joru100

No real tips, just a mental reminder. Just know that this is often the wildest, most exciting time of year for bass fishing. The bass have the desperate instinct to beef up for the winter and are going mad, following those tight schools of game fish, mostly in shallow water. Crankbait is the perfect bait right now. This is also the time of year where a fish finder is absolutely essential. This isn't like the spring where they are in the obvious spawning areas, or the summer where they are deep in the lake. They are wherever the bait fish want to go, and that can be anywhere.

I feel like if you're adding a fluorocarbon leader solely because you fear that the bass (or really any other predatory freshwater game fish) are line shy, than you're just wasting your money, and increasing the chances of losing the fish with more knots/lines in the equation. I've seen no difference, even in some of the clearest lakes imaginable up here in the Great Lakes region. Fluoro Leaders are good for presentation for specific lures and techniques, and mono leaders are good so you don't have to waste your braided line because you're cutting it every time you want to change your lure. Other than that, might as well go straight braid. More reliable, and less hassle.

Here in Southern / Central Ontario the smallmouth are at a point where they are going crazy for baitfish in the morning and evening to ready for the winter like most species. It's been a very hot late summer though so far, so they might be a little confused. Still, they are unusually swallow at mid day too. Wherever the baitfish are. Yesterday I was near Tobermory, ON and was catching tons of 16"-19" smallmouth with some floating cranks. Of the two dozen or so smallies I caught, I'd say 75% of them struck the crank within 3 seconds of hitting the surface, despite sometimes being in 20+ feet of water. Other times I was catching them in about 2-3 feet of water.

Largemouth are great because they always surprise me where I find them, but smallmouth are way more fun. Largemouth give you a large surface strike or a strong tug straight down, but turn into wet boots after 5 seconds. I've never fought with a largemouth for more than a full minute. I've had true 5+ minute fights with 18+ inch smallmouth.