ww2farmer

I forgot to mention the third sub category of largemouth that exist in the late fall in grass lakes. I talked about the big, hard cover, shallow loners, I talked about the ones buried up in deep coontail and milfoil feasting on bait. But there's also, what I like to call the "mud bellies". A fair amount of them will get completely out of the grass and lay belly to bottom on mud. Yes MUD. It holds heat, and more importantly, it holds hordes of bloodworms that bait suck out of the mud to forage on. These fish are the ones more prone to biting your ned rigs, Shakey head, little jigs, etc. Look for mud flats outside grass beds, and if there's random rocks and stuff on it, all the better. You will not see a single bass on your sonar, as they sit so close to the bottom they're undetectable. But know how to find soft vs hard bottom on your graph, and then the tell tail sign of bait hovering off the bottom. I don't bother with rock and hard bottom outside the grass for largemouth in the late fall. These areas get loaded up with smallmouth and I can confidently say that they chase off, harass, and just in general be non-welcoming to the vast majority of their green cousins on their turf. You'll catch a few green ones mixed in that somehow either have fooled the smallmouth into thinking they are one of them, or they can put up with a lot of bullying by the brown menace.

I was "ned -rigging" before the ned rig was a thing. I caught tons of fish when it was tuff on a 3" senko on a little football head. Then all this ned rig stuff comes along, and I start buying shroomz heads, TRD's, etc......just to catch the same fish I was already catching on my little stick bait/jig head thing. I want to qualify my statement with....I DO NOT MIDWEST FINESSE FISH. There's s difference between that and doing what I do. I'm basically throwing a tiny shaky head.....actually no...it's a tiny jig-worm. Old timers will know what that is. About as close as I get to midwest finesse fishing is using my own modified version of Ned's "swim, shake, glide" retrieve. I have long abandoned the 3" senko, and small football head combo, and have found the 3" robo ned worms, and the little eagle claw mushroom heads to be a fantastic combo for my intended use. Time to put my grumpy pants on.....much like the hoards of morons that a wacky rigged senko turned into factors at tournaments who do nothing but blindly toss it 24-7, the ned rig and zmans marketing campaign is doing the same thing. Do I fish senkos and "ned rigs"... YES...when I feel like they are the best tool for the job. But I'm just as prone to be doing a bunch of stuff other than water-logging senkos and snagging ned rigs all over the lake. We all know these fools.

