Our Smallie year

[jbmaine]

Hi all,

 We finally called it for this year, the boat is headed for storage for the winter, so I thought it was time to give a big thank you to everyone for all the great info, advise, and input we got this year, and to share how we did.

 We have always fished waters that had LM & SM, but until this year we had only " dabbled" in catching SM, however this year we made the conscious decision to concentrate on smallies. 

 

Spring-- Pre spawn-- We found several areas where smallies were cruising around and did OK. Mostly caught them on paddle tails and swim Senkos.

             Spawn-- If we saw a big one on a bed we'd try for it, but honestly we spent most of our time fishing off the beds and just enjoy seeing the  

                          hundreds of bedding fish, knowing how healthy the lake is.

             Post spawn-- Pretty much the same as the pre spawn with the same baits.

 

Summer-- We found several areas that consistently held deep water smallies ( 20 feet or deeper) and did pretty good with a ned rig.

 

Fall-- technically fall is not over in this area, but the dropping temps. and other priorities made it necessary for us to " call it" for the year. However our last few

         trips out we managed to connect with a few smallies tanking up for the winter, so no complaints. Again, using a paddle tail " yo yoing" it up and down     

         thru the water column did the trick.

 

So thank you everyone, we usually didn't catch high numbers, nor did we catch any "trophy" size fish, but with all the advise, and help we got from members of the forum we very rarely got skunked, and are getting much better at predicting and understanding what SM fishing is all about.

 

Here are three pictures. This is really cool because we got a new boat this year, and the first pic is the "first fish in the boat'. the middle pic is one out of deep water, and the last pic is the " last fish in the boat" this year.

[roadwarrior]

Today, October 15, is the "official" beginning of our best season on the Tennessee River

and I am ready! Still looking for 12 lbs 2 oz, but I will be happy if all my friends catch

their Personal Best fishing with me.

 

[Dwight Hottle]

I didn't see any mention of jerk baits They should be killer for prespawn & fall. 

[jbmaine]

55 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I didn't see any mention of jerk baits They should be killer for prespawn & fall. 

I know they are, but the paddle tail was doing so well we never tried them.

[haggard]

Sad to see the end of the season. Gotta love the smallies. First fish in the boat looks great, and looks like it only got better from there. Congrats on a great season in the new Lund. Seems to be working well

 

[Further North]

Good year for you, congrats!

 

It was fun watching you pick out your boat and talk through all that...and to see the "follow up" here caps it off nicely.

 

[jbmaine]

3 hours ago, Further North said:

Good year for you, congrats!

 

It was fun watching you pick out your boat and talk through all that...and to see the "follow up" here caps it off nicely.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[Spankey]

Nice post. Great pics. Good luck next season.

[BigSkyBasser]

Do you fish for them through the ice?

 

Thinking about hunting some brown fish on hard water this winter.

[jbmaine]

17 hours ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Do you fish for them through the ice?

 

Thinking about hunting some brown fish on hard water this winter.

I used to ice fish, but mostly for trout and salmon. Never went after smallies.

[BigSkyBasser]

5 hours ago, jbmaine said:

I used to ice fish, but mostly for trout and salmon. Never went after smallies.

 

I've seen some cool videos of guys doing it up in Manitoba bay. It looks like a blast!