(Editor's note: BassFan Pro Fishing Tips, sponsored by Plano Tackle, occasionally appear as the top story of the day.)
The BassFan staff recently had the opportunity to spend a day on Lake Erie out of Dunkirk, N.Y. with Great Lakes smallmouth guru Joe Balog.
November on Lake Erie? Yep. And the surprise was
an unseasonably warm day – dead calm, a high of 70 degrees and bright, high skies.
What that meant was, instead of a nice chop and an active bite, the fish were neutral to negative. But it was good news in a way, because if you're going to spend the day with Balog, it's a far better lesson to watch him work for fish than see him windmill 20- to 25-pound limits.
After a slow start and long search, Balog finally honed in, refined his presentation and the team caught 35 bass, with several over 5 pounds. The biggest was 6-04 (shown in photo).
Here's a look at how Balog attacked the day.
Freak Warm Trend
A lot of BassFans in the North or Northeast probably remember the strange weather pattern that settled in during the first week of November this year. Again, highs pushed 70-plus degrees with lots of sun and little wind.
The day Balog arrived in Dunkirk was the fifth consecutive day of the warm front, but it would be the last. A cold front would come that night and the barometer was already falling.
The water temperature averaged 50 degrees, and because of the calm weather, water visibility was about 20 feet.
"Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize that people see Bassmaster TV and tournament results and think you can catch 5-pounders all day long on Lake Erie," Balog noted while searching. "But it's not always that easy. There are a lot of fish, and they're usually aggressive and easy to catch, but by no means can you go out and crack 25 pounds every time you go fishing.
"What we're encountering today is the right time of year and great weather, but the fish aren't necessarily keyed on feeding," he added. "We've had a very long period of stable, late-summer-like conditions and the fish aren't biting that well."
He made that determination after an hour of fishing "classic structure" with solid marks on his Humminbird 1197c Side Imaging unit. Onscreen, we were able to discern subtle rises and ridges in the main basin, and even graph large rocks – all with fish. But the fish just weren't going.
So Balog decided to expand his search. Here's an overview of what he looks for in November on Lake Erie.
Where He Looked
"Even though it's warm, the day length, the moon and the season in general – all these things trigger fish to migrate deep and feed for the fall," Balog said while watching his graph. "When I'm putting the boat in during November, I'm licking my chops because I know the fish will be grouped up and ganged up on deep structure.
"From my experience on the Great Lakes, we don't have any strong migration of fish shallow in the fall, which is so typical in other bass fisheries. The smallmouths just move toward wintering areas where they can feed efficiently on gobies and shiners. For the most part they'll start to set up on classic winter structure, which is fairly large structure, but they'll be on key areas like the corners, points and drops that have deep water nearby – almost basin-like water around them."
He added that in the western basin of Lake Erie, they might be in 25 feet next to 35 feet of water. In the eastern basin, they're more likely in 40 to 45 feet next to 60 feet.
He also clarified the term "classic fall structure."
"You want deeper areas, but you want to look for the last remaining significant structure like a hump, reef or bar before no-man's land begins," he said. "That's by far my favorite stuff to fish in fall, and that's where I have most of my tournament success from late summer through winter. And it's great because you can really narrow your search to cover water and when you find them, they're usually in huge numbers."
Another element of his fall search is speed. Balog searched for at least 3 hours before he started catching size, and didn't find the "right" group of fish until about 3:00.
"In summer you're looking for a place where you might catch two or three good fish," he noted. "But in fall you're looking for a place where you might catch 60. And in 45- or 50-degree water, you're fishing as fast as you do in 80-degree water – you're looking and fishing quickly but efficiently to eliminate water. Remember that smallmouths are more active in 50-degree water than in 80, so in fall, you're fishing probably faster than at any other time of year."
That was apparent in this outing, because the fish just would not bite a slow-moving bait.
Heavy Metal
It was almost confounding, but the day proved Balog's "fast in fall" approach to be true. He fished a bladebait and spoon off the front of the boat, while two BassFan staff members worked plastics – one tube, one dropshot – off the back.
Balog and company used an Aqua-Vu underwater camera to observe the neutral-minded fish.
Not a single smallmouth even sniffed the plastic for over an hour, while Balog got fairly steady action up front on the metal. Only when the staff switched to a jigging spoon did the hookups start.
And once Balog dialed in the structure it really started. As noted, he found the "spot on the spot" at about 3:00 in the afternoon. He'd been working several large rises far offshore – right where the main basin began. Turned out that the fish were grouped on the deep edge of the hump where it dropped from 35 or 45 to 60 feet, as well as on isolated boulders and rocky ribbons along the otherwise bland structure.
But again, the fish were neutral to negative, and would only react to a spoon or bladebait. And it wasn't gentle fishing – we were ripping the spoons hard. In fact, we snagged quite a few fish. We actually dropped the Aqua-Vu down to watch, and the fish were inspecting the bait, but again, weren't in a feeding mode.
About the Reaction
The snagged fish looked at the bait then swam over it and thus got hooked. Others that bit did so out of instinct – not because they were hungry. At least that was the theory of the day. And it makes sense, since they wouldn't bite plastic – it just wasn't an aggressive enough approach to produce a reaction strike.
"Your bait selection can really be reduced in fall," Balog said. "All you need is a spoon, bladebait and tube. Dropshotting can be fantastic in summer, but not in fall. The spoon or blade gets right down and triggers a reaction bite, and that's the whole deal."
Balog, on the trolling motor, pitched his spoon forward, ripped it back to the boat along bottom, then used an aggressive vertical jigging motion for a while before he pitched forward again. The spoon always came to rest on bottom before he ripped it up again. And the rips came by a good, strong rod movement of at least a foot or two.
"Spooning's an excellent way to scour structure in search of the best spots," he added. "You can make as long a cast with the spoon as you want, as long as you rip it back fast and along bottom."
A simple 3/4-ounce Hopkins spoon did the trick for us, and a selection of non-descript bladebaits worked well, but not quite as well as the spoon. And we fished the blades the same way as the spoon – hard, vertical rips.
Balog fishes all his heavy metal on 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon. The low-stretch helps get good spoon action, and the abrasion resistance helps while fishing the zebra-mussel infested bottom, he said.
His rod choice is a heavy-action Daiwa Steez casting rod with a Daiwa reel. The super-lightweight rod helps with arm-fatigue throughout a hard day of spooning, he noted, and you need a heavy-action rod to set the spoon hooks and horse up 5-pounders.
A few other tackle tips from Balog:
Notable
> Balog's sponsored by Ranger, Mercury, Plano, Daiwa, Minn Kota, Humminbird, Nature Vision (Aqua-Vu), ReelGrip, Poor Boys baits, ISG plastics, Berkley and Complete Battery Source.
Have you checked out Plano's new KVD Guide Elite Gear Bag? Click here to read BassFan's Review of the new bag.
