Northwoods Bass Fishing Report – Early Fall 2018

Welcome to autumn 2018. The weather has been lousy most days since I returned to the water on September 22nd, but the fishing has been pretty good on every lake once you find the fish and their fall locations.

In the last week and a half, water temperatures have plummeted, from the upper 60’s to now the middle/upper 50’s. Fall patterns, fishing strategies, and bass locations are now definitely in play. Water temps in the Minocqua area are holding steady at 55-58, and turnover is underway.

Since end of September, we’re exclusively fishing for smallmouth bass only. The recent coldfronts got the bass retreating to deep water. It was just a short week ago where shallow and mid-depth fishing produced the best results on every trip, and our bites were coming in 5-10ft on many casting presentations. At this writing, mid-depth from 14-18ft, and deep water fishing from 25 to 30ft is now producing the best fishing results. Now, we are vertical jigging, getting our baits to the bottom, and position fishing.

Worthwhile locations and money spots are fish cribs and deep wood, where dormant bass will like to lay. Additionally, deep rocks with nearby mud transitions from 25 to 29 feet held bass most frequently and are typical overwintering locations. Steep breaklines and shelves dropping into deep water are also holding some fish too.

Main lake basins and deep underwater structure. Rocks, boulders, gravel, hard bottom. All in, or near proximity to their wintering locations. Look for all of this on your favorite smallmouth lake right now. Once turnover completes, majority of that water’s bass will be in their wintering locations. Each lake will have multiple wintering areas for bass.

What’s Happening Now

The recent cold has the big brownies retreating to deep water. Each passing day is sending the fish deeper. On most trip days, we’re averaging an output of 15 to 30 bass from the action lakes. Meanwhile on trophy lakes, 2 to 5 monster fish during the course of an 8hr day has been the norm.

Besides the bass making their fall migrations and moving deeper daily, the plunging temps is driving lakes closer to turnover completion.

True signs of fall turnover is once lake temps hit 55-57 degrees or so. Lakes with a summer thermocline, that also have clear water, may be browning and becoming green in clarity during this phase. Additionally, the surface will be littered with plant matter and other debris. Currently, the smaller 100 to 500 acre lakes are flipping over. I have also seen signs of large lakes 1,000 acres and up just beginning the process too. The best solution is to fish ahead or behind fall turnover. If the lake you are about to launch at is showing these symptoms, go fish elsewhere.

In the coming days, strong winds should get turnover completed on many of the small to midsize lakes. I anticipate the largest lakes to follow and also complete quickly. The good thing about this season was many of our lakes didn’t develop thick pronounced thermoclines as they normally do. Fish them and proceed angling activities on them as conditions will still be good.

Bass Bling

I can write and talk about the great casting and flats fishing we enjoyed last week with swimbaits, spinnerbaits, and lipless crankbaits, but that’s old news already and will not be the winning strategy at most lakes.

To catch majority of our fish right now, vertical jigging around main lake basins in 20-30ft rock, and due diligence with my electronics is getting best results. This is what I call ‘video game fishing’. It’s not the most engaging method to catching fish, but if you’re patient like me and like to employ vertical presentations to catching fish, this deep water stuff with aid of good electronics is very fun!

The bass are smacking our baits.

And when you hook into fish like the one I captured here on screen, play each hooked fish up from the depths slowly and methodically to avoid barotrauma injury such as bursting of their swim bladders.

Each of the baits my boat is using must get down quickly to the depths SMB’s are holding at. The assortment of deep diving cranks, heavy paddletails, sculpin imitators, tubes and football heads, and blade bait are scoring best bites currently. Most jig sizes and weights being used are in the 1/4 oz. to 1/2 oz. size category.

My fall bass checklist as follows:

• Strike King Coffee Tubes with 1/4 oz to 3/8 oz jig inserts / and rigged with Freedom Tackle Zodiac Jigs.
• Super K Jigs Football and Finesse Football Jigs
• Northland Tackle football jig heads rigged with assorted plastics
• Chompers 5″ Hula Grubs w/ football jigs
• Damiki Vault Blade Bait 1/2 oz.
• Strike King 5XD Crankbait
• Rapala DT 10 and DT 16 crankbaits
• Assorted 4″ paddletails with 3/8 oz and heavier minnow style jig heads
• Sculpin imitating paddletail plastic

Feeding windows are short and sweet. Catch one, you may quickly follow up with 5 more. Then the bite dissipates, only to return with a flurry of more fish hours later.

Slow and subtle presentations such as dragging tube jigs, hula grubs, and football jigs is catching most fish. Vertical jigging and carolina rigging with flukes, spoons and blade baits, and drop shot techniques is catching fish also. Even deep cranking too. Specialty rigging with live bait (4-6 inch walleye suckers lindy rigged with lancet circles), done as the last resort, is catching a few fish also. Usually, a deep diving crankbait such as a Rapala DT-10 and 16, jig and paddletail swimbait, and swimming grub retrieved slowly through mid-depth ranges will trigger the most aggressive strikes and from the largest fish too, but not with same frequency as all these slow and subtle strategies.

October’s bounty is providing many numbers days, when we find the fall mother-lode. This late in the season, I don’t care for numbers unless I can locate schools and fish are of excellent quality average size. We want big bites.

In order to locate most of this month’s biggest bass, I always spend more time motoring around and slowly idle around key spots and wintering locations before fish are confirmed on the screen. Only then, with waypoints marked and a track established, would I even consider fishing and drifting across the specific location.

Remember, 90% of the bass in every lake are only living in 10% of that lake! Right now.

Once these deep water bass are found, they are really easy to catch for the first half hour you’re camped over them.

