Big Smallmouth Windows

By Andrew Ragas

Big smallmouth bass are wise creatures that have been around the block several times before. As my primary target species and specialty year-round, most 20 inch bass we catch and release from the inland lakes of northern Wisconsin are irreplaceable 20 year old fish that are the most valuable members of the population. In many of our best waters, some of these fish are caught and released multiple times throughout a single season. With their conditioning to lures and locations, coupled with angling pressure by fishermen and today’s electronics, catching and releasing these trophies now requires more tactfulness, intellect, and strategic planning than ever before.

Our cold, fertile waters with a 6 month long growing season enables big smallmouth to live long prosperous lifetimes – far longer than anywhere else in North America. In recent fisheries surveys completed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, some of the oldest smallmouth bass on record have been aged between 25 to 28 years old.

With age comes lots of experience and lure rejections. On a typical inland Wisconsin lake with public access and average fishing pressure, a 20 year old smallmouth has seen hundreds of different lures in her lifetime. She has also been caught, handled, and released at least once or twice annually, too. To continue being caught that fish will have to be fooled by anglers with new bags of tricks. Not just presentational, but by schemes such as taking advantage of unique windows, scenarios, and peak periods in order to actually be able to catch them.

As a northern Wisconsin bass fishing guide, the trophy smallmouth bass knowledge I employ and educate to others was not acquired overnight. The thousands of hours I have invested and accumulated on the water have enabled me to identify windows and peak periods for every season and in some cases each week of every month. I have also been able to identify peak periods and unique windows for every specific lake I fish – only fishing them during those periods! This systemic identification of anticipating the best fishing odds and opportunities has resulted in superior results and good fishing, daily. The patterns can repeat themselves annually. Today, all of the bass fishing trips I plan for and schedule revolves entirely around seasonal windows and peak periods for my fishing region and its specific waters. It’s an advantage I have over all smallmouth fisheries, and every other bass angler I share the water with.

Simply put, catching big smallmouth won’t be as consistent or successful without prioritizing your precious fishing time around windows and peak periods. If you’ve identified them these occurrences happen seasonally, monthly, weekly, and daily.

Calm humid evenings drive smallmouth to the shallows at night, greatly improving the odds of catching and releasing a trophy.

Spring Season

Our spring fishing season is a short, condensed 6 week period lasting from May season opener through the end of spawn in mid June. Years of fishing experience has led me to figure out the best time for spring smallmouth is during the second and third weeks of May.

During the spring season, all fish locations are shallow due to feeding and spawning requirements. Nearly all fishing is casting specific regions of the lake and locations that are less than 10 ft. deep. All fish movements in spring are deep to shallow structural and spawning migrations. As waters warm, smallmouth wake up from their main lake wintering areas and follow main lake breaklines and topography, then infiltrate the shallows, seeking spawning locations such as rock shoals and flats they revisit annually along shorelines and spawning bays. This movement lasts from ice out through spawn, and is dependant entirely on the weather, conditions, and water temperature.

Peak smallmouth fishing during May revolves around sunlight and water temperature. If you look at the hundreds of spring smallmouth photos I’ve shot, nearly of them were caught during midday hours and afternoons on bright sunny days. Besides sunlight, optimal water temperature for best feeding and activity, and longest spre-spawn feeding windows is 48 to 55 degrees. This is a product of the warming days and comfortable southern & western winds the season delivers.

Peak smallmouth fishing during May revolves around sunlight and water temperature. If you look at the hundreds of spring smallmouth photos I’ve shot, nearly of them were caught during midday hours and afternoons on bright sunny days. Windless, warm and sunny days explode shallow water fishing.

The spawn period officially begins during May’s full moon. This is a peak period for targeting large female fish, as it’s their biological clock for when to slide up shallow to feed and nest shortly after.

One of the most underrated peak periods of spring is patterning baitfish migrations. Shiners and log perch school and roam heavily in the shallows for their own spawning requirements. Smallmouths follow and feed on what’s most readily available. The presence of baitfish is really the only reason why casting minnow-imitating suspending jerkbaits is top producer along breaklines and staging areas.

Forage migrations are an often ignored peak feeding period for smallmouth in early spring. Log perch are a favored preyfish.