All's I fish are grass lakes. Well...they have rock, boat docks and wood in them too, but grass is the predominate cover. The deepest grass will stay green and healthy until well after I quit fishing in a few weeks, and usually even after ice up if the water is clear, the ice is good clear "black ice", and we don't get a ton of snow on the ice to block sun light. Late fall to me (and the bass here) is when the water drops into the low 50s to mid 40's...below that it's early winter. Assuming your asking about largemouth in late fall (smallmouth are a whole other topic), they get quite fickle in late fall BUT predictable. There's going to be a few around shallow hard cover in grass lakes, like docks, wood, rock, etc....but since by now the bulk of the shallow grass (less than 6 feet) has died or is turning brown and dying back seemingly by leaps and bounds every day, they are not using it much. If you want to beat the bank in a grass lake in late fall, hard cover is the way to go....jigs, t-rigs, spinnerbaits, squarebills....all the stuff you would use year round is still in play. But your going to grind for bites up there. It's one here, one there...there's not going to be bunches of them up there like there are spring through mid fall. The reward is, however, they are often big fish. Some of my biggest largemouth of the fall are caught in the dirt on hard cover in cooler water. The other half to this equation is the healthy deep grass. Coontail seems to hold them BETTER than milfoil during this time, but there will be places where milfoil is still holding them, you just have to fish both and see what's going on that given day. The BEST spots will be....the best spots they were in all summer. If you have miles and miles of green healthy deep grass in the fall, just like the summer, they will be in the areas with rock/bottom changes/points, turns/bends/etc...in the grass. The "myth" of northern largemouth being more aggressive in cold water than their Florida strain cousins gets turned on it's ear a little here. Your going to work to catch them when they get out on that deep grass late. Partly because they are a little more lethargic (not nearly as bad a Florida's) but mainly because that deep grass is also a haven for the entire eco-system. Bait is abundant and, and the windows to catch them grow smaller each passing week we get closer to winter. This is NOT the time to try to power fish them....if I want to power fish this time of year, I go chasing smallmouth or looking for the big loaner largemouth on the bank. These deeper grass largemouth in my 25 years of chasing them in late fall require a little more finesse. Sure there might be really really tight windows where they get aggressive but they are few and far between and can't be counted on. Now is the time I turn to a heavy (to make sure I get it into the grass) BUT extremely compact offering. You'll rarely tempt the bigger ones to leave the comfort of the grass for dainty stuff on light line, so your weightless senkos, ned rigs, light drop shots, and other finesse stuff that works spring - mid fall is not the best bet. I'll use a the lightest t-rig I can get through the grass with (sometimes 1/4 oz, sometimes 3/8's, but often 1/2 oz.). They really really seem to pump the breaks on me trying to bomb in there with a 3/4 or 1 oz weighted offering, so I don't bother. If I have to wiggle and jiggle a 1/2 oz weighted bait to get in there, then so be it, it gets more bites. Your going to want to put the baits away with big flappy arms/legs/claws...this is the time for NO action, and the more compact the better. Something along the lines of a beaver style bait, a tube, a compact craw with no obnoxious claw action, and even a senko style bait on a weighted t-rig are king this time of year. IF they are biting plastics good OR if you are just looking for a few big bites, a compact 1/2 oz flipping jig with a dead action trailer is a good 1-2 punch to t-rig. I use the t-rig to find them, and the jig to get a big one. Starting with a jig has always been risky business for me...there's days they seemingly DON'T want it yet you'll get plenty of bites on soft plastics. Some will say the opposite and tell you to just lock a jig in your hand and get to work, I'm just telling you what's worked for me for a long time.

I fished ocho's for one season, and it was my least productive year for that style of worm. Coincidence? Who knows. What I do know is Yum Dingers have never let me down when I wanted to try an alternative to a GYCB Senko. The same can't be said for Ocho's...Big Bite sticks, and quite a few other brands.

Better check to see if there's any kids on your lawn.

I LOVED the original full grip LT's. I had a boat full of them. Then they came out with the split grip version, but still with the standard fuji reel seats. I liked them well enough to keep using them. THEN.....they came out with the abortions that had those skeleton Fuji reel seats. It completely changed the feel and balance of those rods....and not for the better IMHO. That's when I tapped out on St Croix rods. I see they are on another generation of them with yet another reel seat. But I won't be dipping my toes in that water again.

Your either not around bass or your fishing it too fast or your not doing something else "right" I catch 1000's of bass a year on a dropshot, and the #1 mistake I see people making who claim to struggle with it is they shake/move/hop/twitch it too much. Hold that thing in place, and try to NOT impart any action to. Let the bait hover and quiver in their faces. The most I move it is to ever so subtly clench my grip when I'm holding the rod, and occasionally I'll just move my wrist very very little. Try that in some ultra clear shallow water, and you'll see how much that transmits a little "shimmy' to the bait while it's hanging there. The #2 mistake I see, is the dropper length. Keep it around 12", OR SHORTER. Everyone I see with super long lengths between the hook and sinker struggles. Are there rare times where having the hook 2 or 3 feet above the sinker is the answer?....probably, but it's the exception and not the rule.

I fish 5 worms: 4" Senko 5" Senko 3" Robo ned worm 4.5" Roboworm straight tail worm 7" Berkley power worm. Senkos get used in just about every way possible, weightless texas and wacky, wacky jig, neko, dropshotted wacky, weighted t-rig, and more Ned worms get used on a mushroom, or small football head, and I have even had great success drop shotting them. They are real sleeper fishing weightless too. Every spring and fall on calm overcast days in mid to low 50 degree water, big smallmouth pull up to the deep weed line here and suspend for some reason, they won't go down for a jig, tube, or ned rig. The drop shot falls too fast through them, and they won't chase swimbaits/grubs. But they can't stand that little ned worm texas rigged, but weightless falling. It gets bit 10:1 over a 4" senko, and 20:1 over anything wacky rigged in the cooler water during this little window of odd behavior they have. Roboworms are my go-to drop shot worm 99% of the time nose hooked, and can also be deadly on very light line and a small 1/16th oz wacky jig in ultra tuff conditions. Power worms are great for swimming a worm, pitching into and around cover on a t-rig when the jig/beaver/craw bite is "off", and they are excellent on a power shot.

