Northwoods Bass Fishing Report, Fall 2020

Fishing has been good almost every day this fall season that I have forgotten to send out a newsletter and compose a fall fishing report. This newest installment won’t be very timely, due to a lot happening from the past month, because conditions are changing weekly.

September was excellent most days, and now in mid October we are settling into typical fall patterns and pre-wintering. Good bites will continue through the end of month, and my season will conclude then. This week, Ranger is in the shop for a new skeg replacement and some other lovin’. Oops. Yes I hit something I wasn’t supposed to. Could have been much worse.

I’m off the water now until October 19th. Will be back for our last dance then.

After an eternity off the water since early August, I returned to the water again on September 5th thru October 7th. Water temperatures then were in the upper 60’s. Fish of all species were being caught, and I took a week’s vacation to fun fish, explore places, and pursue multi-species trips for the first time all year. My apologies to some of you during that Labor Day week, I purposely declined trips so I could take a break.

Ever since mid September, the lakes have been in a nice, slow and steady, gradual water temperature decline. We’ve also enjoyed consistent weather which has made for several successful trophy hunts…… minus the huge winds some days. With the two going hand in hand, its been an excellent fall season to date. This has resulted in very good fishing, predictable patterns, and making smallmouth easier to locate. Feeding frenzies were experienced during most days and guide trips with customers.

Turnover came quickly and was nondescript this month. High winds every day quickly mixed lakes overnight. The process was quicker than ever before. Many large lakes have completed. Now, water temps are ranging from 49 at low end to 56 degrees high end.  Smaller and shallower lakes and the rivers coldest, big water the warmest.

In September, summer patterns were still very much in play. Lots of shallow water casting atop sand and gravel flats, weedlines, run and gun approaches, and aggressive fishing strategies with swimmer and search lures dominated. By October 7th, these tactics all mostly expired due to deeper water movements. Right now, jigging, rigging, cranking, and deepwater casting is catching most fish.

Fall patterns, fishing strategies, and bass locations are now definitely in play. The cold snap expected for this weekend will prevent anglers from getting out, but will accelerate smallmouth feeding and really drive their numbers into wintering hole concentrations.

Since end of September, we’re exclusively fishing for big smallmouth bass only. Really no action fishing, and if the interest is in numbers September and October are the wrong months. These past few weeks, 10 to 15 fish days of mid-size to large fish have been the usual result. Meanwhile, 20 to 30 fish days were enjoyed too, and exceptional.

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 and biggest fish 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 mostly vertical jigging, quickly getting our baits to the bottom, and position fishing.

With turnover completed, the next phase of fall begins and pre-wintering follows. You will want to focus most efforts on deep structure and potential wintering areas. The shallows will vacate, and when the lakes fully clear themselves up, the shallows will mostly be empty!

You will want to rely on electronics to find fish. When you do, you’ve struck bronze.

 

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What’s Happening Now

Turnover is finished.

As the above two photos indicate, time to start position fishing atop and around deep structure and wintering sites.

Need some location advice?

Worthwhile locations and money spots are fish cribs and deep wood, where dormant and coldfront affected 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 for BOTH crayfish and smallmouth. 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.

Speaking about flowages, they’re all in draw-down but at full pool. We’ve gotten hammered with lots of rainfall, making boat fishing them difficult and too much work. I love river fishing in fall. This will be the year I’m unable to float the Wisconsin River system.

 

Bass Bling

I can write and talk about the great casting and flats fishing we enjoyed in September with swimbaits and minnows, but that’s old news already and will not be the winning strategy at most lakes in October.

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!

And when you hook into fish from 25-30ft depths, play each hooked fish up from the depths slowly and methodically to avoid barotrauma injury such as bursting of their swim bladders.

Cooling water temps has the fish shallow, deep, and everywhere in between.

Days with some wind has fish chasing spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, swimbaits, and Xrap 10’s. Even on calm days like we’ve had most of last week, bomb casting and slow rolling a paddletail was accounting for most strikes.

Many waters and feeding preferences are forage specific right now. Some lakes Cisco… others perch….. and if they’re out, crayfish. Try them all between swimbaits, jerkbaits, and football jigs.

