Trip after trip, and the later we got into September month, the smallmouth bite was steadily improving it seemed. Days of hot fishing lasted into weeks. The pre-turnover bite peaked when I hosted a young couple who traveled all the way from Tennessee, with both of them breaking personal records and catching fish surpassing 5-pounds. The great fishing continued with other anglers until my last trip day later the next week. Then I was to have a day off at last, as these are good days for me to go scout and check out other lakes and see whether the same hot bites can be replicated at them. That idea was short-lived until customer Joe Novak called me, wanting to play hookey from work that day. He saw my boat’s fishing was on fire that week and only wanted to schedule a date on the condition his trip could be that way. Desperate times call for a 10 hour round trip in order to fish for 8 hours. That day in late September, 2019 ended up being the best smallmouth fishing he’s ever had. As you know, fishing doesn’t ever come with any guarantees. But my goodness, when patterns like this one are so obvious and smallmouths are hungry and everywhere, they can ma