Northwoods Bass Fishing Report, June and July, 2021

Our smallmouth fishing has been a tossed salad since mid May. One day will be a 40 fish day, followed by totals of 15, 10, or 6 the next three. That’s fishing!

Observing smallmouth bass behavior and how a fishery and individual specimens react positively and negatively to daily conditions is enlightening and educational. One of the major misconceptions in bass fishing is how reliable or easy smallmouth fishing is. What every boat is proving in 2021 is that smallmouth are more weather-sensitive than originally studied & examined. Their activity and feeding is a product of that day’s environmental and atmospheric conditions. This confirms everything I already knew, and the light bites and force feeding we’ve done for the past month allowed me to prove it to everyone whom I hosted.

When the bait shop writes fishing is HOT, or GOOD, don’t buy it. Only buy their minnows and crawlers.

Right now, it’s mediocre.

We’re finding fish in a lot of lake locations. Best advice I’ll give this week is to fish with flexibility and don’t get complacent. If the first hour on one lake is a struggle, jump to the next. No point in being stubborn to force feed for bites. Each day we’re working 2-3-4 lakes per day until we meet a satisfactory bite.

Wood and rock 10-15ft, and sand grass basins holding fish. Majority of the flats and rock bars empty. Some shallower water movements occurring early and late in the day. Many fishes also roaming around, following the bait which includes mayflies, perch, crayfish, and Cisco. Again, pay attention to what they’re puking out.

Craw plastics, tubes, neds, squarebill crankbaits, Kalin’s Fishing Lunker grubs and Weenie Worms (power shotting), and spinnerbaits are the most consistent in my boat right now. On days with south and west winds, the spinnerbait bite has been excellent!

Big females continue to be MIA.

The recent bite for big fish was unpredictable most days. Steady action greeted us daily, but presence of truly heavyweight monster bass was rare again like this time last year. Weekend tournaments, fishing pressure, heavy boat traffic, mayfly hatches, forage overabundances, and poor weather never help the cause.

Most trip days, my boat doesn’t get picky over fish sizes and bites unless we get really bored of catching 16-19 inchers. I want biters and rod benders for guests and I during the first half of every trip; often the big bass will show up and take care of themselves at some point or during second half which by then we move on to trophy water.

Lately with the warming water temps, and low-light conditions, early and late, a number of big bass have been sliding up shallow to feed on unsuspecting prey – making targeting them easier. But midday & afternoon as water temps peak for the day however, our fish catching becomes more challenging, and has been mostly done in 10-15ft depths. Rock, boulder, wood, and deeper secondary, offshore structure has been key. It’s taken a lot of patience for my anglers to get down to these fish by fishing slow with jigging and finesse rigging in order to coax a few bites.

Tons of baitfish and schools of bass have been sitting along first breaklines and near offshore structure (wood, deep rock, boulders, cribs).  Presence of forage along primary and secondary breaks and even mid lake basins has made locating smallmouths easier, but more difficult to catch because you simply cannot compete with all of the food availability. This prey overabundance has been a challenge on every body of water. Nearly all of the boat’s recent bites at most lakes during early and late in the day have been in depths of 5-10ft. If they aren’t up top, then off the edges, and suspended someplace nearby during midday hours. On some lakes, we’ve been catching fish from as deep as 20 to 30 ft.

The biggest challenges of late besides weather has been catching fish in midst of all the food availability. In addition to mayfly hatches, and the abundance of schooling bait such as ciscoes and yellow perch, it has made catching bass much more difficult. But locating them with this proliferation of forage has been easy however. If spots and structure are devoid of bass, you’ll find them where the food is at. However, zero guarantees you’ll catch them.

These are all smallmouth roaming and suspending. Good luck catching them!

We are now entering summer peak. Both bass species are also frequenting their summer locations and setting up along deeper structure and habitat where they will primarily live on offshore structure for the remainder of the year through fall. They are also keying in on their summertime food preferences too; SMB – crayfish, cisco perch; LMB – bluegill, perch, frogs.