As water temps begin to cool into the upper 50’s, the tackle box shortens. I also begin to move towards deeper structure with the fish.

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 have been scoring best bites currently. Most jig sizes and weights being used are in the 3/8 oz. to 3/4 oz. size category.

Heavy swinging heads, football heads, and bladebaits by Freedom Tackle Corp. are my go-to’s this season.

For another unique option, check out Kalin’s Fishing google eye swing footballs. If they’re really aggressive, they’ll also chase a deep diving crankbait.

My customers have all hammered the big fish with St. Croix RodsMojo Bass rods.

Buy here – https://stcroixrods.com/collections/freshwater-mojo

• 71 MHF Power Spins handling most football jigs and bottom dragging presentations.
• 73 MHF Power Shake bomb casting all paddletails – this is a great setup for folks who aren’t able to handle a casting rod and reel.
• 75 MHXF Swim Frog casting is the most used rod in the boat this fall, and all swimbaits are being thrown with it. Long rod does all the casting for you, and the fast flex of the tip assures good hook sets from long distance.

The tackle box is becoming simpler and dwindles each week. By end of the day I literally have only a few rods out: A deep diving crank; Ned Rig; A paddletail swimbait on 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz head; Chompers hula grub on football jig; A blade bait to vertical jig and rip with; And a light and heavy size skirted football jig with assorted craw trailers.

Craws, critters, creatures, and bottom dwelling smallie killers.

Our top sticks for this week’s program is St. Croix RodsLegend Tournament 71MHF Power Spin and 7MHXF Dock Sniper.

Buy here https://stcroixrods.com/collections/freshwater-legend

Don’t be afraid to throw football heads heavier than 3/4 oz. and match with a supersize craw trailer such as a Bizz Baits killer craw (alabama craw). Bizz Baits killer craws and bizz bugs are the only jig trailers we use.

After turnover settles next week, vertical jigging and dragging presentations from deep water will outfish all casting. 90% of the fish will then be concentrated in 10% or less of the lake.

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.

 

Current Fishing Report and October 2020 Fishing Forecast

To catch some big bass towards the end of October is a bonus. Every bite to me until the end is precious. You never know when that particular 20 incher could be your last one for the year.

Right now till end of month, 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.

As long as it’s not snowing and colder than 40 degrees I plan to do some more bass fishing.

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.

 

Trip Reports with Photos

Had trips nearly every day, but some were better than others. Lots of nice fish all month in September through October 7th, with captions below:

September 14-15th – Day-1 with Corey and Alby went well. Last week’s coldfronts had the fishes on a slow recovery even yesterday. Lots of short strikes, but over 20 smallies still caught — everything on paddletails and Swimbaits. Yay for some numbers which is what we wanted to accomplish.

Water temps 61-64 but should hold steady throughout the week. Not much yellow perch activity in the weeds and shallows which is what I was hoping for, so we had to cover lots of water along the windblown sand flats and beaches. Fishes came in pods of twos and threes here and there. Keep moving till you find them plus some other food chain activity. Strong winds and California smog likely affected the fish and their vision & feeding. More big wind today for day-2. Story of our 2020.

Set those hooks real hard.

Excellent day-2 with Corey and Alby, considering the conditions and horrid winds. We escaped to some small waters and were rewarded with 20” and 21.5” specimens. Only 7 light biters were caught, but we called it quits at 1pm so they could drive 8 hours back to Champaign IL.

The ancient dinosaur 21 was caught right at the final last cast buzzer at 1pm.

Sand flats and deep wood in 8-14ft holding majority on this day.

 

September 16th – Awesome trip and travel day with Ron, who could still be living and wondering if yesterday, one of his best ever bass days, was a dream or for real 🤣

9 hours on the water, we worked hard, found a few money spots, and the early fall beatdown was on. I generally don’t tend to keep a stat line like this, but 18 fish caught, 7 bass at 20”, each of the 7 weighing at least 4lbs each X 7 = nice 28lb sack. We didn’t bother photographing some of the 18-19s we caught either. Fish came in flurries too.

