OCTOBER TRIPS
Tim, Dan, Earl and I went up to Lake St. Clair the first week of October. We had a strong cold front go through a few days before we got there and the water temperature dropped about 20 degrees real quick. We had sunny and calm days and caught only 8 or so smallmouth each day. Fishing was so slow that we came home a day early.
.
Tim went back up to Lake St. Clair with a bunch of guys the last weekend of October. This trip was a good learning experience. He started directly east of XE2 buoy and fished about 1/2 mile down toward the radio tower with no luck. The rest of the day he hit the Simm's hole, sand bar and 5-13 hole hard. Of the three boats in Tim's party (7 guys) they DID NOT catch a smallmouth all day. The conditions again were sunny and not much wind. They were pretty discouraged after a long day. After our last trip, Tim was thinking that the fall bite was not happening this year.
Saturday morning they fished shallow for about and hour or so with zero hits. The morning was gray, rainy with a good chop. They then went out to Simm's hole in about 11-12 foot of water. There were a few boats already there. They found out later that the other boats were using a RIPPING technique. They had 1/4 ounce tubes on bait casters and where casting with the wind. They would let it settle, then rip it across the weeds and let it go slack, then they reeled up the slack and if they felt resistance they would real hard and set the hook. It definitely worked. They saw Nick Bell from Kentucky boat a 6lb 3 ounce monster.
Tim's gang started picking up fish here and there. They were getting them mostly on the transition area south of the Carolina hole. Tim's boat got 26 had 4 over 4 lb. with many over 3 lb. All good fall bass. They got into a pretty good flurry right at dark.
All in all it was a good trip. As usual, it was all about the weather. When it got overcast and a light wind it was on. When the wind stopped it stopped. |
