August 27, 2006: The Top water bite on the St. Joe River is starting to heat up. The big smallies haven't started to school up yet, but the 1-2 lbers are beginning to school up on sand bars/cuts.
August 2, 2006: Tonight Kelly and I fished a CATT Division 11 tournament on Paw Paw Lake from 6:00-9:00 pm. It was 93 degrees when we launched and the water temperature was a steaming 86.6 degrees. I was very confident about tonights tournament because of an approaching front. I also had a chance to pre-fish a couple times so I knew were some quality fish were. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would load up as fast as Kelly and I did.We got to my first spot and it was occupied by another boat so I decided to check a couple other spots. We pulled up to a deep weed bed in 30 ft of water and I noticed a ton of bait fish suspended above the weeds on my Lowrance. On my first cast I had a taker and it ended up being a giant 4.2 lb smallmouth. Not long after I landed the smallmouth I had our second keeper in the boat, a 2 lb largemouth. Instantly after I livewelled our second keeper then Kelly had on a good one and it was a 2.5 lb largemouth. We had 3 keepers in the wells in about 15 minutes. We fished for another 10 minutes and caught a couple small bass when I had a PAW PAW MONSTER take in my offering. I battled this fish for what seemed like an hour. I watched it go airborne 3 times!! Finally my wife had it in the net. It was a giant 5.45 lb largemouth, one of the biggest I've caught from Paw Paw Lake. We completed our limit with another 2 lb largemouth and it was only 7:00 pm. The only worry we had was keeping the bass alive in my hot livewells. Thankfully a storm rolled in at 8:30 pm and we got to weigh in our fish. We ended up getting first place with 15.50 lbs and big bass with a 5.45 lb largemouth.
August 1, 2006: This morning I fished the Benton Harbor
stretch of the St. Joe River. I started fishing around the pier
heads at about 7:30 am. There were about 3-4 ft swells
rolling in and they made fishing pretty tough. I decided to head
in to the river and fish in the current. This time of year the
smallies are usually eating crayfish and other small creature that live
next to rocks. I chose to throw a small 1/8 oz Poor Boys
craw. I let it gently tumble over the top of the rocks. The
smallies would pick it up and swim of with it. I caught 5 keeper
smallmouth using this technique and one that weighed 3.5 lbs. I
also caught a about 15 short fish.
Fishing Report "September 2006"
9/29-10-1:
Kelly, Rich and I took our annual trip up north this
weekend to Traverse City and it was miserable. It was 40-55
degrees with terential downpours. We could only manage to catch
10 bass and 1 lake trout all weekend. We fished deep, shallow,
fast and slow. We consontrated on wood, rocks and sand
grass. We just couldn't get a bite anywhere. Oh Well!!
9/23/2006: After a six hour tourney Rich and I went derectly to the St. Joe River. It was overcast with periods of rain and very windy. The top water bite was on fire!! We caught 12 smallies and our biggest two were a 4.1 lber and a very healthy 4.8 football. The fall feedin frenzy has begun.
9/23/2006: Magicain lake was ice cold today!! The water really wasn't cold but the fishing was horrible. It made a 6 hour tournament just creep by. Rich and I could only manage to catch 2 keeper bass. One was caught on a crank bait and the other came on a Carolina Rig. Oh Yeah, and I fell in!
9/12/2006: I fished the Benton stretch of the St. Joe River for an hour tonight. The river was a little high and muddy. The warm rain has put the fish back on a summer pattern. I caught all of my bass off of rocks and by downed trees. The fall frenzy is right around the corner.
9/7/2006: The Benton Harbor stretch of the St. Joe was the site of the NBAA Division 8 classic. It looked like it was a tough bite by the low weights at the weigh-in. Most of the boats could only manage to catch one bass. Brian Lieberg and his son Austin finished in second place with 2 bass weighing just under 3 pounds. The champions of the first divisional classic was Mike Rappette and Steve Fickie with 5 bass weighing just over 7 pounds.
9/25/2006: We were on the river
again tonight. It was
bright and sunny and the water temp was 65 degrees. The top water
bite is still going strong and the rattle trap bite is starting to pick
up. I caught the most largemouth I've ever caught from the river
tonight. I landed 3 keeper largemouth and 10 dinks. Rich on
the other hand was on the smallies. He caught two giants that
weighed 4.0 lbs and 4.5 lbs. The river can only get better as the
fall continues. 
9/23/2006: After a six hour tourney Rich and I went derectly to the St. Joe River. It was overcast with periods of rain and very windy. The top water bite was on fire!! We caught 12 smallies and our biggest two were a 4.1 lber and a very healthy 4.8 football. The fall feedin frenzy has begun.
9/23/2006: Magicain lake was ice cold today!! The water really wasn't cold but the fishing was horrible. It made a 6 hour tournament just creep by. Rich and I could only manage to catch 2 keeper bass. One was caught on a crank bait and the other came on a Carolina Rig. Oh Yeah, and I fell in!
9/19/2006: Kelly and I had an
awsome time on the St. Joe River
tonight. The bass were schooled up and very hungry. Kelly and I
caught 15 smallies and a couple largemouth in 30 minutes. Kelly
caught two bass on one lure. The bass were feasting on shad. Our
best 5 bass weighed 11 lbs 4 oz and our biggest smallie was 3 pounds 3
ounces. The key was finding the bait.
9/12/2006: I fished the Benton stretch of the St. Joe River for an hour tonight. The river was a little high and muddy. The warm rain has put the fish back on a summer pattern. I caught all of my bass off of rocks and by downed trees. The fall frenzy is right around the corner.
9/7/2006: The Benton Harbor stretch of the St. Joe was the site of the NBAA Division 8 classic. It looked like it was a tough bite by the low weights at the weigh-in. Most of the boats could only manage to catch one bass. Brian Lieberg and his son Austin finished in second place with 2 bass weighing just under 3 pounds. The champions of the first divisional classic was Mike Rappette and Steve Fickie with 5 bass weighing just over 7 pounds.