Fall Returns

[RK]

I am curious if this warm up will help or hamper the fall bite. Water really hasn't cooled down yet.

Never know until you go but personally I hate warming water in fall. Just never seems to add up to a steady bite. It's even worse with muskies. But, I'll be heading out tomorrow. Might be a great weekend to take a page out of R3's playbook and night fish...

[RumRiverRat]

Going to be a weekend of slow rolling big swimbaits over rocks.

My most recent purchase of 8" and 68 Special Hudds just got put in my garage by the UPS guy.

Going to sling a Swimbait until my arms fall off this weekend.

[RuddyDuck]

Those look like big baits! I think my wimpy arms would fall off after about five casts with those things. I'm gonna stick to smaller stuff.

With this warm up, a guy might even be able to fish in shorts again.

[RumRiverRat]

Put this to work today

Day started slow.

Got into a groove and found a bunch of fish.

Caught a fish on 21 consecutive casts with the dropshot at one point.

Caught a bunch on a Northstar Custom Baits Hairy Craw jig and a Southpaw Jig.

Lots of dinks and 13 to 15 inch fish and a handful in the 16 to 18 inch range.

10 hours on the water, 77 bass and 3 pike.

[RuddyDuck]

Sounds like you found them. Guess I left too early and can't catch them anyways! It was a nice morning to be in shorts at least.

[RumRiverRat]

The fish on the rocks turned on about 1230.

I happened to be there at the right time and capitalized on it.

[RuddyDuck]

Wow, from 80's and shorts last Sunday, to snow flurries tomorrow night! Sounds like 40's and windy on Saturday around here. Guess it will be interesting out on the lakes this weekend.

At least there should be less people out. I found out last Sunday the negative of a big warm up. When it is 80 this late in the year, alot of people head out fishing for that last warm hurrah!

Any different strategies for this type of weather?

[RuddyDuck]

Made it out around 3:30 this after noon. Was pretty slow and tough out there for me. Ended up avoiding a total skunk and got a couple little 14inchers and a couple others even smaller. All on cranks. Couldn't buy a bite on a jig today, but the wind made that tougher. I didn't try finesse stuff cause of getting blowin around alot. The wind at least died down now, so hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better.

[bonebaby0]

Fished a small tournament yesterday 8am-2pm and only one person caught good fish. Couple zeros, couple with 1 fish, with only 2 anglers coming in with a limit. Winner had 16.40 Ibs with big fish of 4.95 Ibs all caught without ever feeling a bite (just pick bait up or line would move). 3 days before the tournament two of the anglers caught 20+ fish on rocks and would have weighed 17-19 Ibs each. It ended up that only 1 dink fish was weighed off rocks. Just goes to show how different a day or two makes in the fall. The only thing that seems consistent to me is that it is basically all or nothing.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Hey Steve! Who won the tournament? I was out on a metro lake today that's normally a zoo but the weather gave me the whole lake to myself practically! Fished for 4 hours and got 6 bass and a few pike. 3 20" bass so that easily made up for the lack of fish.

[RumRiverRat]

52 degree water temps today. 10 degrees cooler than last weekend.

Absolutely lit the fish up with a lipless crank, swimbait and a Northstar Custom Baits Hairy Craw Jig.

Biggest was 19.5"

I could tell the better fish just by the way the bit. They just picked up the jig and held it. The smaller fish would thunk it, spit it out and thunk it again. I would drag the jig feel the thunks. Stop the jig then start moving it again and they would thunk it.

Spent the most time fishing rocks both deep and shallow.

Hair jigs shine in cold water. Confident I will be able to catch fish even when the water is in the low 40s.

[th64]

Anything on the jig 3R?

[slopmaster]

Nice report RRR. Didn't get out this weekend sadly but I'll be targeting rocks and green weeds next weekend for sure. I'm sure you can guess what I'll be throwing as well

[bonebaby0]

Oppe won the tournament - nice day when you catch 3 20"ers ... nicely done!

[M1dwestF1sh]

Nice job by him! Ya it was a fun day. 2 of them came from the same dock almost the same excact spot on the dock. RRR how are you fishing those hair jigs? Like a swim jig or football jig?

[RuddyDuck]

Well, I was one of the one fish wonders yesterday morning, while Rum was catching them left and right! Just couldn't get any to bite yesterday out there for me. I'm hoping the wind dies down a bit this week and temps level off. Water temps were 53-54 yesterday.

[RumRiverRat]

Drag it slow.

When you think you are going slow enough cut the speed in half.

[Juan Grande]

Weird that they'll hit a fast moving bait like a lipless or swimbait, but then you have to move a jig slower than molasses to get bit.

[RumRiverRat]

I was crawling the swimbait extremely slow too. A start and stop retrieve. They would eat it on the fall. Just crushed the swimbait.

Only caught a couple on the Lipless. They tried to eat it head first though.

The key with the Northstar Custom Baits Hairy Craw Jig is letting the hair breathe, the slightest twitches will make the hair pulsate and breathe.

Going to have Chris tie me some pure hair jigs on football heads for when the water gets really cold.

[RumRiverRat]

One of the jigs I have been using.

With the Hairy Craw Jig you need a smaller trailer. The Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw at 3" is perfect.

If I want less wiggle I will use a Zoom Super Chunk trimmed like in the picture and then threaded on the hook.

The reason behind trimming the trailer or using a smaller less bulky trailer is that they do not force the hair to poof out which creates a bigger profile which is what I do not want when throwing a jig like this.

These are all things Chris recommends on his site.

If the trailer was not trimmed it would push the hair out farther.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Not really sure how to upload pics or if you even can from a phone but there were some nice fish I got on a jig last time out but the bass I got into Sunday were barely getting hooked but they would just slam the jig I was pitching. Those hair jogs look cool! Can you order them from their HSOforum? I don't fish many hard bottem areas but they look like they'd have a lot of action.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Today was my last time out for the year. Was out for 2 1/2 hours can managed 12 bass and 2 pike with the biggest bass being 18". All came on a kvd 1.5. It took about an hour to dial in the pattern but once I did it was pretty consistent. Last cast of open water ended with a bass on the end of the line for me! Wish the boat wasn't going in storage Saturday with the water temps at 49 today but nothing I can do about it.

[bassfshin24]

Got out yesterday for a couple hours. Fishing was pretty slow. Managed 6 bass and 2 pike. Biggest bass was probably around 3lbs. A Jerkbait and finesse jig put the fish in the boat. Had a couple misses on KVD 1.5 and a couple on the finesse jig. Hoping to get out a few more times.

[RuddyDuck]

It's always sad the last time out, but sounds like you had some decent fishing to wind down the season!

I hope to get out this weekend yet. With Deer hunting the following weekend, there's a good chance it will be my last time out, unless temps stay warm in Mid November. Sounds like Sunday is suppose to be warm, so hoping to get out then. This cold snap here will probably cool the water down pretty good. Had a thick layer of ice on the dog water this morning!

[RumRiverRat]

Going to sling swimbaits of various shapes and sizes on Sunday.

Might be last time out before my third child is born next Friday.