…but it’s time to go home (and back to work…)! Isn’t that how it always?
I never finished my story about the 2008 fall big bass hunt – shorter in duration this year, but no less important to my well-being. After a total error of a day on Saturday, Sunday could easily go better. It definitely started out well when I saw that hoards of bass were coming into the shallows. They were not doing much other than just sitting there, but at least you could now tell there’s a lot of bass in the lake unlike the previous days.
This isn’t that uncommon in the fall. Sometimes they crash the shore hard on a warming trend, but the past couple of seasons it’s been more of a ‘sashay’ into the shallows. I was heartened when I got slammed by this very nice 5 lbs 1 oz smallie still fairly early in the day. Caught the beauty on a dark melon tinsel Xtreme Bass Tackle tube in about 10 feet of water.
I decided to wait until later in the afternoon because I’ve danced with this partner before… bass swimming into the shallows in groups and just sitting in 4 to 7 feet of water over sand looking like a big ole aquarium! You can drive yourself crazy in the spring and fall sometimes trying to catch these bass.
So why fight it and get frustrated I say? Save that work the weekdays right? I run around looking for situations that might make bass more interested in feeding now. At least a few of them anyway. Current. Off-colored water. Heavier cover. Something that should attract those few bass that want to eat! That’s how I got the 5-pounder.
And what the heck…? It’s a gourgeous day! The morning starts out with BIG Mullett Lake looking like a brand new mirror! The fall colors are exploding!
The water has completely cleared up from the wind-stirred cloudiness to clear to very clear over most of the lake. Where I catch the 5-pounder, I see no less that 4 more BIG smallies also just sitting there! Two are GIANTS!! I’m talking the kind of smallies that ANYONE would trip and fall out of a boat for to catch!!! A short distance away are several more including 3 more toads and another giant!
But these bass either completely ignore every trick I try of the next hour, or worse, swim away from or around my offerings. Even the ones I sneak up on. Not good, but I know what to do as I said earlier. I’ve just been biding my time.
So mid-afternoon, I sneak back up on the big point where mid-morning I saw so many bass piling in. As the sun begins to wane and the light shows the first signs of fading, I make looonnngg casts with a natural colored, but flashy War Eagle spinnerbait and burn it back over the outside edge of the point. (If it hadn’t been so bright and calm all day, and the water was still stirred up, I would have chosen a painted spinnerbait – all white, chartreuse or a combo.)
By burning the spinnerbait fast right at the surface, I want the bass to have to make up their mind instantly. To commit (even the male bass)! That way I can pick off those bass that have decided they’re hungry for dinner and have that feline chase instinct! So how did it work after several days of slow tough bites…? Well, let’s take a look:
After seeing the chasers, I decide the same old thing that has worked in the past will work again enough to send me home happier than I came. I figure I’ll keep up on this run for a little bit yet to see what I can get out of it.
Once I pick off these few excitable bass, I work my way in with slow baits and no bites. Soon, there are all the bass again. Most are still just sitting there and the are either ignoring or moving away from my baits. So, to make the best of things, I proceed to some more weeds and sand where I saw a few bass coming in even earlier in the day. There should be more smallmouth bass there now, right? More video to come…