North Idaho

[nidahobassin]

  Hello all,
Just dropped in to give a quick update on the big ones up in the Great White North.
Our club just wrapped up the season on little Fernan Lk. I was able to hold off the competion and take 1st place and big bass honors clinching the AOY spot for 2010  
As for the fishing in general, it has been a bit off all of late summer into fall. Now, water levels are dropping drastically on both Pend Oreille and Coeur d' Alene as to get down to winter pool levels. This can make for a great late fall & early winter bite on weedlines adjacent to the river channels using spinnerbaits and crankbaits.
So get out there and get it done before the snow flies, which by the way, could happen this weekend according to the weather report

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[Mike Cork]

Congrats on the AOY Good looking bass as well!

Hate to hear it was a season ending event though? I'm lucky as I get to fish year round. Thanks for the lake reports, are you still catching them?

[nidahobassin]

Congrats on the AOY Good looking bass as well!

Hate to hear it was a season ending event though? I'm lucky as I get to fish year round. Thanks for the lake reports, are you still catching them?

Thanks Mike! I was on Lake Coeur d' Alene Saturday prefishing for Federation Qualifier. It was in the 40's and raining. Caught a couple, but not what I was hoping to find. Water temps were between 46 and 51 depending on location. Did catch several pike. They are on fire right now.  Bait stealing slime missles! I am taking a vacation day tomorow to learn more. Guess I won't have to worry about Brandon this weekend now since I think he has an automatic birth into nationals next year. I suppose that means he won't count now. 

[Fish-N-Fool Lures]

I fished the "Screw the Deer hunters"    tourney the P.O Bass club had on the PO River. We did very well and caught about 35 to 40 fish total. My partner and I ended up 3rd & 4th on the day with all smallies only a few .10's  of a pound from 2nd place. I thought I would share with you a neat new way I found to catch river Smallmouth on a dropshot, but with a NEW twist! 
I call it "The Drag the Dropshot" method. I found this method kinda by accident fishing this tourney. It was early November and the weather was fair but a cold front had moved in and the water temps were dropping down into the low 50's. The Smallies were banging craw crank baits pretty good and we had caught a few nice size fish in the 1 ½ to 3 pounds range when the bite just stopped. I knew the fish were still there, just not biting. So we switched it up and tried a few other things like spinnerbaits, different cranks and tubes, but got no more fish. As we were getting ready to leave to try another area, we went over one of the many big truck size boulders that are in this stretch of the river. The fish finder lit up and showed a ton of fish all around it, so I told my partner why don't we try dropshoting them. We had pre-fished this stretch the week before and done ok here with cranks, catching just enough fish to figure this was a good starting point.
The water along this bank was a flat that was only about 10 to 14 feet deep with a fairly slow current, but full of large boulders from about 2 feet to 10 feet across. It had just enough color that you could just see some of the bigger boulders and make out some of the bottom. So we cast out and let the boat drift with the current like we had been when throwing cranks here earlier in the day and we both nailed a fish within the first minute of that drag! Well we loaded the boat this way and I quickly perfected the technique.
You need a slow current with a rocky or gravel bottom. Just drop the bait over the edge of the boat, don't try to cast, as that will only get you hung-up. I learned right away that you need to put on a large enough weight so the bait will stay almost right under the boat and not drag back, then put out just enough line to reach the bottom. Let the boat drift in the current and watch your rod as the weight bounces along the rocks. If you keep the line right under the boat the hang-ups are few and the fishing can be fantastic. Bites can be very light though, so you have to lift on the rod to feel for weight if the rod tip does something odd.
So ending up finishing 3rd and 4th with 10 and 10 ¼ pounds in the tourney, only Four hundreds of a pound from 2nd place.  On water I didn't know all that well, so it was a good day. I have been out about 6 times since then and have done my "Drag the Drop Shot" method with GREAT success every time, even on different sections of the river. This even worked in the main lake where there is no current, just a breeze to move the boat along. As long as you can drag the bait slowly with the boat and not with the rod it seems to work just as well.
I tie this rig up a little differently for this method and it has proven to be a fish killer. Here's how I do it. I tie on a 1/0 Gammy red finesse hook using a double Palomar knot, so the hook eye points up and you have about a 30" tag end. Then run the tag end back down through the hook eye. That will keep the hook pointing straight out. Then I run a bullet or egg sinker weight up the line and pinch it in place with a pair of pliers. That does two things, it makes it easy to adjust the height of the bait off the bottom (I like mine about 12" to 24" off a hard bottom and about 30" off a weedy bottom) and if (or should I say when) you get hung up the weight will just slide off and you won't lose the whole rig. Just slide on a new weight, pinch it in place and you're good to go. I've been using the tails off my Chartreuse Sink-N-Fool baits on this rig and it has been killer. I just cut off about 2 1/2 " of the tail of one of my used baits and nose hook it. It has turned out to be one of the best dropshot baits I've ever fished.
Although this worked great on the hard to catch cold front Smallies, I think it would work just as well on active fish earlier in the year. I plan to put it to the test  on old Bucketmouth next spring!!! 

Here is a diagram of how I tie up my dropshot. Give it a try I think you'll like it!!!!!