Fishing Report (October 2008)

10-29-2008:  Ron and Randy Nelson joined me on the St. Joe River this evening to fish for lunker smallies.  The bite has picked up a little since the last time I was out but the water has gotten colder.  It was only 48 degrees!  Even thought the water was frigid I threw a trap around while I was waiting for Ron and Randy.  On my third cast a 4.5 pound smallie destroyed it.  That happened to be the only bite I got with the trap all evening.  Once I picked up Ron and Randy we searched around and honed in on some good smallies.  We caught our fish in 12 ft with jigging spoons next to larger boulders.  Our best five weighed around 20 pounds.  We caught about 30 fish between the three of us.  The biggest fish of the night was caught by Ron when he hooked and landed a 18 pound Laker!

 

10-25-2008:  Randy Nelson and I froze our A@#es off on the river this morning fishing for smallies.  The water was only 51 degrees and the smallies were moving slow.  We managed to catch 7 or so a piece to make it fun.  We had on a couple really big smallies that came off next to the boat.  Most of our bass were caught in current breaks near the middle of the river.  Other fish we caught were relating to different types of structure along the bank.  We never found a really strong pattern.

10-22-2008:  Ron Nelson and John Gipson Jr. joined me on the St. Joe River tonight for a big smallmouth bananza.  The water temp was hanging around 56 degrees and getting clearer by the day.  The fishing wasn't easy by any means but a couple lucky casts by Ron gave us an idea where the fish were.  We found them in a couple deep current spots in about 15-22 ft of water.  They were eating blades and crayfish baits.  We boated 15 smallies between the three of us but they were all above 3.5 pounds.  Our biggest smallie was a tad less than five pounds and our total weight was just over 20.

  

10-16-2008:  Their BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fished for a couple hours after work this evening and had some fun. The water is still 61 degrees so top water and traps were the ticket. My buddy Mike told me where they were eating so I ran up river for some action. While I was driving I noticed smallies crashing bait in the middle of the river so I stopped and fished. I would catch or miss one on almost every cast. They weren't giants but nice 2.5 lbers. There were a couple nicer fish mixed in but they always seemed to come off. After they stopped biting I moved back down to the no wake zone. The bite was a little slower but the fish were typically bigger. I added 10 more chunks fishing with a small craw. Again I had a couple pigoids all the way to boat but they came off. I never landed any giants but their out there. 

 

10-10-2008:  It was an awesome tournament for John and I. We found some nice fish during practice last saturday so we fished that area all day. I used my Aqua View to find grass and wood in deep water. We keyed in on those spots for the first half of the day. John caught two fish with a worm and I had a good one on but only for a couple secs before it pulled free. We fished around for another hour without a bite so we started to move shallow. I made a cast by a boulder and set the hook on the biggest smallie I've ever had on. Pri 24 inches and around 6 to 7 pounds depending how much it had eaten. I fought it all the way to the motor when the hook just slid out of its mouth. I was done at that point. I thought for sure I had lost the tournament. But thank God John and his positive attitude were in the boat. Some how he brought me back to life and I managed to put two nice smallies in the box. With 30 minutes of fishing time left we needed one more bite to have a chance. We were fishing around when the ND fight song started playing because my wife was calling. Right when I answered the phone John yelled, "Justin!!! It's a good one." His rod was doubled over and he horsed a five pounder to the boat. After I netted it we were jumping around and going crazy. We though it in the well and headed to the weigh-in. It was an awesome and memerable day that brought huge emotional swings. After we had won I wasn't as happy as I thought I should have been because I could only think about not winning the boat. 

10-7-2008:  I fishing the St. Joe River this afternoon with Ron Nelson.  It was nice outside for a couple hours but it started raining at about 5:30 pm.  It was a cold rain too.  The fishing was just as cold as the rain.  There were only a few active smallies sliding around.  The water temp was holding at 59 degrees so we were chucking blades.  The only places we, well, Ron got bites were in the middle of the river.  We only managed 3 smallies and 1 walleye.  Hopefully the fishing will pick back up for the week end.

10-3-2008:  The St. Joe River is officially on fire!!!  Ron Nelson and I caught around 30 big smallies tonight.  The water temp was 62 degrees and the river was a little high.  The fish were positioned in eddies waiting for baitfish to swim by.  The smallie were fighting extra hard and jumping like crazy.  It was a very exciting evening.  Our best five would have weighed around 18 pounds and our biggest was close to 5 pounds.