Fathers Day Smallmouth Advice?

[07Rapala]

On Fathers Day I’m getting out fishing with my father for the first time in probably 20 years.

We’re going to target smallmouth here on Lake Mendota in southern Wisconsin. Spawn finished about three weeks ago. 
we had a couple bad storms last week that put some extra silt and debris in the water, reducing visibility, we’re probably at about 6 to 8 feet (will check in the AM). We’ve had two weak cold front come through in the past 24 hours, one on Friday morning, and the second overnight Friday into Saturday. No change in weather with these weak fronts, other than cooler, drier air and blue skies. I’m guessing the air pressure is up.

I guess my question is, what should be our approach on Sunday? Are we too late to hit the season where it smallmouth are hitting on large eat fish imitations (swim baits and jerk baits)? Since it’s high pressure and clear skies, should I go with small finesse baits? Or perhaps larger jigs/tubes that will be more visible to the fish?

Any advice would be appreciated. 

[07Rapala]

Update: visibility in the lake is about 10’, water temp is about 70. Most people seemed to be fishing at about 8’ of depth, outside of a spawning flat, or at a mid lake hump. Modest amount of weeds in these areas, I’m going to need mostly weedless or shallow running lures. 

[MassBass]

Be ready for the jump

[Sphynx]

My best advice is to stay flexible, and let the conditions tell you where to start and where to move into. It doesn't sound to me like you are a completely new or inexperienced angler, trust yourself, you can solve the puzzle. Even if you can't, you will have a memorable day, one of my most cherished fishing memories is with my brother in Alabama, we caught like 5 fish between the two of us in 3 days, it was absolutely brutal, but man we put in the work, grinded it out and had a complete ball doing it, wouldn't trade that for the world because of who I was spending the time with. 

[07Rapala]

Thanks for those that reply. 
I’m not new to bass fishing, but coking back to it after a ~25 year abscense. I mostly fished rivers, streams and ponds as a teen, so a big lake is still a big empty box of water from my perspective. Plus with poor water clarity and high pressure, I didn’t know if I should fish fitness lures, that fish might not find, or big flashy lures that fish may not be inclined to bite. 
 

Anyway, we had a great morning on the water despite catching only a few fish. I thought my dad went it fishing a lot more than he does, he had never learned to use the fancy fish finder my brother got him the Christmas before last. I had to teach him how to Texas-rig a senko.  I hadn’t been in a power boat fishing since I was a teen. So there was a lot of learning involved, we called that a success.

it was a pretty slow morning overall, my dad pulled in two decent walleye early, we moved to a mid lake hump where I Immediately caught a very ambitious rock bass… then nothing for over an hour. After a break we reworked our strategy and finally got a coupe of the bass we were looking for as we worked our way back to the dock… including an 18” smallie on a 25 year old pink sluggo. 

[roadwarrior]

That's a peach, hun!