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I'm going to pin this topic to keep it at the top for anyone wanting to post area reports related to bass in 2007 - Host

9/16/2007 - Took the North Fork Outdoor pontoons out to try a new lake for largemouth bass.  The lake was about 30 acres, but not a lot of cover, no weed line, but some scattered shallow wood and a few small patches of lily pads.  All of the bigger fish came off a leech pattern fished right into the lily pads including a bonus 19" hawg.  But most of the fish were in the 12-14 range, with a few smaller then that.  On sunny warm fall days, and with the weeds breaking down, the largemouth will go to the best available cover which there is not alot of, which means that they tend to school up (fall bite), plus they are eating for the winter months.  The scattered wood produced many small bass who were swimming with the big gills cruising the shallow eating bugs.

Took the toon out and tried a small section of the St. Louis River for the evening bite.  I decided to stick with a clouser minnow the whole time and it worked out nicely.  Managed one nice 17" fat smallie spitting out bits of crawfish,  lots of fish in the 13-15 range, but with many more 8-12 inch range, had a blast on my Scott S3 6wt with clear sink tip fly line, probably my favorite rod for chasing smallmouth.

I still really haven't seen a change in fishing patterns on the river yet even with the cooling temperatures, the water was about 60 degrees.  They are still pretty much in a late summer pattern on the St. Louis River.

The best thing about warmwater fly fishing in the fall is the lack of people and fishing pressure, great time to be out.

9/19/2007 - Hit the St. Louis River on a section I've fished many years ago and it's still kicking arse.  Probably had one the most memorable days fly fishing for smallies.  I was using a small clouser fished along the edges of the faster moving water (the river was running a little fast after the rains we've had).  The fish were stacked like cordwood along the edges of the main channel, presumably getting out of the fast current or on a major feed with the fresh rain.  But the action was fantastic!  Nothing was hitting topwater though, all subsurface.  The biggest was a 20" brute that had me all over the place, but it was a blast because it headed right for the fast current break, what a crazy fight.  I had another big fish on, only to have my Scott s3 6wt break on me while mid fight.  Luckily the action was fast, so quickly forgot about my rod breakage and had my 8wt with me, so that saved the day.  Here are a few pics.

9/22/2007 - Since the fly fishing for smallies was hot last week, decided to get a couple friends out for some fly fishing and to get some video clips.  The fishing was fantastic, the two buds I was with don't do any fly fishing, but they were able to get their first smallies on the fly.  The fish were so aggresive, that I caught several nice fish with about even holding my rod....We took a few breaks along the shore and just had my fly hanging out the side of the pontoon and smack, almost lost my rod on a couple of hard hits.  I'm putting the video together right now.  We didn't get any huge ones, but they sure do fight, especially when they start using the current for a little help   The fall season is upon us, nice crisp cool air, changing leaves, no crowds and the fish are eating well.  I did catch one large smallie that had 2 whole crawfish in it's mouth, probably upchucked them while I was fighting it, so they are still eating crawfish, well at least the river fish are.  I was using a clouser minnow most of the time.