Not all fish read the same book as we do

[John Bales]

This little smallmouth lake we fish is so much fun because you have this small 80 acres of water that load up with smallmouth that leave the river and winter in this little lake. Its 30 feet deep, has 2 parking spots at the ramp and if you don't get there early, the farmer lets us park along the road and you have a nice walk back to your boat. A few years ago a shad population somehow got there and it is full of shad. Some little and some grow to over 2lbs. A hand full of pike and a few walleyes and thousands of small rock bass which are on the small side. If you fish deeper than 24 feet and you get into the rock bass, you need to move. My main point is how different fish react to conditions when shad are present and this comes into play in several lakes we have that shad somehow got into the lakes. So we went there the other day and I could tell when crossing the lake that the shad were no longer positioned in the same area as a few days before so something changed(the weather). So how does this effect what we do as fishermen? Let's say we know all the spots and there are 4 good areas. The water is in the 40's so we are going to cast. The mouth of the river is a great place to start because you have all these fish coming into the lake from the river. At the mouth of the river there is a small 15 ft hole which you can cast into. If they are not there, it means that 15 ft is not deep enough for the conditions and we need to fish another spot. It might be late enough that most of the smallmouth have already made their move and this spot is done for the season. But...... just around the corner 100 feet away, the deep water swings close to the island and is a hot spot always. One anchoring position can cover from the shallows to around 24 feet just by turning around and casting the other way. So here comes the control that is different than normal. You start with a blade bait and go all the way around the boat and nothing. Then a 3/16 oz jig with a trd on it and do the same thing, different speed control on the two lures. You get no hits. Are they not there? Do you leave? Now you must do one more thing. You have two choices of lures and how you work them. The A rig or a small swim bait on a 1/4 oz jig and 6lb test on a spinning rod. It doesn't matter which direction you cast. Your first cast with either lure you count down to about 6 and start reeling with a pause or stop now and then all the way back to the boat. Next cast you give it a 10 count and next a 15 count till you have checked the whole water column. You must go through this on each spot you check because these fish in this lake are not on the bottom all the time. If you do not check it out, you will miss out on the catching. I know this is not a normal thing for fish to do. I have went to this lake many times in different times of the year and tried to figure out what the fish do in the different seasons. In the summer, there are still some smallmouth that stay but you get mostly largemouth in the summer. The largemouth will suspend out in the middle of the lake in the summer and you can run them down and cast an A rig into them but you need to get there soon after you see them come to the top. You can figure out what depth everything is with the depth finder and troll through them with spoonplugs of jerk baits or even an A rig and sometimes catch a bunch of fish and then other days you cannot buy a fish. Fishing for suspended fish is not a consistent way to go for most of the time. Like I said, I only went there to learn what they do and how they react different when shad are present. We have a lake that is clear and has shad and during the early fall, Largemouth, giant smallmouth, walleye and northerns are out over 100 foot of water chasing the shad all over the lake. The birds will give it away when the fish are busting the top but like I said, you must get there soon after if you want some top water action. One day I had the thought that it would be easier to take my time getting to where the fish are and it might be easier to catch them after they went back down if I could figure out what depth they went back down to. I put on the A rig and went over the area with the depth finder and then counted down the A rig and started reeling. I caught largemouth up to 4lbs, smallmouth up to 4lbs, walleye and not little ones and a buddy of mine caught some big northerns doing this. I investigate this because of a need to know kina thing just for myself. And again, it is not a consistant way to put fish in the boat. You can make a great catch on some days and get nothing on others. I went back to this deep clear lake this year in the early fall when the thermocline was about 30 feet. I trolled two rods with 800's and ran a 3 way with the A rig on one rod and the other I used a 4 inch swim bait. I ended up catching a few really nice fish, LM, SM and some walleye. I also realized that with the A rig, I was against the law with too many hooks on a line but so what.
When Deb and I went the other day, most of the fish were caught from 14 to 18 feet deep and most on a small swim bait on a 1/4 oz jig with a count down from 6 to 10 feet and just reel slowly with a pause now and then. Just thought I would talk about this a little because it goes against the grain of what is normally done and for me it is just another thing to consider and improve . John

[Steve Craig]

" the more I learn, the more I see there is to learn."

Great food for thought!

