All good things come to an end and it is almost time to put the boat away for the season. My first non tournament trip to Woodstock this year was with my friend Terry Curtis who made the trip down from Ontario to fish with me. My last trip for the season is also in Woodstock with my buddy Jason Gogan who drove up from Saint John to spend the day on the upper river trying for some cold water smallies.
It was cold enough that when we went to stow the extra gear the compartment lids were frozen shut. We decided that the best course of action was to idle to our first spot instead of starting the day with a bone chilling ride.
With water temperatures down to 48 degrees you wouldn’t think that a spinnerbait would be what started the day off but Jason was slow rolling a tandem willowleaf spinnerbait in silver and he picked up the first two fish in less than three feet of water. This was ten minutes or so into our day and I thought that we were going to pound them but that was not the case. We worked some of the areas that I thought the fish would stack up in for a fall feed but all we got were scattered bites and a lot of them were just light taps on Jason’s spinnerbait. Many more fish hit it than made it to the boat, they just didn’t seem to committ to the strike and just bumped the bait. A very sharp trailer hook made the difference on a couple of them
I continued to fish away from the bank while Jason continued on with his pattern. I was a long time catching my first fish which hit a tube in about eight feet of water. We were talking about another move from this spot and I decided to swing out deeper and water the Lowrance for any sign of fish before we left. I spotted a big ball of bait fish near the bottom in twenty two feet and went vertical on them with a dropshot rig. I picked up a decent fish almost immediately and it was without a doubt the most lethargic smallmouth I have caught in ages. He came up to the top and just seemed to wait for me to take the hook out and back to the bottom he went. We picked up a couple of fish at this depth range if we could see bait on the screen. No bait no bites.
We tried a few of the late fall hotspots with no success and ended the day with eleven Smallmouth and one Chain Pickerel coming to the boat. The bonus for the day was that it was fantastic weather once the sun got up enough to warm the air up.
What worked today was a tandem willowleaf spinnerbait in silver. Jason stayed with it most of the day because it was working. There were many light hits on it that just didn’t connect. We say thousands of young of the year Gasperaux migrating downriver along the banks so that explained the shallow bite. I imagine those willowleaf blades gave off enough flash to imitate the baitfish.
I fished tubes and Flutter Worms on a 6’6″ Crucial MH rod, a 2500 Stradic and a mix of Power Pro braided line and Seige mono in green. The drop shot rig was a Cumara rod with a C14 reel with 8lb Seige mono and a wacky rigged Flutter Worm. Not very subtle but it worked.
It was a great fall day out on the river and it was just nice to be out without the wind and wondering if I should have applied sunscreen.
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