Best fishing took place throughout the morning as clouds and warm wind had the fish active and shallow with most bites coming around 5ft. By early afternoon, coldfront took into effect and slowed us considerably, fish sliding down into 10-12ft areas and much less active.

Spot on spot locations atop the flats, isolated gravel bars, some wood, and deeper rock holding our fish. Water temps 60-63 and will remain thru next week.

Chompers Hula Grubs w football heads, football jig with Bizz Baits Killer Craws, and large swimbaits scored each of our 18 smallmouth of the day.

St. Croix Rods Legend Tournament MHF power spin and Dock Sniper absolutely incredible for the football jig program we ran with for most of the day.

Congrats to Ron for a great day! He achieved legendary angler status.

September 18th – Excellent coldfront fishing with Roger and Rick. Wherever you fished, success had to simply come down to lake selection…… not a whole lot of others had good days…… . So I took them to one of my good coldfront lakes and it produced 20 smallmouth between 8am-1230.

All fishes relating there to deep rock and boulders in 10-15ft.

The afternoon wasn’t as kind to us, as lake #2 only kicked out 3 little guys for us, but a few big hookups were swung and missed from deep water.

Rick was rocking the do nothing AR ned. Roger worked a football jig, and I mixed it up from the back end between tube and football too. All caught fish all day, and it was an easy day on the water.

Top fish a pair of 18-19inchers.

 

September 22 – Despite the challenging conditions of no wind and water temps shooting back up by 5 degrees to the mid 60’s again, Kevin and Steve had an excellent trip. We worked on two waters and found willing participants during the morning and midday hours. By afternoon everything shut down, and fish were on the down low.

Top bites were Kevin’s 21, and Steve’s 20.5”. The two also connected with a few other respectable fishes.

Great swimbait and paddletail bite of September continues, even with the zero wind we’ve had the last 2 days. Long casts, let slow roll, medium/ fast retrieves, and fish are hitting from long distance. 3.8 Rage Swimmers and 5” Suicide Shads doing the damage in my boat.

Lots of fish are holding in that 5-10ft zone. Rock and wood are great areas and football jigs are catching those fish. Sand flats with grass and beaches have fish, but not much life showing up onto them these last few calm quiet dead days. Perch haven’t yet moved into their weedlines and grass on most lakes

I really enjoyed hosting Kevin and Steve and look forward to them again. Great skilled anglers who could go above and beyond to score a few big biters in less than stellar conditions.

September 24-25 – Great last two days hosting Tyler and Courtney from TN on their annual trip. Weather sucked, but got some big ones to eat. Two mega fishes at 21 and 20.5, and some pedestrian 20’s. Tyler connected with an absolute giant on yesterday afternoon’s monster quest that measured 21×16 and hit the scale at 6lbs.

Water temps holding at 62-66. We are catching nearly all fish on paddletails & swimbaits. And when slower fishing approach is needed, football jigs with a variety of trailers & stand-alone plastics.

Rock, wood, sand, as shallow as 5 and deep as 15. Windblown beaches and flats outstanding as well. Biggest fish coming far offshore.

 

September 26 – Major b(ass) grinder yesterday with Scottie, Bob, Jim, Kara, and Dan. All anglers in my vessel and follow boat, and the fishes, feeling hungover on this slow lifeless gloomy day. But we did get a dozen up to 18-19’s to help wake us all up.

Fish haven’t been chasing and smashing with their September splendor, but cast and land your baits in the area of a fish, it’ll get bit. Jig and paddletail, and swimbaits, and lipless cranks catching them all.

A favorite rod for the boat these last two weeks is the St. Croix RodsMojo Bass Swim Frog 7’5” MHXF. Awesome paddletail stick for bomb casting, and a quick flex for great hook sets at long distance. At least one guy in the boat has been throwing with it exclusively.

Tough conditions ahead these next few days but bites will be firing back up.

 

September 27-28 – Despite the abysmal conditions, Jamie and Keith had a fun 2 day trip. Day 1 Sunday tough, day 2 Monday in winter conditions much better, with Keith catching a toad and joining the 20 incher club.

Since last report, we got dumped on 4 inches of rain and big Tstorms Saturday night. This goofed up the fish and their moods and it showed on Sunday as we marked several dozens of unwilling biters. Monday much better though, and they were chasing and eating. Water temps have since fallen to 59-62 and will continue to drop thru end of the week.

