27 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

@Dwight Hottle, the way those goby eaters are built is a sight to behold. 

 

Vast. They are vast. 

@Dwight Hottle I've learned a lot from you about targeting brownies on big water over the years but perhaps the one thing I remember most is the more significant possibility for danger on these lakes.  Wind is exponential.  Safety is more important than catching fish.

 

The wind speed and direction is the first thing I check when I'm planning these trips.  Not so much when I fish other places.

 

Nice catch.

Friendly reminder...PLEASE remember to check the battery in your scale every once in a while and might not hurt to keep a spare in your tackle box / bag as well. Bit of a bummer to get what might be your PB and never know for sure because the battery was dead. On the other hand still landed these two and they both swam off safely so all in all a pretty d**n good week over here:

 

...and then a couple of days later this girl showed up:

 

32 at the forebay after work mix of stripe and LMB. this was the winner today another BFS chunk in the grass.

 Couldn't get anything going with a horizontal presentation in shallow water.  Water temp was 55, cloudy, good south spinnerbait breeze.  All the good ones came on a jig n blade in 8 fow.

Caught many good bass around this old sentinal tree.  It sets just a few feet from a creek channel bend.

13

 

@Brian11719 That’s a good reminder. I had my scale battery die once.  Luckily it was not a PB day lol. Also good to remove the battery at season’s end. 

Last day on my St Lawrence trip which was actually all fished on Lake Ontario because the river has been in a funk since Labor day. Broke six with a 6-1 caught on a 3/16 jig with a Deps minnow shaking while retrieving. Lake temp was 51-52 degrees light wind finally with mostly sunny conditions. Then I got lucky using the same bait in another location. A beautiful 7-6. Made the trip for me. A special thanks to Big JB’s guide service for putting me on the fish.  
 

Yes sir!!!!

If Dwight were a cat, he'd be a big cat:

 

Congrats Dwight!!! What a beast!!!

Dwight that’s the stuff dreams are made of right there.  Legendary!

@Dwight Hottle

20 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

 

Sir, that football is dangerously over-inflated!  Congrats, that's epic.  

It's that time of year in Iowa!

@Dwight Hottle  You are causing a drooling epidemic with that toad of a smallmouth!!!!!!

2 hours ago, Lottabass said:

@Dwight Hottle  You are causing a drooling epidemic with that toad of a smallmouth!!!!!!

 

We can only imagine what seven-plus-pounds of smallmouth feels like on the end of the line.

@Swamp Girl They do pull & dig big time at the boat. Since I didn’t get a chance to fish the St Lawrence & asked two different guides about the differences in fighting between the lake fish versus the river fish. They both said the river fish fight harder but that the river current plays a big part of that. But overall the river fish fight harder.

36 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

They both said the river fish fight harder but that the river current plays a big part of that. But overall the river fish fight harder.

 

So true. I used to live on a smallmouth river with good current, but I've also caught thousands of lake smallmouth. A river smallmouth pulls harder, but the current pulls too. 

All smallmouth pull, but it doesn’t matter whether you’re in the main flow, in a slack eddy off current or in a frog water pool…river smallmouth are no joke and the bigger they are, the harder they pull.
 

Rivers make everything stronger by necessity. A river dwelling largemouth is fun as hell keeping out of thick cover. I also fish river bluegills and that 8’ UL bends right over when a stout 8” digs 

That Fat Lady is singing for my bass fishing of 2025. The weather forecast for the next 2 weeks is only forecasting highs reaching into the 40’s.  I’m also starting to get excited for the annual Michigan firearm deer opener on November 15th. I decided that today would be my last fishing trip of 2025. 

 

I went back to the same place that I caught  all of the big smallies last week on the Saginaw Bay. Left the Saginaw river mouth at day break and it was brisk with ice on the board wind shield. Leaving the river mouth the air temp was 35F.  I had to wear my rain proof/wind proof hunting jacket and insulated hunting boots with wool socks.

 

After a short 1.5 mile boat ride from the launch. I arrived at the island where I had caught the monster smallies last time. The Only difference is this time I had to move out a little deeper but, fished the same structure.  I didn’t do as well last time but, did manage 3 smallies.

 

 The First small mouth bass of the day was a football shaped small mouth that weighed in at 5 lbs.  The first fish came on a 4 inch gobey colored tube.  I can’t for the life of me remember who made the tubes or where I bought them. I bought like 3 bags of these tubes this spring online somewhere. 

 

The other 2 smaller smallies came on a zman gobios natural colored swim bait.  Though being smaller the bass fought well in 51F water. 

 

 

After 4 hours of fishing the wind started kicking up out of the NE and decided to call it a day.  When I arrived back at the launch. I unhooked the fuel line while the motor was still running. Once the motor died I restarted the motor 2 more times and let it die each time.  All of the gas in carbs had now been used up.  soon as pulled in the driveway.  I started draining the gear oil out of the lower unit on the outboard. There is little bit of water in the gear oil which, leads me to believe that I need a new top drain seal.   All that there is left to do is pull the battery for main motor and the 2 trolling motor batteries. The boat then will be winterized at that point.  March is only 5 months away.  Sigh

Probably my season finale.

 

Forgot to include it's "sibling".

 

A 5-pound smallie by itself is a heckuva outing.

 

At this point, I might launch one more time. It's been cool and windy and the wind is what's kept me shorebound, but it's abating a bit the last two hours of this Wednesday. I might be skunked because I'm not going to paddle far from shore and Al (@Lottabass) told me that bass bunch up at drop-offs this time of year. He suggested I use a jerkbait, but I saw in one of his recent photos that he's also caught some on crankbaits. If I catch one, I'll be happy, but they might be beyond my reach because I'm afraid of the cold water and won't paddle more than 50' from the shore. We'll soon see if I can reach one!

Beautiful Fall morning. Air temp 44-60*, water temp 68-70*. 

 

It was a wacky senko kind of day

 

 

@NorcalBassin: I love seeing the different places that bass live. Your lake is so very pretty and I'd love to fish there. I especially love that you fish with Pops. I took my dad into his eighties but then he just became too wobbly to fish from a canoe. I even bought a motorboat, thinking that it might extend his fishing, but he was too old for that too.