What's even more interesting is that beyond my issues with them, I have two close friends who have had the same problems as me. I can tell you that all three of us bought them from TW shortly after Christmas 2019, and all three of us bought the same handful of colors...Black Gill, and Glitter Blue Gill. The one lone survivor of the bunch belongs to one of my buddies, and in the color Glitter Hasu.

For smallmouth my top cold water bait by a wide margin is a 1/2 oz blade bait. Silver on sunny days, gold on cloudy. For largemouth.............well, I really don't bother with them in high 30, low 40 degree water much anymore when I'm one my home lake where big smallmouth are an option. The windows for catching largemouth are too tight when it's that cold.

My best producing methods with the ned rig are rarely true to what Mr Kehde's teachings and "mid-west finesse" suggest. Fishing it kinda/sorta/similar to a shaky head is my best producer. I just cast to the edge of what ever cover I'm targeting (deep and shallow grass lines, rock piles, docks, etc...) let it fall straight t the bottom, and soak it. Moving it ever so slightly it at all. For me a 1/16th oz head works best for this at the shallow end of the spectrum, or an 1/8th oz head at the deeper end, and I'll often bump up to 1/8 shallow if it's windy, and 3/16 deep if it's windy. My second best producing method is a variation of one of Ned's retrieves, and probably as close as I get to being "true" to the mid west finesse stuff. I cast the rig out, let it sink to the bottom, and swim it back to the boat, keeping it close to the bottom. I pause it, and let it sink back to the bottom every 3-4 cranks of the reel, and I give it a little shake once it rests on the bottom, before swimming it again. It's not quite the same as his "swim, shake, glide" method, as I want bottom contact during the retrieve, and I don't like having "no-feel" of the bait, so I tend to use heavier heads than what he does...but it works for me, and quite well. I tend to like 1/16th for this in all but the stiffest of winds, or in water deeper deeper than 15 feet. And then I only bump up to 1/8th, I don't like 3/16th for this method much at all. And the third productive method I use is just to simply drag it on the bottom behind the boat with the wind, this is 3/16, to as heavy as 1/2 oz territory. I want it on the bottom, all the time. So I guess I'm not a true disciple of mid west finesse tactics, but I have found the baits used for it to fit into my program well....and it's hard to argue with the success I've had doing it my way. In 2020 alone, 3 bass over 6lbs (two smallmouth and one largemouth), and another 27 over 5lbs (11 largemouth, 16 smallmouth) have been caught on it my way (along with probably a thousand + other legal sized bass of both species up to 5lbs). Would I catch more doing it the "right way"...who knows.

If you like the regular sized spro 65, there's a size 60 "jr" size also available. They are my favorite small frog. The booyah pad crasher jr is too light, and the jackall one recommend above is pretty fragile in my experience. I bought two of the jackall ones, and neither one lasted more than a couple hours of use.

Whoah!! Wait?? Minnesota? When did that happen?

Tournament season ended for me yesterday with my solo angler season finale on Honeyoe. Weather permitting, the rest of my fall will be spent fun fishing. I had a good, borderline great tournament season. Avoiding mental meltdowns, and long strings of bad tournaments. Of course there were a couple of stinkers, but I quickly got over them, and fished strong all year. I fished 8 tournaments on Silver. Won 4 of them, cashed in 2 more, had one one where I was just out of the money, and one stinker. I fished 3 tournaments on Honeyoe. Won one, got 2nd in the other two. I fished 4 tournaments on Cuba. Cashed in 2, stunk in 2. I fished one tournament on Waneta Lamoka, cashed in 2nd place in that one. And I fished 7 tournaments on Conesus, cashed with a 2nd and 3rd in two of them. Had middle of the pack "decent" bags in 3, and stunk in two. The highlights of my tournament season were: #1 winning an open team event solo on Silver and catching a new tournament PB lunker of 7.05lbs in the process. #2 winning one of my solo angler events on Silver against a good field in blowout fashion by more than 5 lbs. #3 Cashing and winning on lakes against teams that have WAY more exp. on them then me (Honeyoe, Cuba, and Waneta), and #4 not beating myself mentally, and getting spun out all year when things started slow, or I had a few bad breaks during the day...that's been my albatross for a few years, and a bad habit I developed AFTER years of success because I didn't know how to cope with adversity, and the fact that EVERYONE is good now. In 2012-2016, I kinda got used to always winning and cashing, but 2017-2019 taught me that most everyone can win at any time now, and the difference between doing well or not is between your ears more than anything now.

