It’s That Time…..

[Spankey]

Have scored a few respectable fish over the last couple of weeks. Have been able to pull off some back to back mornings getting out. For me that makes a lot difference. Hope it’s the end of what I was seeing prior as the summer dog days.

Wish water conditions were a bit better. Higher level, bit more flow and more stained. I can’t control that and it does not appear Mother Nature is gonna do anything to help me either. At least for the next couple of weeks. 
Not sure if you guys do this, but I’m gonna start throwing a bit larger bait. Maybe not a different bait just fish upsize existing baits. A bit larger profile. Would like to think baitfish and what they feed on is about their largest size for the season. 
I find that I might/do get less hits and fewer to bite. Need that bigger bite. Season is winding down and that real nice one has to bite. I’d like to think that I’m always fishing for that real nice one, and want to break the PB whenever I’m out but the mindset is in my head now and from here on out. 

[Standard]

I'm a big lure guy, so I start with the 120 size Choppo and go down from there.

[dytmook]

My fish this weekend were getting chunky. Water levels were still low. I fished a bit smaller baits since I only had a short window to fish and I just wanted to catch some.  Mix of a micro jig with a craw trailer and a finesse crank did pretty well for me. 

[Spankey]

My upsizes are not that big. Majority of my worm fishing is 4.5”, take it to 6”. I like to fish a 3” Mr. T or 3” Power Grub. In the fall I like throwing the Fat Albert’s, not much difference in length but better larger profile. Tubes are easy enough to bump up in size also. Been fishing Case tubes as long as I can remember. They have good size variations. 
I realize everyone’s situation is different. Fish size potential is different. I don’t fish in the smallmouth mecca of the country. But want to catch the biggest I can. 

[pdxfisher]

Last few trips I have been getting better quality with a wobblehead (swing head) jig and a 5" zoom z craw trailer. There is a ton of shad smolt in the river (Columbia) that are outmigrating right now but the bigger fish seem to be wanting to eat crawdads.

[Swamp Girl]

I was catching 15" to 16" smallmouth on a Googan Revolver this morning. That's a pretty big bait for average-sized smallies to hit, but they hit it, again and again. I was not targeting smallies. I was hoping for green bass, but the brown bass kept hitting it.

[Spankey]

Just pulled off back to back days Wednesday and Thursday. Went to some bigger plastics. Worm fishing for the most part. 5 1/2”, 6” & 7 1/2” stuff. Topwater fished Pop R’s and Mini Buzzbaits at day break. Caught a few respectable smallies, 14”-15” fish. Not trophies but respectables where I fish. Lost a couple that I had hooked up that I feel were nice fish also. It happens, not sure what I done wrong, nothing I suppose. Upsizing my worms still caught numerous runts. 9”-11” fish, fish holding closer to the bank. The bigger hits and bites in 7-9 feet of water. 
Gonna stick with upsize in baits. I have some larger craws and creatures to throw, I’ll get away from the 2 3/4” stuff. Larger profile. 
I can’t buy a crankbait as of lately. On the lake or the river. It is to the point that it’s messing with my head. My favorite way of fishing is non existent. Pretty much moved away from it for now because I don’t want to deal with the frustration. Can’t remember a time not getting drawing reactionary strikes has ever been an issue. It’s not a 100% way of fishing and fishing success for me but generally a good way to fish during a tuff bite time. 
Going to do the back to back days again in the beginning of the week. Our morning temps and daytime temps have not really falling off for the most part, water temps are only down a couple of degrees. Does not look to be cooling down any time soon. A nice well deserved rain is needed. I think it might turn on a better bite on the lake and river. 

[padon]

i fish the same river you do im sure. it may not be the smallmouth mecca like st.lawrence but its pretty dam good. shes a little stingy right now, low water lots of floating eel grass. but if we get some rain with this cooler weather shes gonna get RIGHT!

[Spankey]

19 minutes ago, padon said:

i fish the same river you do im sure. it may not be the smallmouth mecca like st.lawrence but its pretty dam good. shes a little stingy right now, low water lots of floating eel grass. but if we get some rain with this cooler weather shes gonna get RIGHT!

I hope you are right and I think you are. There is never enough time to fish every spot I want to during an outing. I’m gonna spend some time hunting some largemouths this next time out. I’m overdue for a decent Greenie also. I haven’t been fishing around much of that grass lately. Mostly cleaner stone. Haven’t been seeing any baitfish in that grass. 
Good luck out there. 

[Susky River Rat]

On 9/9/2024 at 1:27 PM, Spankey said:

Wish water conditions were a bit better. Higher level, bit more flow and more stained.

Yes! Please!  I am now well into the no go level for the river. The chance of me damaging equipment right now is very high.

[Spankey]

2 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

Yes! Please!  I am now well into the no go level for the river. The chance of me damaging equipment right now is very high.

I also have spots that I can’t reach. I won’t even try to ***** foot my way through. Trying to make the best of it. I’m sure you can lake fish the same as me but I’m drawn to that d**n river. The drive to the lake is quick and easy as well. Not gonna go near it this weekend will pull off upcoming Monday and Tuesday. I think I heard that just prior to next weekend air temps are suppose to change. No real rain to speak of. But I DON’T want flash floods either. Hang in there. I’m going to keep optimistic. 

[Susky River Rat]

@Spankey I do not mind the river flowing 10’ I just do not want it to go straight up and straight down I’d like it to maintain a higher level.  It seems like ever since we had that high water on the river when that hurricane/tropical storm came through the fishing has been tough. 

