I'll go fish for trout. I start fishing for trout in late March and do that through the end of April. Then I transition over to warm water, smallmouth will be my main target, but I'm not going to get upset if I only catch panfish or largemouth. I fish warm water through the end of September, maybe early October. October through November I take a ride down the shore and hope I run into some stripers and bluefish on their way south. The only time I really focus on smallmouth is when I head up to a lake in Northern Ontario. That's where I've caught my biggest smallmouths. So to sum it up I don't fish exclusively for smallmouth

If I'm tying flies for trout, I try and "match the hatch" meaning I'll try to match the color of the fly but I just trying to create the illusion of life. For bass I'll match the colors of the bait fish in the lake, stream or river. Though I have found that adding a bit of chartreuse and/or pink to my shad patterns increases the number of hits. Crayfish up here tend to be more olive in color. As far lures go, I don't have any really crazy colors, fire tiger which covers perch and sunfish is about the flashiest I have. Though I do have a couple silver rattle traps. The rest are dark back, lighter or silver sides, white belly. My senkos are mostly green pumpkin. So are the Ned rigs I've picked up. Top waters it doesn't seem to matter as much, a white or yellow belly seems to get more action. Always have a couple of black ones for fishing after sunset. This is one of the lures that have produced a lot smallmouth up in Ontario. It's a tinker mackerel pattern.

I don't know about perfect conditions. It's a good spot. Depth isn't necessarily a guarantee of a big fish. The current break is not in the hole under the falls. The water will be turbulent and requires the fish to use energy to stay in place. If you look at the graffiti I added to the picture. The green arc is probably where the hole starts coming up. There may be fish sitting along that edge. The left hand corner is probably a better spot. Not as much water coming over the falls. Looks like a rock sticking out of the water and minimal current, an eddy. The main current is on the right hand side, about where the red lines and arrows are. There is a current break there. There's a decent size rock under the green X. Nice ambush spot. Then on the edges of the current. Now I'm looking at this as if I'm fishing it with my fly rod or spinning rod. If I were using live bait, I'd live line a minnow, nightcrawler or leech. Maybe with a small split shot tossed to the edge of the white water. You're talking a small stream here. I doubt you're going to find a 4 or 5 lb smallmouth hanging out in it. An 18 inch fish possibly. Most will be in the 10 to 14 inch range, or even smaller. One suggestion spend some time watching the water before you fish it. It's a habit I picked up from fly fishing, maybe 10 to 15 minutes of just watching the water, see where the current breaks are. If you have polarized sun glasses, you might even be able to pick out a fish or two

I don't fish bait that much but I've caught smallies from areas similar to that using minnows. Not in the white water part, but along the edges of it. If I'm tossing a fly or lure I'd fish the edges of the hole. As far as size goes I've never caught any really large ones in areas lake that but you never know.

Is the lake stocked with trout? The profile that I can see doesn't match a carp/koi/goldfish. It might be what they call these days a "golden" rainbow.

That's just my choice of hook. A baitholder hook will work just as well. I would use a size 4 though. I find with circle hooks I'm less likely to gut hook the fish. Theoretically, a circle hook is designed to catch the fish in the mouth when the line is tightened. It works well with minnows, but not so much with nightcrawlers or leeches.

The 3 mile stretch of the creek I fish has 3 dams on, pretty much all that remains of the many mills that were on the creek in the early to mid 1800's. They're not going to be torn down, historic structures, though a couple were damaged in the flooding after Hurricane Floyd back in 1998. Over the years the areas immediately behind the dams has silted up still water but shallow. The pools behind the dams run from about a 1/4 to 1/3 mile behind them and it's hard to reach parts of them. They have some of the deepest water in the creek and if I'm not fishing the creek I walk on the path above it for exercise. Over the years I've seen some big bass, 3-5 lb range, both smallmouth and largemouth, in those pools. A couple of pictures of the dams. The first is a long shot looking upstream at one of the dams and a close up of the pool below it. The second set is one of the larger dams, and then the back end of the pool, about 1/3 of a mile upstream.

I'm a fly fisherman and I tie all my own flies. I'll buy jigs and dress them with buck tail or marabou. I refurbish lures for myself and the guys I fish with. I've picked up the materials to make in-line and Mepps style spinners for my fishing buddies. I did try making some lures, but used premade bodies that I had to paint and add hooks to. Did catch a few walleye with them.

I fish them two different ways I'll live line them. I use a size 4 circle hook, hook them through the mouth/nostrils, just flip them out an let them swim around. Most times I fish them under a slip bobber. Size 4 circle hook, with a split shot about 6 inches above the hook. The size and number of split shot will depend on how deep I'm fishing. The beauty of a slip bobber is you can adjust the depth easily by moving the bobber stop, and it's much easier to cast than a fixed bobber. It slips down and will stop at the split shot, when it hits the water the split shot will take the bait down to whatever depth you have it set for. 3 feet, 6 feet, 20 feet.

I've heard of Kenora, but not the lodge. Where I go is roughly 7 hour drive north of Toronto. Much further east and bit south of where Kenora is. The guy I fished the lake with for many years was from Youngstown.

I would think it's closer to 18 inches than 20. Still it's a nice fish for a small river. Here's one for comparison this one's 18 inches or so. Came out of lake in Northern Ontario.

I'll put a vote in for a small fallfish. The scales, tail and dorsal fin match a fallfish.

