On 10/4/2025 at 11:29 PM, papajoe222 said:

In the natural lakes I fish, once a good cold spell hits, I look for fry bluegill.

 

How big are those fry now?

 

3" or so?

Here’s a kicker for ya.  We have been fishing the Rappahonock river and its tidal.  The twin hurricanes and the full moon have made the tide swings crazy and has really made the river turbid.  We had a tough day last week.  Going tomorrow and we are planning on pitching wood all day.  

@AverageAngler - my water has dropped to high 60's and the past 4 trips my rule has been 'you can't cast shallow enough'.  Bass sitting in 8" of water just waiting for a baitfish to appear.  Back sides of grass blotches looking shallower.  If I kept covering water within those parameters I was catching fish.  

 

On 10/1/2025 at 10:19 PM, herder said:

I went today to a reservoir, should have went to the river.

Water down a couple of feet , we've had no rain in quite a while.

Reservoir is round and 180' at it's deepest, no wood and today had 14' visibility.

Couldn't find em today, eluded the skunk with a 12" largemouth, well it's mouth wasn't that large. 

 

in NJ?  I can think of a couple lakes close to that description but the no wood part has me 'stumped'.

 

 

3 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

I can think of a couple lakes close to that description but the no wood part has me 'stumped'.

 

 

 

Ha!!, by no wood I meant no blow downs on the shore. It's a valley and it's round 

9 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

 

How big are those fry now?

From the spring spawn, I'd say they're around 4in. The later, summer lot are somewhere between 2-4in.

NC reservoir; surface temps 71-74; threadfin and gizzard shad are primary forage.

 

Fish are everywhere.  And every day is different.   Very different.   This year is the first time I have fished same body of water every day.  I am astounded at how much the bite can change from day to day. 

  Yesterday, every good fish I caught during the day was between 13-19 feet deep. (Near sunset, any shallows can pop off.)

  Day before yesterday, I caught most everything off wood between 8" and 5' of water.

   Two days ago, outside edges of remaining grass were key.

   And four days ago, offshore near the surface was money.

    

   Bait is everywhere.  I almost always focus on shad.  However, a couple of bass this week are spitting up inch and a half long lmb.  So, any baitball may be key....and any baitball can be completely ignored by predators.   It is a challenging time to find active bass, but when you do, they can be super aggressive.  (As are the hardware-thieving pickerel)

 

16 hours ago, herder said:

Ha!!, by no wood I meant no blow downs on the shore. It's a valley and it's round 

ok, that's what I thought.  when you said it was a big round deep bowl that's where I thought you were.  But you said no wood and that confused me...

 

If you come up to fish this way again, give me a PM.  I was almost there on Sunday.  And I'll be out there at some point over the next two weeks.

 

12 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

From the spring spawn, I'd say they're around 4in. The later, summer lot are somewhere between 2-4in.

 

The main lakes I fish don't have shad so bluegills are the main forage.

 

I'll keep throwing my 4" soft swimbaits I guess. I've got some bigger hard swimbaits I just purchased as well that I'm going to start tossing.

 

Which brings up something that confuses me.

 

Many of the youtube guys are saying they like to throw smaller lures now to imitate the years shad spawn. But then you have other guys that say oh it's a great time to throw large swimbaits.

@HawkeyeSmallie - if you find schools of bass (or a pattern of bass) that are focused on the young of the year shad, they are hard to catch on bigger baits at times.  if the little shad at 2", you're not going to get them on a 5" pencil popper most of the time.  On the flip side, fish that aren't keyed in on anything specific are looking for FOOD.  More calories per effort exerted.  That's why bigger baits will get bit. It just comes down to your specific scenario.

Adult size Bluegill are not a preferred prey fish, too spiny to swallow. Perch are usually in the prey mix where bluegill are abundant and easier for bass to feed on, plus perch are pelagic fish that move around.

I would be surprised if crawdads are not in the mix of prey.

So many choices so little time!

Tom

I’ve been doing my damage on small baits lately. Like stated, perch are HIGH in priority for bass if they’re around. The largemouths I’m catching are keyed on roving schools of varying sizes of perch as they filter through the river, headed upstream.

 

 

I'm on a 250 acre natural lake in MI, and my fish are almost exclusively following and busting gizzard shad.  My flasher is showing heavy solid marks around 10', some around 14-16', and larger separate bars in 20-24' fow.  It seems that the shad are in 10, the crappie around 15, and schools of bass around 20.  Subtlety has gone out the window the last week or so.  Before jerkbaits, underspins and tailspinners worked in that 8-15' range were accounting for my fish, but now it's highly erratic and fast jigging spoons (duh spoon and hopkins) floated down to 20 ish and burned up to the 8-12' range and killed with slack.  This is almost exclusively over water 30-50' deep.  The hits range from vicious rip the rod from my hands strikes, to swipes, to my line stopping from sinking and me having to frantically catch up with them.  I've only gotten on this bite the last few years or so, but it's some of the most exciting ways to catch em.  My biggest issue is following the schools that I want to.  These bass are definitely schooled up by class and it's rare that I can stay on the big fish school for more than two maybe three bass.  I still have lots to learn, but the fall feed is most definitely on.

 

scott

No. In general gasoline for a bass boat would keep me off the water more. 
 

if you replaced chips w a duffel bag full of bitcoin storage devices. Yea. 
 

ffs on my kayak and I think I could dominate:)

On Monday, if you had told me that in 48 hours, I'd be fishing active bass 18-25 feet deep, I'd have thought you were nuts.  The grass on the top end of the lake went from prime to near dead almost overnight, and the bait vacated just as fast.  There are still a couple spots of grass down lake with good grass and good fish, but I am amazed at how fast things changed.  Surface temp still 72, but daylight quickly dwindling.   

28 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

On Monday, if you had told me that in 48 hours, I'd be fishing active bass 18-25 feet deep, I'd have thought you were nuts.  The grass on the top end of the lake went from prime to near dead almost overnight, and the bait vacated just as fast.  There are still a couple spots of grass down lake with good grass and good fish, but I am amazed at how fast things changed.  Surface temp still 72, but daylight quickly dwindling.   

I can relate. My largemouth river seems like it’s about done. Still some lingering fish, including good ones, but it’s really emptied out overall. I’ll probably do atleast a final bank fish for good measure, but will now switch to a couple piers for fall smallmouth which should be getting on the bite with this cold snap