From what I’ve seen in Michigan vs home, there aren’t any similarities. Here the only weather that seems to matter is did it flood or did it not flood. Dead middle of summer 85-90 degrees you can catch a lot of smallmouth at noon in shin deep water. The water is never very clear and it goes up and down a few feet each day during most of the year. If it’s flooded it gets full and stays full while moving swiftly. Sometimes in spring when they are filling the lakes, the water will sit still. Other years in spring it’s totally raging non stop until it dries out in summertime. What you often hear professional fisherman say when they come here is fish don’t follow patterns. That’s obviously not completely true but it can be the case more often than not. Junk fishing can be a good way to go. 
 

the repeatable patterns I seem to remember are creeks that warm faster than the main river in springtime are always good, topwater is pretty good when it’s hot outside, and September is football season for SMB, not just on the gridiron. The sun/clouds/wind don’t seem to change the fishing results for me, I’m guessing that is because the water isn’t clear. 

 I caught a striper in the 30 lb class April 4 2019 and my wife decided to top that with a 36 lb 44” striper on April 4 2020. They were many miles apart but the one I caught was trying to eat a skipjack and the one she caught was with a whole dead 1 lb skipjack as bait 

 

The new 'Shrimp' Pattern Vision 110 has been very popular with the ladies . . . .

Especially when presented in 8-10 feet of clear & clean 42-45 degree water

 

A-Jay

Wait a minute…..that looks like Lake Menderchuck in the background!

 

Beautiful fish as always.

Matte perch is a pattern I picked up this past winter in a vision 110 and it’s been catching some decent prespawn brownies for me.

 

 

 Past few seasons, from mid August thru mid September,

the chances of bumping into a few plus size brown bass have been pretty good. 

So I'm usually chomping at the bit to get out on some of the bigger lakes here. 

Certainly doesn't hurt that most all of my most productive presentations

are either topwater or horizontal moving baits, which makes be very happy. 

 This year however, my opportunities to get out on to Lake Menderchuck consistently 

(which has proven to be fairly important) are going to be severely limited. 

So I'll need to make The Most out of any & all trips I can make.  

I'm feeling up to the challenge.

Additionally, my 'Brown Bass Tools' (specifically some Rods & Reels)

have been revamped a bit.

Last season and as well as the previous two, my deal looked like this :

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/?do=findComment&comment=2996398

 

But for the 2024 late summer/fall run there's been a few changes

in both my casting & spinning gear. Replaced / rehomed some (but not all)

of the gear that had a few miles on it , with some new stuff. 

Not sure the bass care, but I do. 

Most notable changes are Quantum rods & reels have been replaced by

Daiwa Tatula MQ LT 3000 Spinning Reels, Daiwa DX Type-H Glass Reaction Casting Rods 7'3" Heavy,

Daiwa Tatula Elite 100 Casting Reels, Shimano Bantam MGL A 150 Casting Reels and the St. Croix Avid line of rods is represented here as well. Both spinning & casting

 

 

 

I expect the presentations/baits to pretty much remain the same.

Falls under the category of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

This should cover it, at least to start. 

Finally, Feels like I haven't been on the water in so long that my Mojo is playing hide & seek.

Posting this kind of stuff helps get the juices flowing again.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

 

 

I thought of you the other morning A-Jay, when I found my night bite had made the annual August transition to rock. Water temps are coming down. I thought, it's about time for A-Jay to run into some of those big brown sows. That window is opening here.

 I'm gonna try to make it down to my favorite SM lake next week, and see if I can get some to eat in the dark. That lake also has a good muskie population and several weedy bays with feeder creeks. I'm anxious to see if I can get on the same blade/crank bite down there that I've been on at Leesville once the lights come on. Brownies all night, slimers all morning, sounds like my kinda party!!! 😉

Just get back in that saddle and ride again!

At what water temperature do you look to start using jerk baits for smallmouth in the fall?
 

In the spring, I find them most effective when the water is below 60 degrees. Is that what I should look for in the fall too?
 

I know some people use them all season, they just snap them much quicker.

11 hours ago, gimruis said:

At what water temperature do you look to start using jerk baits for smallmouth in the fall?
 

In the spring, I find them most effective when the water is below 60 degrees. Is that what I should look for in the fall too?
 

I know some people use them all season, they just snap them much quicker.

I am not really looking for a surface water temp to dictate presentation choice.

Used to and IMO, I feel like I missed some bites by following that mantra.

So now it's more about bait & fish movement in the late summer and into the fall.

Once the weeds start to die off to a point where there's more dead vegetation that green vibrant stuff, seems most of the bait and the bass will vacant the shallow flats and move to the next level secondary deeper flats. When this happens seems to change a bit for year to year. 

I'll fish the edges of these with regular and deep diving jerkbaits.

Which one depend on if I'm on the shallow side or the deeper edge.

Sometimes the same spots that produced early season are good also in the fall.

But sometimes they are not for me and I've had to hunt down where they go in Sept and October.

It's a good numbers time of the year for me but as the season wears on, the bigger brown bass seem harder & harder to find and catch. 

 Later this week I'll have a chance to see what the heck is going on with Lake Menderchuck.

Plan on starting shallow but will have no problem bailing on that deal quickly if I'm not feeling it.

Finally, the later the season the more the late afternoon / sunset bite becomes my best producer.

On the bigger lakes as well as the smaller bodies of water.

