The first half of October has already seen some very good bass fishing action with some good catches. Most of our time has been spent on Butler Chain this month along with some scouting of other local lakes. For the most part bass have been tighter to cover on Butler Chain. We have caught a lot of bass working grass beds and docks with some bass coming from submerged structure in deeper waters.
One bait that has once again become hot for us has been the Steel Shad. This bait has once again become a bass catching machine. This bait we have been working more around waters with deep drop offs and we have been catching the bass that are cruising back and forth from deep holes to shallow waters chasing bait fish. The Steel Shad has been a perfect match when it comes to the bait fish in size and color, with the silver one really catching some good numbers.
There has been scattered schooling action out on several lakes on Butler Chain, with Lake Tibet and Lake Sheen being the top producers for us, with Steel Shads and 1 ounce spinner baits catching quality and numbers from these schools.
Spent a few day out on a private body of water with Franky V and Eric, the guys fished half a day in the morning and we broke for lunch and returned to fish until 7pm. Open water areas had seen schooling action pretty much all day long with steel shad catching some good numbers. Franky was slow rolling a spinner bait over a brush pile and managed a few good keepers off of it. Shoreline and dock areas had seen some slower action, but a few good bass fell to the old trick worm. Water temperatures and air temperatures have finally come down to very comfortable levels, and this has triggered some very good bass fishing action and finally some good top water action. Average catches have been running between 20 and 30 bass a day now, with artificial baits doing most of the catching.
In my spare time after trips, I have started pouring my own soft plastics, and they have been producing not only good numbers, but some size as well, so look for my new store front on the web site, should be launched by January 1st.
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com