Fish the smaller, shallower warmer waters early in spring. Then move on to larger, deep and clear waters later on. This assures you of fishing ahead of, or behind, the spawn. Then to catch the biggest smallmouth of spring, camp out on lakes during midday and afternoon hours, wasting no precious fishing time in between traveling to elsewhere. Understand that a productive smallmouth fishery will have 5 to 10 (or more) primary staging and spawning regions. Focus all angling efforts around these areas only, to avoid fishing worthless, unproductive water. Whack and stack, baby. A good staging location can hold 15 to as many as 50 catchable bass or more at any time, until fish have become conditioned. It’s why camping out on spots is so important, as any weather or wind change will trigger activity. Large adult bass will reuse the same staging and spawning locations annually unless they have been displaced or exploited by other anglers.

Want to experience advantageous fishing during the spring season? Prioritize your fishing around the second and third weeks of May. Weather is most predictable, the days become sunny and warmer, catch rates are the best and biggest of the season, and water temperatures are optimal. This brief window of May always delivers the best smallmouth fishing of spring. It’s when I prioritize my spring trips, and also want customers to prioritize their fishing when scheduling with me.

The author, with his personal best smallmouth of 7 lbs. 8 oz. captured during a prime spring window. The spawn period officially begins during May’s full moon. This is a peak period for targeting large female fish, as it’s their biological clock for when to slide up shallow to feed and nest shortly after.

Summer Season

Mid June through Labor Day weekend is the summer season. This long period encompasses everything from the heavy feeding post spawn phase of mid to late June, July’s summer peak, and August dog days of summer.

There is no bad time to catch big smallmouth in mid summer, but the best and most advantageous in my book has played out in late June, late July, and early August when most fish activity resulting from windows and peak periods takes place. To catch big smallmouth, the entire tackle box opens up. The presentations of most smallmouth fisheries will cater best to crayfish patterns, perch patterns, cisco patterns, or all of the above.

A variety of mid-summer fish catchers in my boat. Notice how each bait is a simple tool, and we aren’t over-complicating things! Nor are we prioritizing unnecessary, obnoxious expensive baits.

In summer, we’re fishing at all depths – deep by day, and shallow at night. Following spawn, fish disperse throughout the lake, progressing from shallow to deep, and then settling in areas most comfortable and suitable to them. These locations are shallow and mid depth structure to as deep as 15 ft. such as flats and points, fish cribs, wood, rocks and boulders, and weedlines. Deep structure to whatever depth the lake’s thermocline dictates (if the lake stratifies) may then consist of mid lake rock bars and humps, deep rock structure, boulders, ledges, main lake basins, sand grass, and open water. In most smallmouth fisheries, there are shallow water residents and deep water residents that relate to structure and habitat, and some open water roamers that only feed and follow pelagic baitfish such as cisco and smelt for the remainder of the year.

Are you fishing onboard and offshore for hot weather and water temps mid summer fish?

Summer peak sets in at 75 degree water temperature. Thermoclines fully develop. The largest members of the bass population will be holding in deeper, cooler water near the thermocline that is most cool and comforting for them. The food is everywhere and the most abundant it will be for the entire year. Likewise, weather is consistent and at the best it will be for the entire year. Feeding windows are long and predictable, influenced and aided by weather and lunar phases, repetitive daily. With daytime hours being longest, lake hopping enables us to stay most productive and helps maximize bites.

From mid July through August I prioritize evening and nighttime fishing efforts daily, especially on calm, humid days. The after dark heavy feeding and molting of crayfish in the shallows, and bug hatches trigger feeding binges of big bass in the shallows. This is the easiest and most productive time of year for targeting smallmouth on lakes where rusty crayfish is the primary forage species.

High pressure weather systems filled with heat make for challenging times and oppressive midday fishing efforts, but fish early or late to counter them. From mid July through August I prioritize evening and nighttime fishing efforts daily, especially on calm, humid days. The after dark heavy feeding and molting of crayfish in the shallows, and bug hatches trigger feeding binges of big bass in the shallows. This is the easiest and most productive time of year for targeting smallmouth on lakes where rusty crayfish is the primary forage species.

Speaking of big bug hatches, the mayfly hatch wreaks havoc for all anglers. But late June through mid July it actually improves smallmouth fishing, activating the entire food chain, and making big bass easier to locate and catch with hair jigs and surface lures. Strangely, most anglers will never take advantage of this phenomenon due to fear and inability of thinking outside of the box.

The mayfly hatch wreaks havoc for all anglers. But late June through mid July it actually improves smallmouth fishing, activating the entire food chain, and making big bass easier to locate and catch with hair jigs and surface lures.

