Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Wow, have things ever slowed down out there.  I spoke with Wayne Carpenter last night and he had made mention that things seemed to slow down this week and was he ever right.  I got out at 6am.  I was taking out a friend who had never been bass fishing, so I wanted to take him to a high percentage area to try to get him a bunch, even if they are small ones.  So we went down to the Mile Roads to areas that have been loaded with small fish the past week or 2 and it was S L O W.  By 11am we only managed 14 Bass, 1 Walleye, 1 Perch, and a couple of Rock Bass.  Compared to the even 50 we got on Friday, and the 25 we got on Saturday, this was quite a slow down.  The overall quality was better, but the quantity was way down.  We also visited a spot that I got 10 in 30 minutes on Saturday at, but it was only good for 1 bass in about a half hour's work.  (Metro Beach Area)

The bite was kind of weird today too.  Eventually we found a school in 10.5 FOW, but they didn't want a tube or dropshot... they wanted a lipless crankbait worked in a stop and go fashion.  Earlier in the AM I managed a few on the Brown Craw (which was a phenom last weekend), but that bite died off around 8am.  Then they wouldn't touch it or a dropshot.  We had to find isolated patches of tall weeds and fish the lipless around them.  When we figured this pattern out, we started to whack 'em pretty steadily.  Every other cast for a while.  Then as quickly as the bite was on, it was off.  By 10:30, it was deader than the proverbial doornail. 

If I had to do it all over again with hindsight, I'd start at 10 FOW and work out from there looking for isolated patches of stuff.  The fish seemed to be grouping up in tight little schools, so where you find one, you'll find a bunch. 

See ya'll Saturday.