[Spankey]

Got out this morning at sun up. Was fishing heavy fog last week with the cooler AM temps. Today was calm no wind was a perfect drift and troll with the current. 

My crankbait game has been in the toilet for weeks. I’ve actually stopped throwing them for a couple of weeks. I was determined to try to get it back today if possible. Had my 4 favs tied on and was hunting for any reaction strike I could get. I’m not gonna say that I got any of the Mojo back because I didn’t. But I did get one bite and landed a 16” 1.8 lb. river largemouth. I realize this is no giant in the LM world but he’s decent for the river I fish. I’ll take it and was doing a happy dance. Fish bit almost immediately on a Bomber Model A. Had a few small Smallie followers but couldn’t get them to strike. Managed to get a few runts to bite on plastic worms. Had a few bigger hits on them also but had no hookups. My bigger hits seem to be in 6-9 feet of water. 
 

[whoopbass]

Fished the river last weekend. Caught them all on reaction baits, topwater,cranks, large swimbaits and weightless fluke.  Largest smallest the day, 19.5 inches, came on topwater.

 

 

[A-Jay]

Early & mid September were good to me.

An A-Rig & a 3/4 oz Spinnerbait accounted to these two.

I expect the rest of my open water season here will be mostly a numbers deal.

But I'm good with that too.

A-Jay

 

[T-Billy]

Today is the last day of our most recent heat wave. Lots of 50's - 70's in the extended forecast to get water temps heading back in the right direction. Looking forward to the coming shallow bite, to be followed by FAT fish gorging themselves on the giant shad schools of November. 

[Spankey]

Pulled off a couple of back to back mornings on the river. Fished a section that I have not fished for a couple of years. Contains a bit more structure natural and man made. Back to back days seem to work out more productive. Not that I set the world on fire but was catching bass. Mentally it’s a better type of fishing for me. 
Mixed bag of brown and green bass. Largest Smallie 15” on a spinnerbait, largest Greenie 14” on a 7” Power worm. A few others were close in size to these. These are nothing to brag about but fishing a bit bigger bait has increased fish size some. 
Fall might be here on the calendar but my surface water temps are still 72-74 deg. Long range temps look like they are turning to 50-70 deg. days. 
WE NEED RAIN. Nothing significant in near future. Crankbait bite is still in the toilet. Was nice picking up the one Smallie on the spinnerbait. I feel compelled to throw something of a different profile and a bait I’m fishing faster. Will fish some swimbaits and flukes harder next time out. 

[Spankey]

Might be fall by the calendar but these parts of the Northeast temps are not in any quick temp dip. Lows are gonna be at sunrise in and around 55 deg. with day and evenings in the 70’s. I’m glad it didn’t turn like it was done with a light switch. I’ll take the gradual change. 
Hope you guys in the south are ok. Hope you didn’t have to suffer property damage or personal injury. Our effects further north have only been slight amounts of rain not enough to get out of any drought. Hurricanes have more of an affect on us if it comes up the coast. From what I’ve seen hope the recovery is quick. 
Crazy how Mother Nature works. Recent hurricanes up here have ruined some rivers of the fishing it once was. But they are trying to rebound. Silting is the biggest issue. 
Hope you guys are back on the water soon. 

[Munkin]

On 9/28/2024 at 11:18 AM, Spankey said:

Might be fall by the calendar but these parts of the Northeast temps are not in any quick temp dip. Lows are gonna be at sunrise in and around 55 deg. with day and evenings in the 70’s. I’m glad it didn’t turn like it was done with a light switch. I’ll take the gradual change. 
Hope you guys in the south are ok. Hope you didn’t have to suffer property damage or personal injury. Our effects further north have only been slight amounts of rain not enough to get out of any drought. Hurricanes have more of an affect on us if it comes up the coast. From what I’ve seen hope the recovery is quick. 
Crazy how Mother Nature works. Recent hurricanes up here have ruined some rivers of the fishing it once was. But they are trying to rebound. Silting is the biggest issue. 
Hope you guys are back on the water soon. 

 

South East PA are you fishing the Susky? Down here in Merryland right before the storm rains came fishing picked up. Finally got to put away all the Ned stuff as they started chasing baits. Prior to whatever hurricane came up the East Coast? Spinnerbaits, Poppers, and 3.3" Keitech Fat Impacts were working for me. Other baits worked but nowhere near as well as those 3. 

 

Allen

[padon]

looks like a slight rise maybe this weekend and some cooler nights. the should be biting.

[TnRiver46]

It was “that time” here, now all the smallies are washed to New Orleans 

[Spankey]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

It was “that time” here, now all the smallies are washed to New Orleans 

I hope you and your family are ok. I can only hope it didn’t turn your part of the world upside down. I thought I’ve seen some bad crap in my lifetime up here with these inland hurricane effect, devistating damage but not to that extent. Things will heal, some things will be better after all the pieces get picked up. Just takes time. My thoughts are, people have to have a place to go. And need a good outreach by local communities not hit as hard. Sorry to see what has happened down there. 

[TnRiver46]

We are all good here @Spankey, across the mtn not so much 

 

the rivers that come across the Appalachians from NC blew way out so the current is raging, the SMB will adapt as you know 

[F14A-B]

Heading out Wednesday with cases upon cases of bottled water, food stuffs etc etc.. 

My family, my people are from Black Mountain Kentucky, or Harlan county..

I'm glad my Grandfather moved away and headed north, settling on the Siltstone Escarpment in southern Indiana.. also called the Knobstone escarpment.. 

[TnRiver46]

@F14A-B, glad somebody “left Harlan alive”