Mid October help

[Musky hunter 82]

So I'm heading up to the Hackensack area around the 14th of October and looking to get in some bass fishing one day.  The lakes I want to fish are really clear and have a very good population of smallmouth and largemouth in them.  The problem is I have never fished this late in the year for bass, so don't know where to start, normally I would start with the deep weed edge for large mouths but I would love to get into some smallies also.

Where are the fish going to be? deep weed edge? Up shallow? Suspended?

What would be your go to lures this time of year?

What species would be easier to locate and fish for?

Thanks for and help here. 

[rascal23]

OK, I'll take a stab,

•   LM,  with the clear water, I would first look for any remaining pads. Work in and around with frogs in, dingers and swimbaits around.  Probably won't be much good shallow weed left. Nothing?  Go deeper til you find the greenest milfoil or coontail - cranks, t-rigs, jigs, etc...     SM?  Not sure. They usually kick my arse.  But any lake with smallies in the fall, I would have a suspending jerkbait on a rod at all times. Water temp will be your guide. Good luck. 

[Search Function]

Weed flats can be money.  Lipless crankbaits, slow rolling spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, chatterjigs, swim jigs, paddle tail swimbaits.

Edited September 8, 2016 by Search Function

[thatoneguy]

What lakes are you thinking about...10 Mile and Portage, or stuff farther to the east? Let me know and I can point you in the right direction. Broadly speaking, I would keep a jerkbait and a spinner tied on for both largemouth and smallmouth, and definitely a chatterbait for largies as well. You can catch nice largies well into October up here on a frog pulled over old grass/wild rice. That time of year you can sometimes find good mats as well. Fish fast and cover water until you contact active fish.

[Musky hunter 82]

Thanks for all the replies,

Thatoneguy - I was looking two lakes just South of Women lake, I fished one of them in July of last year and the DNR had tagged a bunch of the bass out there.  It was cool to catch quite a few with multiple tags.  There was a good deep weed edge and several bags with lilly pads, along with some pencil reed points.

My thought was in line with what you guys have been saying, to fish fast until I figure out where they are, start shallow in the pads and reed points with swim jigs, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits to cover water.  If they are not up there then hit the deeper weed edge if I can find green weeds still.

[ThunderLund78]

Great advice guys!

I was about to post the same question as I have a cousin coming in from Florida and we'll be in the Brainerd area this weekend. Won't be able to catch the big Florida-strain largies the he's used to, but hopefully we'll find a few pigs fattening up for the winter.  I think he wants to brag to his southern fishing buddies that he's caught bass is 50 degree water  - he and my Uncle are relying on me to be the guide, trying not to disappoint.

[thatoneguy]

Hey Musky, if you happen to see this before you head up - be sure to check pencil reeds! We had a great pencil reed bite going on Saturday...lots of very solid fish. When we first found em they were busting panfish or baitfish on the surface and would annihilate a jig thrown in their direction.

[Musky hunter 82]

Awesome thanks for the update, where you throw a swim jig?  What color did you end up using?  Were there any docks left in yet or were they all taken out already?

[thatoneguy]

most docks were still in. They tended to be in the densest reeds, so a swim jig wouldn't have worked for us. Any dark color worked. We caught em on blue/black, PBJ, green pumpkin, red/black. Couldn't get them to eat topwater anywhere, which was a little surprising, but it would be worth trying I think.

[smalliehunter]

Off shore structure with rock.  They destroyed a jig the last 2 days in that area.  There's a tagged fish from first weekend in October

[Musky hunter 82]

Thanks for the info guys, can't wait to get up there and fish on Saturday.  So where would you guys start your day?  Shallow or deep?  Also the guy I'm going with doesn't fish much at all, it there a technique that would work good other then a jig?  I'm thinking of having him use a 3.5" tube, or maybe a spinnerbait or rattle trap but this would depend on the cover we fish.  So you guys were using a slow moving presentation, so maybe a spinnerbait, rattle trap would be too fast?

[thatoneguy]

If you're looking for green fish, start shallow, if you're looking for brownies, start deep. I would encourage a jig over a tube right now by far. Believe me, he will be able to detect the jig bites  

It's always worth chucking a spinner to see if they will eat it, as that is pretty simple fishing and can be really effective. But last weekend, they wanted something down on the bottom for sure...weren't feeding up at all.

[Musky hunter 82]

Here's a recap of what we found when we were up there fishing this last weekend.  We ended up fishing 2 smaller lakes around Woman lake East of Hackensack, It was very overcast on Saturday morning and at time would sprinkle a little bit, the wind was blowing out of the South at around 10mph.  The water temp was anywhere from 50.4deg up to 54.3deg, water clarity was around 8'-10' both lakes had Lilly pads and on had a good population of pencil reeds.  To start we fished shoreline structure/inside weed edge using a chatterbait and a small crank bait, I picked up a 2 pound bass and a small northern on the crank bait.  Nothing on the chatterbait, after a while I started slowly dragging a Green pumpkin swim jig with a craw trailer and my buddy switched over to a white spinner bait.  As we fished through the day we never really established a pattern we could replicate, we mainly fished shallow and caught bass in the pencil reeds, Lilly pads, green cabbage beds but not a single one from a dock.  We ended up with 21 bass from 12" - 17" and 7 northerns, almost all of them came on a slow moving swim jig, to the point where if you thought you were fishing slow you had to fish slower yet.  Overall though it was a great day on the water. 

[Dew_Man]

Made it out on a lake east of the metro Saturday. 

 

Started shallow with senkos spinners topwater jigs.. Picked up probably 8 fish between three of us. We started fishing outside weed edge with cranks and started doing better but nothing special. 2 18" and one 20" 4# on a jerkbait. All day around 20 bass and 5-6 northerns..

 

My question is, where are you guys locating the fish? not really experienced in fishing in October. 

[thatoneguy]

Dew Man, the lakes I have been fishing have a shallow shallow fall bite. Find the food and you find the fish. Sometimes requires covering a lot of water, but when you find one you find a bunch.

On Saturday I fished a very different deep, clear lake for smallies. Marked a lot of non-biting fish deep, and then really whacked em good with topwater in 10-12' along a steep break at the edge of a shoreline flat.