I use a 1/16th oz head from the bank to 10-12 feet if it's calm, bump up to 1/8th if it's breezy. If I'm targeting smallmouth in 15+ feet I go to 3/16oz......Be advised, this is NOT true to Ned's mid-west finesse teachings. It's just what works for me. I fish them like a little shaky head a lot trying to maintain bottom contact and feel, and about the only "no feel" mid-west finesse tactic I employ is the swim-glide-shake.

In edition to the ones already mentioned, there's also BE for Brent Ehler. Then there's MS...which isn't a person, but stands for "magic scales" and I have yet to figure out what BP stands for in colors like BP Golden Shiner

.All I own anymore are Dobyns Fury's I have a pair of 735c's, these are my jig and t-rig rods. They handle 1/4- 1oz jigs and t-rigs beautifully. I'm mainly a flipper and pitcher, and they're my go to rods around docks, laydowns, and grass. They are nimble enough to handle little finesse flipping jigs, and powerful enough to punch with. It's a true "do-all" flipping and pitching rod. If your faced with thick matted grass for months on end, you may want to get a more technique specific rod for punching, but for the 6-8 weeks the grass is topped out and really thick here in midsummer through early fall, these rods work great for me and I never feel under gunned using them in the thick stuff.... plus they have the added bonus of being very versatile the rest of the season when I don't need a dedicated punching rod. I have two 704c's. One is my frog rod, and yes....I frog in every season except for very early after ice out, and very late before ice up. Much like the 735, if you need a rod for frogging mats for months on end, this is probably not the ideal rod....it can certainly do it, as I do use it for that often, but it's more often used for skipping frogs under docks, overhanging trees and bushes, down the edges of cover, etc ...and it's excellent for that. The other one has a power shot, or swim jig rigged on it year round. I have a 703c casting rod. This is my swiss army knife rod. I do everything with it EXCEPT frog or flip. It's main use depends on the season. Early and late in the year, a 1/2 oz blade bait lives on it, then for a lot of the spring, summer, and fall it has a heavy wacky jig on it. But it's also a good chatterbait, spinnerbait, jerkbait, and light jig and t-rig rod And rounding out my casting set ups, I have the 705cb. I throw Sammy's, pointers, 1.5 and 2.5 square bills and deep divers on it, as well as LV 200's and LV 500's. It's a surprisingly good spinnerbait and chatterbait rod too. It's not quite as moderate in action as a glass rod, but it's also not quite as fast as jig rod. It's perfectly described as a moderate fast rod, and is a good choice for all moving baits. My spinning set ups are: 703s... this rod has either a Neko rig, or my smallmouth specific light wire hook football jig tied on it A pair of 702s's...one is rigged with a drop shot, the other a ned rig...and they never change year round And lastly a 662s... this is my swiss army knife spinning rod. Main uses are skipping weightless plastics under docks, flick shake, throwing grubs and small swimbaits, and standing in for the other rods when I need multiple rods rigged up the same way

Same as they have been for the last 20 years: Jig Senko Beaver Frog

The Jr. size Spro Bronzeye (regular NOT the popping) has been fantastic for me. Bonus is that it weighs a 1/2 oz and can be used on my regular frog rod. The Booyah Pad Crasher Jr is too light for me...but it's the right size. The Jackall one is a flaming pile of crap. I had high hopes for it, as it was small, yet heavy enough to use on a MH or H rod. But it might be the most fragile frog I have every used. I bought two, and one was junk after catching three small fish, and the other caught one fish, and couldn't survive some hearty casting around docks and buck brush....color me unimpressed. On the other hand, I'm STILL using a Spro Bronzeye Jr that I took out of the package in May, and has caught tons of fish.

