There’s a silver lining to bad-weather fishing

IT TURNS out that adversity on a fishing trip has a silver lining, for when the bite isn’t anything like those days when fish seem to be jumping into the boat, having to work harder can bring lessons for future success.

That’s a takeaway from some intense fishing on the last weekend in September, a weekend when the mercury hit 80, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the lakes were glass, and even the bluebirds were too hot for comfort.

It was pegged as our first serious fishing weekend in the fall for the scribbler and son, Steve, during a rare autumn when a dog on injured reserve gave me time for late-season fishing I’ve rarely experienced the past 40 years.

Live bait wasn’t an option for this adventure, and anything that would hit a plastic bait was the target. I never realized just how many plastic bait choices there are, and how many different ways each can be worked to produce action.

There’s the paddle tail swim jig, the salted tube, the chunky crayfish jig, the jig’n Rap and the finesse driven Ned rig — all coming in a variety of sizes and colors to meet whatever depth, water clarity, wind speed, and fish bite one might encounter.

Because the weather was meant for bluebirds and the bite almost nonexistent, we threw everything at those darn fish with every type of retrieve imaginable.

And so I learned about the difference between an aggressive retrieve meant to entice reactive strikes from fish that aren’t even interested in feeding, to slow or ultra slow retrieves that allow fish to grab baits off the bottom.

When it comes to finesse, it’s all about smaller and lighter baits, keeping a low profile and eliminating anything noisy or flashy — even the vibration of a paddle tail on a jig head.

I’m not sure who this Ned guy is, but that little jig bait with a thin, worm-like piece of brown plastic was like magic on finicky walleyes and smallmouth bass.

It’s a bait a bass or walleye will grab while motionless on the bottom of the lake, the little tapered tail on the worm always moving.

I’m pretty sure I heard the term “dead-sticking” when it comes to just letting a bait sit on the bottom while a smallmouth or walleye tries to make up its mind.

After years of being just the live bait guy, I’ve discovered plastics offer some advantages regarding the free-fall on every cast. 

A jig and minnow just plummets toward the bottom with speed and little fanfare, while a salted tube or paddle tail falls much slower with a circular motion that appears more like a dying minnow.

Even with the less-than-ideal conditions of that late September weekend, smallmouth bass that wouldn’t run down a moving bait were grabbing baits on the free fall — if you got lucky enough to virtually hit them on the head with a cast. 

And when the fish are really biting, you get to feel that slack-line “tick” from an aggressive strike in any part of the water column. And it’s quite surprising how many bass and walleyes suspend above the bottom, often hitting baits that are halfway down in 15 feet of water.

The hookups with paddle tail swim jigs are even more impressive, for walleyes absolutely inhale them. 

The one aspect of that I never thought of before is that with a jig and minnow, the point of the hook is at the front or out in front of the minnow. But with a paddle tail, the hook is at least a third of the way down the bait on a 2.8-inch tail — meaning the hook is deeper into the walleye’s mouth on the strike. The result is a much higher hookup rate, even with an instant hook-set.

Another lesson came just before dark on Saturday night. The bite improved slightly, but the walleyes did not want a bait that was jigged, ripped or moving aggressively.

What worked numerous times in the darkness, the only light coming from a golden tone in the western sky just over the tree line, was a long, slow pull where the paddle tail covered some distance. 

That gave walleyes an easy opportunity to run down baits, and that pattern was hot for about 20 minutes. Most of the walleyes measured 18 inches.

That fall bite for smallmouth and walleyes will improve greatly in the weeks ahead, as water temps fall into the 60s and high 50s prior to actual turnover. That’s the time when fish are still on the rock humps and shoreline drop-offs, easier to find and catch than when they go deeper after turnover.

We didn’t even try it on our fishing weekend, but I’m guessing that a minnow or crawler under a slip bobber might have teased some of those unresponsive walleyes into hitting. But, of course, we’ll never know.

It was a memorable weekend, sharing boat space with my son, getting in long days of intense fishing and seeing some incredible fall colors on several lakes.

Outings like those are what makes the sport of fishing so great, bringing family and friends together in the great outdoors.