Fall Fishing is Picking Up

 Despite the number of anglers that were on the lake last week-end in the Bass Masters tournament, I believe that most of that activity was at the upper areas of the lake. The larger bass seem to be in those waters where there is a little current and a higher concentration of nutrients so the areas at the south end of the lake were relatively un-disturbed. I fished with my son-in-law yesterday for a couple of hours and he caught 12 fish. The bass, with one exception were this years yearlings but he did land one that was in the 2 pound range

                                                           

As the afternoon got closer to dusk, he landed four mid-sized catfish, two blues and two channels. One of those fish is shown here.

                                                      

The most encouraging part of the short trip was the number of shad that I saw. One school shown here, kind of hung in one area so trolling around the school produced fish on every run. Good news that the shad are finally visible in fair numbers. This school, by my estimate contained more than 25,000 shad.

When you see a school of shad like tis, my technique is to try and continue to circle the school, the predators are sure to be close by and feeding. Good luck guys and gals, the good fall fishing has begun.