If you enjoy fishing the diversity of lake types and bass fisheries the northwoods has to offer, July and August are great months to come and experience it all as during a typical full day trip, we work multiple lakes per day.

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Bass Bling

Since mid June, everything in this Plano Stowaway has been catching fish.

Every lake fishes differently, and behaves differently. I don’t have any pattern, and the bite was and still is changing daily and on the fly.

The tackle box is open. I’m getting asked what to come rigged up with. I have no specific answers. I don’t think I can post a bass bling for the week, otherwise you’ll see an entire Plano 3600 overcrowded with an assortment of baits that have been catching all week. Not one single thing or pattern is outproducing the other.

In the past week, most mayfly hatches concluded. But further forage overabundances have persisted. Yellow perch are milling around weedlines. Crayfish are on the prowl and everywhere. With so much food availability around, many of the smallmouth we’re catching have full stomachs, and are puking out their contents.

Pay close attention to what fish are puking. This will clue you in on how to match the hatch, setting you up with the best odds in catching them.

These bite size baits below have been amazingly effective. We’ve been experimenting lots with various plastics fished with weedless ned heads and downsized tokyo rigs. I feel that my current tackle selection won’t get any easier than this for the season.

The YUM craw bug has been a top producer worked amongst rocks and where smallmouth have been feeding on craws.

St. Croix Rods Legend Elite ES70MHF is my go-to for dragging tubes, jigging, finesse plastics, wacky rigging, power shotting, nedding, finesse footballing, carolina rigging, and a plethora of many other jigging and soft baits applications.

A lot of anglers fishing with lighter action rods soon realize that my oft-preferred medium-heavy fast action rods are the best choice for hook sets, and taming the brown beast. Its best characteristics are bite detection and power. If you currently don’t employ any MHF spinning rods for trophy hunts, I think you’ll reconsider. This specific model is not heavy whatsoever.

This season, I have my two Elites paired with Quantum Fishing Smoke 30 PT’s, each spooled with 20 lb. Cortland Line Masterbraid.

Learn More – https://stcroixrods.com/products/legend-elite-spinning

Current Fishing Report

 
Summer fishing patterns are in play everywhere. The 4th of July Holiday week delivers the most boat and vehicle traffic too. That’s my cue to get the hell off the water.

With that kind of pressure, I only fish in July before or after the holiday. On most weekends, I will also stay away from popular lakes with heavy recreational (non fishing) boat traffic. This time of season early mornings, evenings/nights, and traveling to lakes off the beaten path are prioritized.

Here…..

And here…..

We’ve had great smallmouth trips on stable, nice sunny days. We’ve had poor smallmouth trips otherwise.

June 14th thru 17th – Been a very busy week of fishing hard and smart. Full day trips every day since Monday. Hosted Brian and Randy Monday & Tuesday for 2 day rodeo, and John and Dan Wednesday and yesterday for another 2 day rodeo. Each day smallmouth trips.

Depending on lake size, type, clarities, depths, finding a wide range of water temps. 71-73 on the largest lakes, and 75-78 on the smaller lakes. Too warm for mid June.

We’ve been off to early 530-6am starts, and done by 2-3pm before heat or a mid afternoon shutdown sets in. I expect normalcy and longer feeding windows next week with cooldown and full moon period.

For the SMB’s, every lake and fishery is behaving differently. On some lakes, mayfly hatches occurring. Hair jigs, topwaters, and finesse is scoring bites on them. Meanwhile on others, fishes favoring craw bites. And elsewhere, perch and ciscoes are the prey, where Kalins and paddletails are catching. Pay attention to what fish are puking up, and adapt quickly as necessary. Only challenges then is it’s been very difficult to compete with the forage overabundances everywhere right now. Mayflies, crayfish, yoy baitfish hatches…… the screens are loaded, wow.

