This past Saturday I was able to sneak away for a day of fishing. With calm winds forecast and temps approaching 60 degrees I had a good feeling about the day. Given that light winds were forecast I decided to fish a lake that had an offshore hump that produces very well in late October and early November. I got on the water about 9 am and trolled out to the offshore hump. The hump comes up from deep water over 50 feet on wide side to 2-3 feet deep on the top. I was targeting the steepest part of the drop off. Every year there are smelt there this time of year and so are the bass. the first few casts with a jig I got nothing. I decided to take a few casts with a silver buddy which had produced here in the past. On my third cast with a silver buddy I got my first bite of the day and it was heck of a fight on 8 lb fluorocarbon.

 

4 lbs 2 oz

 

A few casts later I caught another fish over 2 lbs. They were hitting it after the initial fall while I was slowly hopping it to the boat. Not to much longer after I got the 4-2 I hooked into a good smallie.

 

3 lbs 6 oz

 

Very next cast another better fish hit my buddy. This time on the initial fall.

 

A very skinny 3 lbs 5 oz

 

 After the first time I had fished around the entire hump I had caught 7 bass. I fished very slowly and it took nearly 3 hours to go around the entire hump. I was catching fish in 25-40 feet of water.

 

The second time around the hump wasn't as productive numbers wise. I tried some other presentations, a jig, a drop shot, Carolina rig, suspended jerkbait but on this day in this situation there was nothing out producing the silver buddy. During this second time around hump I caught one of the biggest smallmouth I have caught this year.

 

3 lbs 8 oz

 

 Several casts after the smallmouth I hooked into another good largemouth. This fish has sort of special significance. It was the 200th largemouth for the year over  3 lbs.

 

3 lbs 11 oz.

 

I caught a couple more fish for the rest over the next couple hours but nothing good. I finished the day before 4 and had caught 6 largemouth and 5 smallmouth off of this one hump all on a silver buddy. Water temperature was 52-54 degrees. It was a beautiful fall day. Biggest 5 fish went 4-2,3-11,3-8,3-6,3-5 for exactly 17 lbs. A good fall day of fishing. I only missed one bite all day.

200 largemouth over 3 pounds sounds like a heck of a good year to me!

Congratulations on some nice fish, and a good haul for the year.

200 largemouth over 3 pounds sounds like a heck of a good year to me!

If take half that a year and call it a success! Congrats!

Nice job, man! Some nice fish, and a heck of a milestone. 

Good day man! We're going out this Sunday and I plan on throwing the buddy quite a bit.

Way to go man. I was catching 8 inch salmon with my silver buddy last week. The unfortunate part was, the school of bait I found was being heavily attacked by what I thought was bass. I found out they were bass, but the school of bait turned out to be salmon. 

Your buddy was my buddy too.

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/146408-fall-basin/

that's great man. Awesome fish, and sounds like a good year all around. Can't argue with results.