Apologies. have been too busy ‘catching’ to blog for awhile.WAter temp is still hovering around 50 degrees. Bass will still be going nutso on the rocks until it drops two more–probably by mid-week.

If weeds aren’t an issue the Bill Lewis lures MR-6 has been flat out deadly. With weeds a single hook presentation like a Z-Man mushroom hook jighead w/ A Elazatech plastic TRD has been my go-to, changing jighead weight depending on wind velocity.

Same presentation has been working on ‘eyes. But their attitude is generally passive. Two more degrees and the marble-eyes will get aggressive. Most active fish have been cruising 6-8 fow on the rocks and 13-17 in the running sloughs. At 48 degrees they’ll start stair-stepping deeper and bass will go lethargic.

magnum white bass have also been on a feeding rip on the rocks. Diving gulls are a major key! Sneak over to where gulls are dive bombing , pitch an oxbow ‘Trap & set the hook. Best run last wk. was 10 whiteys in 10 casts. Filleted them & smoked ’em over apple wood after overnite in brown sugar soy sauce brine–3 hrs. @ 175-200 degrees. Whoa!

When gulls stop dive bombing it’s time to switch to a B-Fish-N tackle 3/32 pyrokeet precision jighead with a 2″ Sassy Shad type plastic. Hook up frequency drops off to 1 in 5 casts. @ 1 in 15 time to chase SMB & LMB again.

Earlier this week i spent 10 hrs over 2 days filming with my ol’ pal Ronnie Barefield–my vote for wisconsin’s best guide. In 6 hrs. on Tuesday we boated 75+ bass. Maybe 10 were > 3 lb. On Wed. we shot footage for “Fishing Roots” on catching late fall bass on the Miss. It should be posted on You Tube in about a week…after the editor goes through the 50+ bass we caught (plus 15 whiteys) in 4 hrs.. I’m no math whiz…but when you divide 75 fish by 4 hrs it breaks down to a fish pretty often.

Video may not be politically correct. I admit to having some gender confused moments when Ronnie kept yelling “Annette, Annette”–especially after my Mouseketeer ears blew off into the River.

Pretty much done guiding for the year. Only one trip on the books in November. Walleyes/crappies will be pretty much the easiest critters to catch between now and freeze up.

When will that be? As of this morning the tundra swans haven’t shown up on the pool yet. They hang around eating “duck potatoes” until 48 hrs. before the backwaters lock up in ice. 3 days after that it will be time to go back to the short rods again.