Finding Deep Largemouth Bass in Fall- Perceiver To Achieve Success

Saturday of the Labor Day Long wknd is usually far too busy for me on Lake Simcoe, but I hadn't fished largies on my home lake for almost a month so I needed my fix bad. I got an early start and watched the sun peer over the eastern horizon as I headed straight for my number one largemouth waypoint. Upon arrival, I threw my trusty Rapala Skitterwalk which has accounted for so many big bass on similar early morning excursions. Forty minutes later and still no fish. I began throwing another old reliable, a fire tiger colored Rapala DT 16 and finally landed a 2 pounder and a couple of shorts ... but then another 40 minutes went by and nothing. Next was my go-to big 4" brown tube; rigged on a 1/4 oz darter head with a needle-sharp Gamakatsu Hook. I worked shallow weed patches in the 10-12 foot range, the mid-cruising sections of 12-15 feet and then off the drops in 15-20 feet for another 40 minutes without a take. I then expanded the range of my main area with my electric - hoping the lack of veg normally present here would show up not too far away, along with newly position largemouth. Yep despite a tactic that often pays dividends when searching for largemouth in deep water this time it didn't. So, you guessed it, another 40 minutes and no more fish. Off to number two waypoint ... and to make a long story short - the same scenario took place however here I basically gave just 15 minutes to each procedure/lure before I moved on. Then it was a run and gun pattern checking out various waypoints that produce off and on at this time of year because truth be told, more often than not if they're there in deep water; you'll know it within a few casts. Ah but by 10am I still had only caught the one bass and now it was flat calm, blue bird conditions and the expected gauntlet of other recreational boaters and anglers were all over the place. Time to try something much different ... so, realizing weed growth everywhere I went was far less than usual, I moved way out, closer to much deeper water than the 20 feet. For successful deepwater largemouth, I'm a firm believer that the presence of nearby shallower water with good cover (ie aquatic plants of various species) is key. So in this new area I looked for shallower weedgrowth and found a bit in the 15 foot range and then started marking some baitfish nearby in 23'-24'. Neither the shallow section nor the deep produced ... but when I caught a couple right at 20' on two successive casts I thought I may be onto something. I looked for similar transitions on my Lowrance electronics and when coupled with balls of baitfish caught several more. This was turning into a great day after all I thought, as I tossed my big brown tube ahead of me once again into 20'. With 30 lb Suffix Braid and a 10lb Suffix Floro leader on a super sensitive one piece MH action Rapala Shift rod ... there's very few light tics that I don't feel ... and the hit came very similar to a perch bite - but I set hard anyway. Almost instantly I knew this was not another average largie ... but it wasn't until she came up near 15' that the super clear waters allowed me to see the true size of this hawg. After a feeble attempt to clear air,I slipped my thumb and forefinger into her wide gapping mouth alongside my Nitro, took a couple quick pics, weighed her on my Rapala Digital Scale and watched her swim way back down in all her glory. At 6.3 lbs (the scale bounced between 6.2 and 6.4) it was easily my biggest bass of the 2016 season and an incredible way to start four weeks of fish-filled vacation. When I stopped shaking and looked around me, a flotilla of boats must have seen me land that fish and others, because I was literally surrounded - so I made a steady exit with my electric motor and lead them all off to another shallower area where I hoped they would stay and play with the plentiful perch. Fortunately that worked for the most part and I then headed off to repeat the same pattern elsewhere. No other giants showed their face, but by 2pm my bass thumb said it had enough for one day, so I packed it in. Stay tuned to my NPS posts for the next few weeks as I travel around fishing different lakes and hopefully creating fond memories and learning experiences I'll share right here.