Best success on the water right now is coming down to lake selection, and camping out during the afternoons. Feeding windows are shortening, and you won’t want to miss out on the minimal opportunities.

Cooldown had the smallmouth fired up on Monday, with all bites on Xrap 10’s in clown and perch, and the reliable paddletail. Lots of missed hits, and by midday the swimbait bite fizzled out.

We’ll be seeing some deep movements beginning later in the week and next week. Turnover time is coming quickly.

 

October 5-6 – If Tuesday was last bass trip of the year we hammered em. 11 hard earned fish on our hawg hunt, and almost every one of them 19-21’s, 3-4-5’s.

Jim Prosser and Chris joined me for 2 days. Monday was pitiful conditions and fishing with winds to 40mph. Tuesday was the day and made up for it!<

Water temps 56-58. Turnover either happening or has completed. Check the lakes you plan to fish. If water is clear, give it a go. You only need a depth of 20-30ft to find smallmouth now as they are starting to move into their wintering sites. However, some fish are still being caught shallower and mid depth. On our trip we hit fish from 8ft, 15ft, 20ft, and 29ft. Check everywhere, but bank on wintering and fall staging sites. If you are a shoreline or shallow water angler, your window has closed.

The tackle box is closing. Jigging and rigging with football jigs, hula grubs, paddletails & swimbaits.

Warm front this week thru middle of next week will keep fish all over the depth spectrum.

Who knows whether that’s the end of bass 2K20, but I’ll be keeping some end of year days open during October 19th week when I return to the water. Thankfully September thru now met my standards. Excellent fall season!

 

 

Don’t be Livewelling Bass from Special-Regs Waters

Lots of this has been going on. STOP NOW. This is an overbagging violation worthy of citation, and those who continue to do it and carelessly post pics from the boat landing (obvious we know where it happens) and then share on social media doesn’t help you the angler or more importantly the fisheries.

Help me understand……. 1 fish bag limit on lots of bass lakes in Vilas…… where does it say in the book you can livewell them for a full day, keep on fishing, and get an end of day pic of 2 anglers holding 4 fish with 3 persons total in the boat, help me understand Facebook math today.

1 fish in box per regs = you met 1 fish possession and are done fishing bass on that lake, period.

Overbagging?

No?

Special exemptions to your boat?

Seeing a lot of this the past few years. Then it gets better when guides and “influencers” set the positive example posting it on facebook or instagram for hundreds to see like its okay. I’m not holier than anybody I’m sharing waters with, but it’s a disgusting egomaniacal abuse of the fisheries for self gratification if you ask me. I’ve had this conversation with local game wardens these last few fall seasons. I even spent over 45 minutes having a telephone conversation with local warden about it the other week.

Livewellers have been put on notice. The game wardens and rest of northwoods facebook world is watching.

 

2021 Trip Planning

For those of you planning early for next year, please contact me for 2021 trips and fishing opportunities. I will be scheduling spring fishing trips and most of 2021 beginning after Thanksgiving. This year we’ve done a pretty good job of balancing my newly married life in IL together with fishing life in WI. Happy wife, happy life. Ain’t nothing truer than that.

Collection of deposits and payments will begin after January 1st, 2021.

All repeat customers from 2017 to present please begin contacting me in November so I may enter you into my books early for your priority scheduling. You will have my calendar in hand for selecting dates.

• May trips (extremely popular) all get filled by February. Hardcore anglers come. Hawg hunting only.
  
• June, July and August dates come and go. I am very flexible these three months to accommodate all requests and trip types as season and conditions allow.
• September and October are also extremely popular, and get sold out late Summer. Hardcore anglers also come. Hawg hunting only. 

Please note – limited availability. I only fish up to 2 weeks per month. Some months I might fish less. Other months and prime seasons more. All fishing dates revolve around my seasonal / monthly trip blocks based on peak fishing periods and personal fishing success. Fishing dates are announced up to 6 months in advance.

Folks who have inquired for next year already, please follow up with me again before end of the year,

Thank you!

 

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