07 Nov 2016 ~ Final Trip

[A-Jay]

I was initially planning on wrapping up my season with yesterday’s trip which included some nice smallies.  But with a third day in a row of mild air temps and very fishable SW winds, I caved and headed to the same lake I started this fishing season off on.   That first trip was memorable and as it turned out this one was just as sweet. 

The water temps are hanging in the mid 40’s and the water has stayed consistently clean.  This makes the jerkbait bite here a very viable option, one I’ve been taking full advantage of for a while & especially today.   This lake, like many up here, is loaded with yellow perch.  Just so happens that SK makes a very nice jerkbait replica of that particular smallmouth delicacy – it’s been the bait of choice past few trips.  Both the standard (3 hook) and the deeper versions get bit but today it was the deep bait – exclusively.   The Leeward side of main lake sloping sandy points that dropped into the deepest water was where I focus the majority of my efforts. 

  By positioning the Lund up on the shallow side of the point in about 5 ft of water (Love the Talons) I would cast off the deep side and work the bait back to the boat.  The fish definitely wanted the lure to contact the sand & then pause.  At which point they were Hammering it.  Nothing subtle about the strikes today – Good Times. 

This seems like an appropriate way to wrap things up and I feel (reasonably) content to do it.  Looking forward to next season.

A-Jay

 

[jbw252]

Great day!  I liked the group photo.  Nice haul. Congrats.

[roadwarrior]

 

                                      WOW!

                                         

["hamma"]

some more AWESOME smallies A-Jay,..congrats

 Beats a stick in the eye,.. huh,...lol

Quote

 

 

[*Hootie]

AWESOME! ?

Hootie 

[jr231]

No doubt which fish is more gorgeous between LM and SM. Nice. As always, it seems. 

[Mike Murphy]

Beautiful fish!  Nice catch!

[fishinfiend]

whoa!!! Awesome!

[Steveo-1969]

Wow! That's all I can say.  Thanks for sharing your Final Final Push with us A-Jay.

[Goose52]

Holy mackerel - I mean holy smallmouth !!!  Good times indeed...  What a great way to finish the season - and some good memories to tide you over through the winter.

I guess if this is the last trip - it's the last trip. BUT, I'm still seeing soft water in the background...............

[lecisnith]

There's really nothing better than catching fish on consecutive casts.  Really let's you know you're doing something right.  Which, you seem to have a corner on the market when it comes to doing something right for smallies.  Nice job, nice fish.

[Further North]

Good job...Your water temps are cooler than ours, by a good 10 degrees.

[slonezp]

You set the bar high for next season

[BassObsessed]

Good deal. Gonna be hard to pack it in for the year with fish like that.

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, slonezp said:

You set the bar high for next season

 

1 hour ago, BassObsessed said:

Good deal. Gonna be hard to pack it in for the year with fish like that.

You guys are both right on the money ~

This year the new rig gave me access to a ton of large super productive, big fish water but I couldn't expect to fish it all.  So I picked two and concentrated by efforts there.  Next season I plan on doing the same thing but I've already chosen two different lakes.  I can tell you right now that it will be tough to resist the urge to go back to either one but the allure of previously untapped & unexplored big fish waters keeps me up at night.

Lund gets winterized next week.  But the Old Town is Totally still in play - so at least I have that going for me.

A-Jay

[everythingthatswims]

May you have a speedy and mild winter...

 

Although we both know it will be neither of those

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, everythingthatswims said:

May you have a speedy and mild winter...

 

Although we both know it will be neither of those

Thank you and unfortunately, you're probably right.

Let's just hope my wood pile lasts at least until March

A-Jay

 

[brgbassmaster]

Nice smallies! I fished a tiny lake up near traverse last year and they were hammering tiny perch you could see the perch by the thousands but they would not hit a perch colored jerk bait. I had an exact replica made my lucky craft of the perch that were swimming around but they would not bite. Only thing they would hit was a jig and a spinnerbait lol. 

[N Florida Mike]

Those are some great fish.Id love to catch some small mouth someday.

[NorcalBassin]

Congrats on an incredible day. Couldn't imagine catching SM like that!