(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Veteran tour pro Jeff Gustafson, who won his first Elite Series event this year, grew up fishing Lake of the Woods on the Canada/Minnesota border, where the growing season is short. That means that smallmouth movements and seasonal patterns are compressed, and anglers need to keep up or be left behind. The fish know they have to act fast as well.
“Where I live, when the ice goes out, those first couple of weeks, probably the best fishing of the whole year as far as being able to catch a lot of fish,” he said, recalling a time when he landed 23 smallmouths in 23 casts. “They almost kind of hibernate in the winter.”
When those fish first come to life and strap on the feed bag, they divide into two distinct groups. The first tends to stay deep for a few weeks on standard textbook wintering holes. The other moves rapidly to the quickest-warming bays. He’ll follow the warming water, which usually exists where the wind is blowing in. It’s not always easy to find them, but “once you find them you’re going to catch a bunch,” he explained, so keep on moving. At this time of year he relies heavily on suspending jerkbaits and little swimbaits to find the fish, but then often switches to tubes, Ned Rigs or small hair jigs.
In the summer, the fish spread out more. “They kind of get all over,” Gussy said. His number one rule is that if the weather is “nice,” he’ll go “one hundred percent shallows.” When little fronts roll through, he’ll move out a bit. It could be 6 to 12 feet, or 12 to 20, but he wants to be deeper. “They’re going to drop out a little bit.”
In the fall on natural lakes, the fish will move to the main basin of the waterway. He’ll rely heavily on his electronics, focusing on humps and points and other forms of offshore structure. He believes that at this time of year many northern smallmouth switch from a diet of mostly crawfish to mostly baitfish. He’ll tailor his Damiki Rig and dropshot baits accordingly, and will also keep a jerkbait handy when the fish really start to get ravenous again.
“They know that the long winter’s coming so they want to bulk up and feed up and get ready for winter,” he said. His Humminbird Mega 360 has been an incredible tool over the past several years to find these fish and prey upon them. He’s not necessarily looking for the fish themselves, but rather for the rocks, targets and transition zones that hold them. Typically he sets the range at 60 or 70 feet, which maximizes his effectiveness. This year, just prior to his appearance in the Bassmaster Classic, he added Humminbird’s Mega Live forward-facing sonar and he believes that this provides a one-two punch that’ll increase his success exponentially.
If you want to get more information about how 2021 Tennessee River Elite Series champion Jeff Gustafson fishes for northern smallmouths on varied bodies of water, including how he uses his Aqua-Vu camera to find fish, identify them and set can’t miss waypoints, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