Once they finally set up on their winter stuff, they usually stay there.

And can be a bit easier to target.

Problem for me is being able to fish them.  It becomes a time of 'too much'.

Too much wind, waves, snow or ice.

A-Jay

 

 

12 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Finally, the later the season the more the late afternoon / sunset bite becomes my best producer.

On the bigger lakes as well as the smaller bodies of water.

Once they finally set up on their winter stuff, they usually stay there.

And can be a bit easier to target.

Problem for me is being able to fish them.  It becomes a time of 'too much'.

Too much wind, waves, snow or ice.

 

I've found this to be pretty reliable for largemouth too, especially if we've just had a frosty overnight/morning.  If the low overnight temps stayed mild, then the morning bite doesn't seem affected.

 

I usually fish until the end of October and then its deer hunting in early November, so my season's done then anyways.  Lately it does seem like November has been a mild weather month so if I wasn't hunting, I'd probably at least consider to continue fishing into November.

On 8/17/2024 at 6:43 PM, A-Jay said:

 Past few seasons, from mid August thru mid September,

the chances of bumping into a few plus size brown bass have been pretty good. 

So I'm usually chomping at the bit to get out on some of the bigger lakes here. 

Certainly doesn't hurt that most all of my most productive presentations

are either topwater or horizontal moving baits, which makes be very happy. 

 This year however, my opportunities to get out on to Lake Menderchuck consistently 

(which has proven to be fairly important) are going to be severely limited. 

So I'll need to make The Most out of any & all trips I can make.  

I'm feeling up to the challenge.

Additionally, my 'Brown Bass Tools' (specifically some Rods & Reels)

have been revamped a bit.

Last season and as well as the previous two, my deal looked like this :

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/?do=findComment&comment=2996398

 

But for the 2024 late summer/fall run there's been a few changes

in both my casting & spinning gear. Replaced / rehomed some (but not all)

of the gear that had a few miles on it , with some new stuff. 

Not sure the bass care, but I do. 

Most notable changes are Quantum rods & reels have been replaced by

Daiwa Tatula MQ LT 3000 Spinning Reels, Daiwa DX Type-H Glass Reaction Casting Rods 7'3" Heavy,

Daiwa Tatula Elite 100 Casting Reels, Shimano Bantam MGL A 150 Casting Reels and the St. Croix Avid line of rods is represented here as well. Both spinning & casting

 

 

 

I expect the presentations/baits to pretty much remain the same.

Falls under the category of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

This should cover it, at least to start. 

Finally, Feels like I haven't been on the water in so long that my Mojo is playing hide & seek.

Posting this kind of stuff helps get the juices flowing again.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

 

 

 

A-Rig & a Spinnerbait came through for me ~

A-Jay

Capitalized on a 'False Spawn' for the first time.

The 2nd week in Oct and with water temps hovering around 60 degrees for a bit longer than we're used to seeing, I found a few big males on beds in 4-6 feet of water.

Clear, Flat Calm & sunny conditions really helps spot them. 

Most were pretty wary, but this one hung just around long enough for me to introduce myself.

https://youtu.be/Z3BrvrIA8wk?feature=shared&t=191

A-Jay

 

Location, Timing, Presentation & Persistence ~

Started over 6 years ago, there's quite a bit about "The Big Four" in this thread.

Growing up in New England, a 4 lb smallie was the standard for a big fish.

After settling in up here, 4's became fairly common place.

And so 5 lb fish became the new target.

Well, as crazy as this seems, 5 lb fish, while not exactly common place,

didn't have that wild appeal once I bumped into a few over 6 lb. and bigger.

At Present and for the last 6 years, 6 lbs has been and will probably for the foreseeable

future, be the standard for a True Trophy Brown Bass.

Still a wildly rare fish which makes them even more desirable to me. 

 I went back through the achieves and put this clip of trophy 6's + together.

Needed to, it helps get me through the hard water season,

that hasn't even started yet !

Fish Hard

A-Jay

Well, it's been over 6 years since I initially listed most of the Brown Bass Tool baits.

There's be some changes / refinement during that time.

Totally snowed in this weekend, offered the perfect opportunity to do an update.

Chapters are listed in the video comments. 

 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

6 years 

10 pages

Over 45,000 views

 

Well done!

 

Laid out the 2025 rigs on the deck of the home gym

It may change a bit but this is what I expect to start of the season with . . . .

A-Jay

 

 

@A-Jay looks good! I do have one favor to ask of you, you have an odd number of rods. For the sake of my OCD, can you add one more to make it an even number? 
 

Mmmm.  Midwinter Tackle Porn...

The Quill is Loaded and Ready to go to work. Please open the boat ramps.

A-Jay

Is that enough?

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

The Quill is Loaded and Ready to go to work. Please open the boat ramps.

A-Jay

What are your go-to rod socks? The TW brand or do you pick up nicer ones?

13 minutes ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

What are your go-to rod socks? The TW brand or do you pick up nicer ones?

I use the nicer stick jackets. some rod gloves and the TW brand as well.

The secret is to use these KastKing Lure Wraps with them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C3WRLBJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

A-Jay

 

 

Operation payload.

On 4/16/2025 at 8:40 PM, gim said:

Operation payload.

Pays Off ~ 

A-Jay

13 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Pays Off

 

Typically does.  Musta got the access cleared for ya I see.