Four young of the year seagulls. Two on spinning gear on floating Rapala minnows and two on small Crease flies. A rod and reel, several lures and rigs, a rock, a 12 foot piece of sunken timber. A co-worker who was standing behind me while I was fly fishing in Guam. Biggest thing I've caught so far.

Nice little fly, that will catch you some bass. I have a limited fly rod inventory. My trout and pan fish rod is a 5 wgt. I caught the one big bass out of the creek on it. It was a bit more fun than I wanted. Generally, a 3 wgt is adequate for trout. You're not using large flies, probably size 10 on down for them. If you want to use a fly rod for bass, a 6 wgt would work well for your area. You're going to be using bigger and larger flies. My bass flies run from 2 to 8 inches in length and are tied on hooks from size 6 to 4/0. At the larger end of the spectrum I have to use my 8 wgt. The season here for bass is sort of winding down, and probably is out there. Use the 3 wgt for now, just use a heavier leader/tippet if you're going to fish for smallies. 10 to 15# should work. I'm not a "wow, what a great fight that bass gave me on my light fly rod. Took me 30 minutes to land" type. I like to use a hefty enough rod with nice heavy leader that gives me a short enjoyable fight, allow me to get the fish in quick, unhooked, a quick picture if it's worth it and back in the water. Don't worry about losing a fly rod. I've left at least two on the roof of my car, over the years, after fishing and drove off with them still on the roof, at least for a little while Ask questions on this board. When I stumbled across it, it was like hitting the Mother lode. Here are folks that are addicted to bass fishing, many have been doing it for years. They think like bass fishermen, not fly fishermen. There's a lot of folks who fly fish for bass, but a lot of their initial fly fishing was for trout. And they still approach it like bass are trout. We can't do some of the things that can be done with spinning or bait casting gear, but we can come close. One of my tying projects over the winter is a Ned fly.

I'm in SE PA and most of the streams they stock trout in around here will most likely have smallies and possibly even largemouth in them. Look for moving water(it doesn't have to be fast moving), below dams, riffle areas, above, below and even run some top waters through. Let me show pictures of the waters I've caught smallies in my local creek. Don't expect huge fish. The biggest I've taken out of the 3 1/2 mile stretch I like to fish is 16 3/4". Most are in the 10 to 12 inch range.

Welcome! Keep fly fishing for them. They're a lot of fun. Don't worry about the size of them in your local creek. They ones in my local creek average 10-12 inches. They do get bigger but you have to hunt for them. As already suggested then find a place where they grow bigger.

Are you sure they're chasing insects? I'm a fly fisherman, and I can only think of a couple of mayflies that are large enough and hatch on lakes in great enough numbers to attract bass. Those hatches usually start at dusk and continue a couple of hours after dark.. I would try the smallest poppers or top waters or small floating or shallow diving minnow lures that you can cast with your rig. Sometimes the bass aren't actually eating the flies or other insects but the smaller fish feeding on them.

I just found this picture tonight. I caught it a couple of years ago in local quarry.

I use marabou flies for smallies. Not my go to fly, but they do work. I've caught smallies and sunfish in the Wissahickon on them. I do tie some on jig hooks, the rest on straight shank hooks. I use what we call bead heads, round brass or tungsten weights that slide onto the hook for weight. The jigs in Jerimination's post are good color selection. Add olive and chartreuse to mix and you'd be in good shape. I've had some issues finding decent marabou for tying them

Depends on what your definition of snapper blues is. To me they're bluefish in the 8 to 15 inch range, so light to medium tackle would work if that's what you're looking for. Think of them as pan fish with teeth and a nasty temper. Blues that size aren't bad eating. Medium tackle should handle fish in the in the 16 to 24 inch range. This time of year they'll be chasing silversides and bay anchovies along with peanut bunker. Rapala type minnow lures, black/silver, blue/silver, green/silver. 2 to 4 inches in length. Floaters and shallow divers. Don't forget poppers. Top water's a blast. I don't use wire for the smaller blues, but I'm fly fishing for them. Even when I was using spinning tackle I seldom used wire. A heavy mono or fluorocarbon bite tippet/leader, 20# to 40# will keep them from biting you off. Don't use soft plastics, even the little guys will bite them in half. Don't lip them when you land them. Stripers are going to be tougher. This time of year they're more of a night time proposition. Pretty much them same type of lures and poppers, maybe add a deeper running lure or two. If you can afford it, hire a guide that does night trips for stripers. There are several in the Cape May area. If you use your fresh water gear, make sure you wash it down with fresh water when your done for the day or night.

Finally got around to using the large double barrel poppers and a couple of "standard" body ones.

Yep. I had to google it to ID it. Took a pheasant tail nymph I was trying to catch some rock bass with. It's not something I catch everyday. Might not catch another one.

I've used earplugs. Usually the ones I use when I go to the range... The problem I had with them is that they're to soft to get them on a hook. Stringing them on the line in front of the hook makes sense. A poor man's tube fly. I've been taking a fly tying class called "Fun with Foam" offered by the IFF on ZOOM and Facebook. The last fly we did was a foam dragon fly. Here's a couple that I tied up. Any resemblance to the fly taught in the class is purely coincidental.

I think the only time I microfish is whenI go up to my sister's place in VT and work the small creeks for finger size brook trout. I mainly fly fish so I do catch some small fish, mainly minnows. I seldom take pictures of small fish, but this one was worth it. I caught it in a lake in central VT. This is probably an average size adult fish.