While deep schooling, non-dormant bass are often catchable, the presence of nearby food greatly enhances catching them. The food needs to be present down deep where smallmouths are beginning to home for the winter. Schools of yellow perch and bait balls of cisco should be nearby. Crayfish also burrowing themselves in deep mud bottom too for their overwintering.

With big fish on my mind in October, I only focus my bass fishing efforts on a half dozen different lakes throughout the month. Due to short feeding windows and thanks to the process of eliminating dead water it’s illogical and poor strategy to drive all over the place and lake hop like normally. The lakes I limited myself to in October tend to fish well for bass in fall. I have systemically patterned their specific fall bass movements, and know where wintering holes are located.

Good Bass Bites

September 22nd – I found a pile of good ones.

The first major cold front of autumn has come, and water temps are now 64-66. The bass understand what’s going on weather-wise now, and each day will be a new feeding and locational progression for them where soon they will be in wintering locations.

I got off to a very late start, so it was good to skip the chilly cold post-frontal morning. The fishing was so bad that my first good bites didn’t happen until later in the afternoon. The whole day I was getting blown around on the big water, but the fish more than made up for it.

September 23rd – Ron and Rob enjoyed a respectable day of post-frontal smallmouth fishing. We hit approx 25 fish from two different waters on our full day trip . We had a nice morning window from 9-10am, and another one again from 330-430pm.

Most fish in the 16 inch size category. Top ones at around 18 inches.

Best fishing took place in the am when we had wind and chop. Fish coming on lipless cranks and paddletail swimbaits. Most were cruising atop flats. Then when wind died, and so too did the fishing.

September 27th – Going into this trip, I had the lowest of expectations, but realistic at the same time. The weather was going to be bad and crummy also. Getting at least a dozen in this would have been satisfactory. For Thursday’s full day trip with Valarie and Adam, I wasn’t going to be doing a repeat of my Weds. solo efforts. Everywhere we’d fish, I stubbornly was going to keep us in water no shallower than 10-15ft all day. And we’d be hitting deep rocks and potential wintering sites all day. It worked!

September 28th – Enjoyed a great, cold, windy, fall trip with David and Brett. We fished a 1/2 day morning session and fish were responding well to lipless crankbaits and swimbaits. Top fish was a PB 21” (very skinny one) that took a swimbait within first 5 casts of the morning.

The gents boated a total of 10, from rock and sand in 5-10ft depths. Slow drifting and parking ourselves with spot lock was the strategy. We located deep wintering fish too, along deep rock in 22-30ft but was impossible to hold above them with crazy strong winds and periods of freezing rain.

October 1st – I fear I may have missed out on the best river/flowage fishing of the fall season, as water temps are quickly plunging and bronzers are migrating into their wintering areas and deep slow flowing holes. 90% of the bass are living in 10% or less of every water right now.

I hit a good half dozen midday yesterday, on mid-range crankbaits, before big rain sent me+deckhand racing back to the access area. Largest fish was a 20″+ that engulfed the lure 5mins into the outing – no picture due to prioritizing care. Never seen a bass so suicidal. She burst away better than before I caught her.

October 2nd – Fall patterns are now definitely in play. Water temps in the Minocqua area 55-58, and turnover is underway.

Johnny hit some nice fish with me yesterday. Tough fishing all day on multiple lakes. Johnny was 2 for 4 in the catch department. I got the smallie skunkaroo. Even though fish are supposed to be in 25-30ft rock and in wintering locations right now, always go check up on nearby mid-depth sections with similar structure in case you’re not marking anything, deep bites aren’t happening, and fish may have moved out/slid up shallower. Reverting back to mid depth locations in 15-18ft saved the day.

October (and later) Fishing Forecast

To catch some big bass towards the end of October is a bonus. Every bite to me until the end is precious.

After fall turnover completes on lakes, fish solely wintering locations, looking for deep rock, saddles, holes, structure, and regions of the lake where ciscoes come up to spawn at during 42-45 degree water temps.

Fish will be wintering. Go find them, and catch them. They might not be active, but if they appear to be suspending a few feet off the bottom, they’re catchable and hungry.

As we get into the latter parts of October, water temperatures will drop into the upper 40’s. This is about when I call it quits on for the season, at the very latest. Some fishing opportunities may still remain for the die-hards, as cisco feeding patterns take place, and there can be some days where big fish and numbers of them can be still caught.

I’m calling it quits with 2018 bass fishing after October 10th. Wintering trips and showing off vulnerable, sensitive locations of heavily concentrated fish isn’t noble of me to do.

Please release all smallmouth bass this time of season. If you catch a trophy you want to mount, take pictures and measurements, and you will order a reproduction that will look nicer and better than an old smelly skin mount. Trust me on this one.

For those of you planning early for next year, please contact me for 2019 trips, instruction, and fishing opportunities. I will be scheduling spring fishing trips and most of 2019 beginning in December. I can follow up with you again in a few months. I don’t guide on opening weekend, since there is always the chance of there still being ice on the lakes. Also it would be unfair to host customers because it would be like blind fishing. My spring trips begin a few days after season opener later that week, and I will make my month of May 2019 fishing dates be known.

To those of you reading this from northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin, I already have 2 winter seminars booked with fishing clubs and organizations. I have those dates already published in my calendar of events:

Seminars and Appearances

Andrew Ragas
Northwoods Bass Fishing Adventures, LLC
Licensed and Insured
Specializing in Northern Wisconsin inland bass fishing

tel: 708-256-2201
email: andrew@northwoodsbass.com
web: www.northwoodsbass.com