September is a month of transition for many species. The crappie are moving back into shallower areas as are a lot of game fish. Coves with feeder creeks are your first option. The cooler water coming in the back is the attraction for baitfish, gamefish will follow. This happens when the water temps get into that mid 60 range as of now it is 78 but it won’t be for long. The bait for the most part has already left the main lake and finding the larger crappie is a full time job. Small crappie are so plentiful it is never a problem to catch your limit. Some guides are chasing roaming fish with their Livescope. Yes big fish but hard to justify clients taking turns as only one can do it at a time. If that is your thing I know guides that do this all the time but for me we switch it up and chase white bass part of the day. That way plenty of fillets to go home and everyone is catching.

For white bass I have been staying on the edge of a point especially if wind is blowing into it. With my Livescope I am looking for irregular bumps on the bottom typically yellow bass. We throw a drop-shot rig with a half-once weight on the bottom then a short drop leader and a small 1/32oz. white hair jig. I tell clients to make a short cast to those bumps and get the yellow bass to start going crazy. They look like a kid with a sparkler spinning it all over the place. Then in swoops a white bass and hits your hair jig. Once found we have been getting anywhere from 25-50 huge whites depending on how much time we pull away from the crappie.

If we get a very windy day we are getting the boat up very shallow on a flat and casting blade baits. I like them you can throw them a mile and walleye love them too. Shallow is the word so shallow that your trolling motor will stir up mud so we bring an anchor and slip drift along the flat. Once a school is found I simply put out enough line that the 30lb. anchor will hold us. Got to have wind and I mean a bunch otherwise I am on the points.

As you can see by my calendar I am very full but with a few days notice I can off my weekly job and go during the week. Planning on retiring in March from that job so fishing will be my main focus.

Steve Welch
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