Worked for them this weekend

[Bucks Bass and Bourbon]

I know it’s different around the country but this time of year can be tough to find them here in Michigan. I spent the weekend at a lake up north that I’m pretty familiar with and have had some pretty good success fishing the last couple years. The lake has both largemouth and smallmouth but the largemouth numbers seem to be much higher. Also decent pike and musky, walleye, perch and a million rock bass. 
I spent a solid 9-10 hours on the water Saturday and only managed two small largemouth and two pike (one of the pike was a good one though). The lake is generally divided up into three lobes - east, west and south. The east and west are mostly shallow flats with a few 20 foot areas. The south has shallow flats, a few humps, steep drop-offs and the deeper parts of the lake down to about 60 feet. I am most familiar with the south and fish it almost exclusively since between all the different features I eventually run into some fish. Not Saturday though. Oh no, not Saturday. In fact I was surprised to see several other bass boats on the water because usually it’s not a heavily fished lake but I didn’t see anyone else catching anything either. I spent the whole day moving and searching all the different areas, fighting the wind and trying to keep a line in the water. All the spots that have produced previously were empty. 

Saturday night I considered hitting a different lake on Sunday but decided to make a plan, tie on specific lures and exhaust another lobe on the same lake and if I came up empty, so be it. Fortunately the morning was calm so I could see down into the water and get a better feel for what was around before the wind set in again. I covered as much water as I could with shallow crankbaits and a lipless but wasn’t finding anything or even having a follow up. Finally as I moved to a little deeper water I picked up big schools of small fish on the FFS so for the first time all weekend I was at least near fish. I still didn’t have any success until I randomly cast out into about 10 FOW at a couple fleeting blips on the FFS. Right then my phone rang and as I pulled it out to check it POP a big thump hit my underspin hard. Turned out to be the best fish of the day. Went on to catch a few more but they were scattered and skinny despite the abundance of forage in the lake. Very hard to determine any sort of pattern.  The water temps were mid 60s in the morning warming to high 60s in the afternoon. Grass was still green and healthy and other available cover was still there. 

It was really weird to see such a large portion of the lake so empty of fish despite such a variety of good habitat for them. Also odd to have them ignore everything but the finesse underspin. Drop shots, lipless cranks, shallow and mid-cranks, a-rig, micro a-rig, tubes and top water all were completely ignored. But the ones I caught on the underspin hit it hard.
 

I don’t think I have fished a lake or section of a lake as hard or completely on a single day as I did Saturday. I was exhausted and my body was smoked. Still a good weekend though! It helped having a little success on Sunday for sure. 

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks for the report, Bucks. There is a range of reporting styles at Bass Resource. There are those anglers who only share their successes. Then there are anglers like you who tell the whole story. I prefer your style. We all struggle at times. Reading accounts of others struggling make us feel less alone. Some days the bass are just too tricksy for us. 

[TOXIC]

Must be a funk up north.  I just put a post up in the smallmouth forum about our trip up to the St Lawrence.  We thought the fall feed should be closer up there but we were wrong.  Probably the hardest I have fished for a week straight.  Here’s a pic of the Hotel we stayed in if it gives you any idea how tough it was.😜

[Bucks Bass and Bourbon]

@Swamp Girl if you enjoy the struggle reports I have plenty of material! 😂