A Quick How-To for Pressured Smallmouth Waters

Many of the best inland smallmouth fisheries happen to be the most pressured lakes in the state of Wisconsin. Their trophy bass are more elusive as a result. I am not a fan of fishing pressure and high traffic water, but pursuing hot bites throughout the year brings me to these fisheries. It used to be us versus bass, but on many popular waters now we’re also competing with other anglers and sharing spots with them. My boat is also getting cut-off and cockblocked by other boats on a daily occurrence.

On popular lakes, boat traffic and angling hours are considerably high. On my backyards of the Minocqua and Lac du Flambeau chains, bass tournament circuits and derbies visit every weekend. I recall having both fisheries all to myself 10-15 years ago and nowadays I’m guiding on them with dozens of bass boats competing against one another for a marginal check.

Guiding enables me to fish a lot popular bass fisheries and community lakes mid-week, giving my guests and I best access and least amount of pressure and competition on spots from other boats that would otherwise fight for territory with us on weekends.

My Best Advice

Intimate knowledge of the areas you fish is vital. This is my home field advantage. On busy lakes that receive a high number of visiting bass boats and weekend tournaments, you need to find spots that are off the beaten path. Seldom fished areas will contain the least pressured bass. Many weekend warriors will not take the time to learn fisheries and all the nooks and crannies of near-shore and off-shore structures. To feel the pulse of a lake, you have to fish it a lot to know its intricacies. This gives my boat an advantage in dealing with fishing pressure.

On busy water, I often observe other boats improperly fishing certain spots and wrong methods. We’ll wait them out, and move in after they move on.

Fish Early and Late

To avoid angling pressure, fish at sunrise or after dark while nobody else is on the water. Also, try scheduling mid-week trips on them and during off-peak periods. For example, I might guide on a busy lake chain during a Tuesday or Wednesday when boat traffic is down and most others won’t be fishing. By doing this, bass are recovered and not being pounded. Bass that aren’t pressured are easiest to catch.

Avoid Derby Waters

Avoid fishing the popular bass derby waters, that get visited nearly every weekend. Events could have 100 boats or more, while others have 19 boats or fewer (to avoid the permit process). On tournament day, well-known community spots get raided, and nearly every single square inch of shoreline gets combed through. Find out when and where, and their dates, and avoid these waters during those weekends. Do your damage mid-week. The WI-DNR does a great job with maintaining its online calendar of fishing tournaments and events. Unfortunately, these waters are to be avoided on most July and August weekends. On the other hand, it is simply amazing how many of these waters are able to withstand derbies every weekend, and multiple events happening simultaneously. Overfishing and livewelling fish all day long is a bad deal, however, and of detriment to the fishery.

Experiment

Beyond using lures that fish see often, experimentation pays off. When guiding, I always work from the back of the boat while my two customers are up front and fishing with the proven fish catchers. I always tinker and experiment with something else to quickly find new bites and patterns with baits that are outside of the box. Out-of-the-ordinary presentations that fish don’t see often can be very good producers on fisheries with pressured bass.

Travel and Adventure

Travel also. Explore. Burn some extra gas in order to find a new special fishery. I’ve been lucky to explore new regions far beyond Vilas county, finding fisheries along the edge of civilization, in neighboring counties, and even located across the border.

Prioritize Peak Seasons

Prioritize the spring and fall months, because these fisheries are getting hammered the most in mid-summer by fishing pressure and excessive boating traffic. Spring and fall are for serious anglers, mostly. Unfortunately, most bass anglers will wait these seasons out until it’s too late and the peak bites come and go. Early spring following ice-out, the entire second half of September, and late October have become my favorite seasonal periods to target trophy smallmouths.

The good news, fishing remains good so these busy waters continue getting visited. Bad news, today’s fishing pressure and utilization of resources is unsustainable for our future generations. I blame social media, tournament culture, hero shots, livewelling, overhandling, and the state’s antiquated promotion of harvesting. So when fishing suffers, the pressure we currently deal with, and we ourselves too, will have to go elsewhere too. 

These are just a few of my tips and insights for conquering the growing reality of angling pressure. Follow some of this advice, and you’ll be more successful than majority of the other bass boats presently playing bumper-boats with one another.