For largemouth, I’ve been getting out solo during evenings and sunset. Active at some places, inactive at others. Finding them tight to cover, wood, and pads. Jig bite is good. Surface frog and topwaters improving. They’re also on the prowl and out roaming for bluegills. As weedlines grow deeper, expect them to begin infiltrating to the deep green weeds more and more. This bite gets going in July, and now starting.

Some nice fishes this week, including multi-species. Lots of musky and pike activity earlier in the week, we weren’t too photogenic or in the mood for photos of 28-32” pike and mid-30’s Muskies each caught during smallie trips. Meanwhile each trip day producing anywhere from 15-25 smallmouth, with top ends between 18-20”. Decent, but nowhere near June’s post spawn greatness. This is why we get to fish the next day!

June 18 thru 21st – Fishing continues to be tough across the region, but we’re catching. Almost every human I’m chatting with at boat landings is complaining of struggle. Poor weather with fish reacting negatively to it, forage overabundances and food chain competition, and warm water temps are just some of the challenges we’re still dealing with.

Since last report, I’ve had trips each day.

Hosted 7 yr old Charlie and his dad Bryan on Friday. We had a 50 fish trip, fun rod benders, and Charlie hammered his first ever 25” walleye.

On Saturday and Sunday I hosted Terry from TN. Not too many picture fish greeted us, but we had 25-35 fish trips both days. Largest of the weekend only a 19.5”

June 22 thru 23rd – The last two days I hosted David and Cindy from Arkansas. We had a challenging two days of light bites and short feeding windows, but got a few nice fish in the process with a handful of 18-19’s. They were both so enjoyable and fun to host!

On both days, I gave them a tour of the northwoods, and we visited 7 lakes in the process.

Depths and locations – 10-15 ft wood, and ledges.

Our best producers were slow swimming the Kalin’s lunker grubs, jerk minnows, and Strike King Caffeine shads. If it wasn’t moving or on the slow fall, it wasn’t getting bit.

The coldfronts from this week have dropped water temps to 69-71. The weather continues to wreck the fish.

Both species of bass continue to be a challenge. Check out the screenshots I took and you’ll see the food chain competition we’ve had to deal with, along with lots of open water roamers I’ve been finding while looking for fish.

July 1st – June really really sucked. Today is July 1st, and it was a great trip day, hosting Eli and Mike. New month, new attitude. The boat can accomplish lots with a very talented angler working from up front. Nice job!

Lots going on down below. Summer peak is nearing. Mayfly hatches still lingering on. Water temps 72-74 avg. Most smallmouth are on a baitfish and craw bite now.

What’s Happening Now

Every day remains inconsistent. Best trip day last week produced 35 fish with several from 16-19”, while others kicked out only 12, 10, and 6 fishes all of same sizes. The 35 fish day we had last Thursday saw perfect sunny stable weather. The three others were junk and heat.

I have not found a single waterbody that is producing consistency or reliability. I have go-tos every week and month. Seems like once I wake up in the morning, I’ve got to throw some darts into the map, and that’ll be where we end up fishing

When I finished up before the weekend, water temps were 74-78. Expect them to cool off some throughout this week, and anticipate a change in strategy and locations once again (for the 85th time this year).

Keep it real.

Booking Summer and Fall Dates

Mid summer bass trips from end of July through August are popular activities of interest northwoods vacationers and serious fishermen. The angling draw can be long feeding windows, fantastic weather, fast action days and high numbers fishing.

As usual, I always fish from end of July through August. At this time after mid July, the July 4th holiday traffic subsides.

By mid July, summer peak establishes across several lakes, making it a great peak period chasing deep, open water trophy smallmouth. We also target the big, deep, cooler lakes as they are able to cope with heat. Thinking of night fishing when conditions allow? We will do that too.

If seeking largemouth, bluegill patterns are hot, and so is fishing deep grass and weedlines. Big largemouth are very common on these deep offshore locations. Last, if you like slop fishing and surface frogs, this is the best time of season too!

I still have the following dates available for full or half day trips during my next block. I am willing to double book myself on dates with half day trips, assuming weather is awesome, and will notify when those times are open.

• July 26, 30
  
• August 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10