Tough September Largemouths and Pickerel

Tough day. The fish probably gorged during yesterday's rain. And though I don't think temps ever got above 70 today, the water was 74 degrees; overall I felt a sense in the air of fall definitely coming but not quite here with water that warm. Christopher Smith, one of New Jersey's fisheries biologists, once said to me that he finds September to be one of the toughest months to fish bass. He's big on bass fishing and knows his stuff. Later in October, bass go on the finny forage chase and will smash spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, jerkbaits, and other lures that cover range quickly. 

We got on the lake, and I threw one cast with a Chatterbait, then switched to a Senko. Just followed my fish sense, sure that no bass was going to chase it down. Brenden persistently threw a jig with a spinner blade underneath--like a Roadrunner but bigger--so we had an idea about how the bass were reacting to flash and fury. Nothing ever hit that lure. Brenden caught his bass on a little Z-Man paddletail. Also a sunfish.

"I was hoping the water would be down to 72," I told Brenden. That's my magic mark for the initiation of fall bass fishing. (When Round Valley surface temp falls to 70, you can catch rainbow trout from shore.)  

It seemed to take forever to hook up. I had long since switched out my Senko for the blue Chompers on an inset hook to better deal with the weeds. Finally I caught the little 12-inch bass photographed below. On another spot, I caught the pickerel and another bass the same size. I worked the worm about six to 12 feet down. 

We had marked some good-sized fish about that deep off the weedline by five or six yards, so we gave trolling diving plugs a good try but to no success. We also saw a salmon leap three feet out of the water. Brenden got the better sighting and said it was 20 inches long or better. Why did that happen? I have no idea. Seventy-four degree water.

I tried trolling the Phoebe. Between spots. 

The sun would set within a half hour, and so we pulled up on weedbeds that sloped off into deep water and in places dropped off, where my son, Matt, and I have caught many bass at sundown. My first cast got right next to weed at the surface, when a second later I saw the line move. I tightened up to set the hook, but the bass was diving into deep water so fast it had moved about 12 feet before I knew the hook was secure. It went airborne and impressed both of us as a five pounder, but it proved to be less than three pounds at 17 inches. 

We kept trying. The lake seemed almost as dead as December. Brenden later told me that when he went to collect the last of our belongings, he saw fog rising off the lake. Temps had plunged into the 50's.   

Hopatcong Early June