BassMN95

An older guy in my bass club caught a bass over 8, he has the mount and pictures to prove. I think there is a ton of factors why we don't have a lot of 7-8lbers but the main one in my opinion is the short growing season with the lakes being froze over for the better part of the year.

I just recently got into smallmouth fishing and i'm completely hooked but I really don't know the first thing about smallmouth and there patterns. I need all the help I can get and I know there is a ton of guys on the forum who can help. My main questions are what smallmouth do this time of year in Minnesota, what baits work best in the fall under what conditions. Where do they go and what do they do under different weather conditions and what to look for to locate numbers/size of smallmouth. Im fishing a 5 thousand acre lake with 11 ft clarity. Last weekend the water temps were 56-58 sunny sky's and they were roaming around small flats with rock and we caught them on tubes with the biggest going 5lb 2oz but when the sky turned cloudy the bite slowed down dramatically. Any ideas on where the fish went? Any information at all on smallmouth will help! thanks!

One thing I really recommend is when you get a bite and miss or half stick a fish, throw back with a 7" Strike King Ocho Senko, 90% of the time they will bite again when they normally wouldn't take a second pick at the jig. Hands down best follow up bait for any application!

Im, sorry I should have been more specific.. what I had in mind for big swimbaits were the baits like the huddleston, castiacs, pro bbz's, etc. Thanks for the response though!

I have been watching numerous videos of big swimbaits catching giant fish and being I live in Minnesota I have really been thinking about this. Has anyone had much success up here throwing these big baits? and if so, what are the details - where, when, why, how, tips, tricks, areas to target, etc. Really curious!