Most of us local's divide that lake in half at the launch ramp. The north 1/2 is where most of the tournament pressure is. It's got a lot more weed flats and community holes that always seem to hold largemouth. BUT...the south 1/2 has plenty of good largemouth water, and see's less pressure. I do pretty well in the south 1/2 when I want to get away from the crowds. I won the 2018 Dash for Cash, and have cashed multiple times out of the south 1/2. Anywhere you find milfoil, or coontail on that lake, you'll find largemouth. They may not be in it all the time, but they won't be far from it, either under the docks near by, or hanging off the deep edge. Avoid areas with lots of "grass" and stringy crap. There's often random fish in, or around that stuff, but nothing you can count on, and anything caught in/around it should be considered an accident....that being said.....they DO use those crappy grass lines as "high ways" between the better weed beds. So if you are striking out in a good looking weed bed, fish down any connecting grass lines briskly and you might just run into some moving from one good area to another. No matter where you decide to fish for largemouth on that lake...keep it simple. For as heavily pressured as they are...I find them to be pretty stupid and easy to catch compared to the bass on my other home lake, Silver. Jigs, and t-rigged plastics when they are biting...senkos, ned rigs, and finesse worms on drop shots when they ain't. If you have some wind, chatterbaits, and swim jigs catch them pretty good too. It's a good topwater lake too. Oddly, compared to other lakes I fish, I do NOT seem to have as much success with cranks, and spinnerbaits on Conesus as I do elsewhere. I DO NOT target smallmouth in tournaments in that lake post spawn. They get on alewives and are very hard to pinpoint, and unreliable. Plus, they are not the tanks the largemouth are, and are hard to win with if largemouth are biting. But if you insist on fishing for them...your best bet is to pull up on the deep side of any of the points on the south 1/2 of the lake early in the morning, and WAIT. If they are there, they will usually push alewives to the surface at some point during a short window in early morning. Cast to the surface activity with a top water, but don't cast until you see them break the surface. BUT, they don't always chase bait to the top....if you pull up on a point and don't see any surface activity, don't assume they are not there. Fish around a bit with things like football jigs, senkos, swimbaits, etc.. and if any are there, you'll know soon enough. If I'm targeting them...which I do for fun (just not for money)...point hopping, and running through a proven rotation of baits that I have caught them with seems to be my best tactic. It's a good fishery, but has been a little tuffer than normal this year for me. I have not won on it this year, and only cashed twice. Once with good weight (20+ lbs) and once with a pretty average bag (15lbs) and most of the time seemed to be stuck in that 16-18 lb "one good bite away" purgatory from cashing or winning. My recreational trips there have mirrored that. I had one "all-timer" kind of days in early august where for 3 hours, 3.5-4.5 lb fish were jumping in the boat on topwater, and when that died, the same quality fish were eating anything and everything I flipped in the weeds...including a few over 5lbs. But most of my trips over there have been slow and steady action on 3lb fish.....not terrible, just not great.

Wat???

Owner ST-35's are the bee's knee's on lipless and square bills.

Man likes to take credit...and blame....for things that are not in his control. Sometimes fishing is just tuff for reasons we will never know. It's easy to blame fishing pressure, fish conditioned to what were doing, weather, clear water, dirty water, boat traffic, etc....... This year there are a lot more people fishing because they have nothing better to do....but these people are not hurting much, and as soon as things for them to do return, they will be gone. I have had some TERRIBLE days when I'm the only one on the water, or in a small tournament....and some great days in very crowded conditions, and large tournament fields of good fisherman. Go figure.

I use the Fury 705cb for all most all my treble hooked baits anymore. BUT I crank with braid. I can see how it would not be great for snapping baits out of weeds with mono. I was missing fish, and bending hooks when I used a 703c. I still use the 703 for single hooked reaction baits, like a spinnerbait, swim jig, and chatterbait.

No.