[Team9nine]

Always enjoy reading your thoughts, John

-Brian

[John Bales]

Brian, Then you will enjoy some of the statements I make in the next national. I am sure you employ some of the same things in your thinking as I do, especially for the crappie. John

[Hal Standish]

This little smallmouth lake we fish is so much fun because you have this small 80 acres of water that load up with smallmouth that leave the river and winter in this little lake. Its 30 feet deep, has 2 parking spots at the ramp and if you don't get there early, the farmer lets us park along the road and you have a nice walk back to your boat. A few years ago a shad population somehow got there and it is full of shad. Some little and some grow to over 2lbs. A hand full of pike and a few walleyes and thousands of small rock bass which are on the small side. If you fish deeper than 24 feet and you get into the rock bass, you need to move. My main point is how different fish react to conditions when shad are present and this comes into play in several lakes we have that shad somehow got into the lakes. So we went there the other day and I could tell when crossing the lake that the shad were no longer positioned in the same area as a few days before so something changed(the weather). So how does this effect what we do as fishermen? Let's say we know all the spots and there are 4 good areas. The water is in the 40's so we are going to cast. The mouth of the river is a great place to start because you have all these fish coming into the lake from the river. At the mouth of the river there is a small 15 ft hole which you can cast into. If they are not there, it means that 15 ft is not deep enough for the conditions and we need to fish another spot. It might be late enough that most of the smallmouth have already made their move and this spot is done for the season. But...... just around the corner 100 feet away, the deep water swings close to the island and is a hot spot always. One anchoring position can cover from the shallows to around 24 feet just by turning around and casting the other way. So here comes the control that is different than normal. You start with a blade bait and go all the way around the boat and nothing. Then a 3/16 oz jig with a trd on it and do the same thing, different speed control on the two lures. You get no hits. Are they not there? Do you leave? Now you must do one more thing. You have two choices of lures and how you work them. The A rig or a small swim bait on a 1/4 oz jig and 6lb test on a spinning rod. It doesn't matter which direction you cast. Your first cast with either lure you count down to about 6 and start reeling with a pause or stop now and then all the way back to the boat. Next cast you give it a 10 count and next a 15 count till you have checked the whole water column. You must go through this on each spot you check because these fish in this lake are not on the bottom all the time. If you do not check it out, you will miss out on the catching. I know this is not a normal thing for fish to do. I have went to this lake many times in different times of the year and tried to figure out what the fish do in the different seasons. In the summer, there are still some smallmouth that stay but you get mostly largemouth in the summer. The largemouth will suspend out in the middle of the lake in the summer and you can run them down and cast an A rig into them but you need to get there soon after you see them come to the top. You can figure out what depth everything is with the depth finder and troll through them with spoonplugs of jerk baits or even an A rig and sometimes catch a bunch of fish and then other days you cannot buy a fish. Fishing for suspended fish is not a consistent way to go for most of the time. Like I said, I only went there to learn what they do and how they react different when shad are present. We have a lake that is clear and has shad and during the early fall, Largemouth, giant smallmouth, walleye and northerns are out over 100 foot of water chasing the shad all over the lake. The birds will give it away when the fish are busting the top but like I said, you must get there soon after if you want some top water action. One day I had the thought that it would be easier to take my time getting to where the fish are and it might be easier to catch them after they went back down if I could figure out what depth they went back down to. I put on the A rig and went over the area with the depth finder and then counted down the A rig and started reeling. I caught largemouth up to 4lbs, smallmouth up to 4lbs, walleye and not little ones and a buddy of mine caught some big northerns doing this. I investigate this because of a need to know kina thing just for myself. And again, it is not a consistant way to put fish in the boat. You can make a great catch on some days and get nothing on others. I went back to this deep clear lake this year in the early fall when the thermocline was about 30 feet. I trolled two rods with 800's and ran a 3 way with the A rig on one rod and the other I used a 4 inch swim bait. I ended up catching a few really nice fish, LM, SM and some walleye. I also realized that with the A rig, I was against the law with too many hooks on a line but so what.
When Deb and I went the other day, most of the fish were caught from 14 to 18 feet deep and most on a small swim bait on a 1/4 oz jig with a count down from 6 to 10 feet and just reel slowly with a pause now and then. Just thought I would talk about this a little because it goes against the grain of what is normally done and for me it is just another thing to consider and improve . John

A fine recap of this special little lake, I know when i got that invitation to fish that water with You and Charlie last November it was one of the highlights of the fishing season for me. As memory serves me well we boated 100+ Rock bass and 72 SM and LM it was an amazing demonstration of a Spoonplugger, You, JB, applying Bucks theories into action.





Hal