To stay on top of big bass and big bites throughout summer, fish the deepest and clearest lakes. These are cisco systems, and some even trout water, and will remain cool throughout the season, catering best to trophy smallmouth. Summer heat cannot penetrate through them as effectively and detrimentally like it does to flowages and dark water lakes at this time of year – a reason why I don’t fish them for smallmouth after mid June. Mid-summer cold fronts and cool downs that follows oppressive heat activates feeding too, re-energizing members of the smallmouth population that might have become dormant due to warm water temps.

As summer months progress to fall season, prioritize most fishing strategies onboard and offshore. Don’t be a bank beater, as most big bass by now are living deep and around the structure of main lake basins.

Fall Season

Similar to spring, fall in the northwoods is short and condensed. Between summer and winter, we sometimes get only a week or two of transition time between the seasons.

Fall smallmouth fishing is patterned by the stages of turnover, and fishing locations revolve around wintering migrations. By now 90% of the entire lake’s bass population is living in 10% of the lake, in and around wintering locations. The best peak period of autumn will be when fish have moved into wintering areas, making them easier to locate and catch. Location must always be prioritized over presentation and strategy in order to experience best fishing.

A productive smallmouth fishery will have upwards of 5 or more main overwintering areas. Wintering holes aren’t specific spots, but pre-determined survival locations that have been identified and utilized by previous generations and current members of the lake’s bass population. The locations are historical to the lake’s bass fishery because they get visited annually by the same community of bass and an individual fish during its entire lifetime. They’re optimal deep basin and structural sweet spot locations that a community of bass finds and settles on for overwintering protection and comfort. The substrates may consist of deep rock and bottom transitions, holes, sand grass, and all are commonly in 25 to 30 ft. depths.

September is a transition month highlighted by coldfronts and Indian summer that delivers a brief shallow water feeding movement, typical for end of month. Autumn’s coldfronts trigger feeding, but windows are short and rapid. Midday fishing efforts and sunny afternoons are prioritized during the cold water, post-turnover period in October and November.

The best smallmouth fishing of fall is had when you camp out on lakes and over smallmouth wintering holes, and patiently wait for feeding windows to appear and re-appear throughout the midday and afternoon hours. Mark Benson and I took advantage of this window of opportunity in October, 2018.

By now, all bites for the boat are big fish or bust. Smallmouth are schooling heavily, and vulnerable. Offshore deep structure jigging, rigging and casting is catching them from depths commonly at 25 to 30 ft. The tackle box closes and fewer presentations will be utilized and needed by the time first ice approaches.

From mid September through November, baitfish migrations are prevalent and offer the best feeding windows. When waters cool into the 60’s in September, schools of yellow perch invade remaining green weedlines. This is one of the reasons why big smallmouth slide up towards the shallows again, and why it’s common to catch them from cabbage and coontail beds.

In addition to perch migrations, ciscoes and whitefish spawn during November’s full moon when water temperatures are in the low to mid 40’s. Didn’t think trophy smallmouth were catchable at this time? On cisco fisheries, the placement of some smallmouth wintering locations correlates with cisco spawning sites, and are often strategically within close range to them. Giant smallmouths are experts at ambushing and feeding on these open water delicacies, and will set up nearby for an easy meal during the cisco spawn when cisco are staging at 20-25 ft. depths during daytime.

In late fall when water temps fall to the mid 40’s, prioritize locating cisco schools that are in proximity to smallmouth wintering locations. This will be the final feeding binge and big bass opportunity of the season.

Fall smallmouth fishing the coldwater period is to be done slow, and meticulous. It’s no longer necessary or wise strategy to cover water and fish many different lakes in a single day in order to experience the best fishing. The best fishing of fall is had when you camp out on lakes and over smallmouth wintering holes, and patiently wait for feeding windows to appear and re-appear throughout the midday and afternoon hours.

Want to experience advantageous fishing during the fall season? Always fish ahead of, or behind turnover. Schedule all fall bass trips before or after it, as lake smallmouth are deep structurally oriented fish. Turnover can be avoided completely and countered by fishing flowages, rivers, and lakes that didn’t stratify during the summer that year.

Catching big smallmouth has become second nature to me. For fishing consistency and success, plan fishing trips around some of these windows and peak periods I experience in my region during the fishing season. Any advantages offered to you by weather, conditions, environment, water temps, forage, et al, to capitalize from is your gateway to a fishing trip victory.

Andrew Ragas splits time between the Chicago area and Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Based in Minocqua, WI, he specializes in trophy bass fishing and offers guided trips from May thru October. While big bass is the passion, he dabbles in multi-species as well. He may be visited online at www.northwoodsbass.com