# Maumee Smallmouth Fall Bite IS ON



## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Hit the river yesterday, 9/28. Got fishing about 7:45am. Dropped my phone in the water (2nd time in a month or so) . Took it to my car, took it apart, put in on the dash to bake in the sun, and went back to fishing.

Caught 1 SM on a white tube with 1/4 oz weight. 2 others spit the lure. Switched to a rapala that a 4 lb +/- catfish ate up. I've never caught a catfish on a rapala.

Eventually moved down a ledge after a guy who was standing in the hole I wanted to fish left. Between 10:30-11:30am, I caught 12 more SM, none smaller than 12", and I caught my PB 20":B . I didnt scale it, so I really don't know the weight, but I would venture to say 4lbs is in the realm of possibility. The thing looked like a massive football. I also had 20+ short strikes that I missed. I was using 1/8 oz jigs with 3" fat grubs in bumble bee color from Gander Mountain. I went through an entire pack because these fish were destroying the tails and stripping them down the hook. From 11:30-2:00, I only caught 2 more, but it brought my total to 15 SM. I switched to white 3" Powerbait tubes with blue fake and caught zero on those.

I ended the day catching a LM in some backwater.

The river level is about 1ft below summer norms (it was at 579.3 yesterday when I went out). Almost all the SM I caught were in 2.5-3ft of water, in an area with slight current, adjacent to quicker current. Its time to hit those honey holes and catch some pigs! 

At first I hated myself for dropping my phone, but yesterday became by best SM day I have ever had. BTW the phone actually works again, and yes I know I am a total jackass. Especially since I've done it twice.


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## jb1136 (Sep 29, 2007)

Wow thats a tuff phone! LOL Im new at catching SM ,where about in the MR did ya catch em? All I ever catch in the river is cats and s**t-heads


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

jb1136 said:


> Wow thats a tuff phone! LOL Im new at catching SM ,where about in the MR did ya catch em? All I ever catch in the river is cats and s**t-heads


I've caught my fair share of cats and sheepies, sometimes you can't avoid em. These jigs I've been using the last 2 times out have limited the catching of those fish to zero. When I use inline spinners, which is my favorite lure, I catch quite a few of both.

I actually lost the first phone i dropped, and this phone is only a month old. I am thanking god that it still works. Its a Razr, and I think its kinda crappy, but if can take river water on and still work, than I guess i should give it its props. 

I usually hit up 3 spots on the river. Bluegrass, Jerome Rd. Rapids area, Weirs Rapids. I caught all the fish on Friday at Weirs Rapids.

I went down again today (Sun. 9/30) to Weirs with a buddy, and I caught only 2 SM, again using 1/8 oz jig with 3" grubs. My friend quickly grew tired of jigs and threw a worm/bobber out, and caught 2 runt cats.

We went to Otsego Park, which is fairly new water to us, and had some success. He caught 3 SM, I caught 4 SM, with the best being 14" or so, and I also caught a crappie that was pretty nice size, approx. 11". He was using a jighead spinner with a white bucktail skirt, and I was using the grubs mentioned above.

Weirs fish were caught between 11am-1:30pm, and the Otsego Park fish were caught between 2pm-3:30pm.


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## Walleye007 (Apr 2, 2006)

Thanks for the report. 
BTW - Don't be too hard on yourself about the phone. 
I've dropped mine in the Mighty Maumee twice. Still works - kind of.


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## Bling (Jun 28, 2007)

Sounds like Fish are still biting. I haven't made it to the river in 2 weeks. I plan on going Monday for a good part of the day and finding some new holes.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Bling said:


> Sounds like Fish are still biting. I haven't made it to the river in 2 weeks. I plan on going Monday for a good part of the day and finding some new holes.


Good luck. Don't let the rain scare you off. According to naturalresource.com, the river level has somehow _dropped during the last 2 rains. I dunno how that works, but hopefully you'll run into some fatties.

Keep us posted how it goes. Where do you usually fish at in the river?_


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## phisherman (Jun 10, 2004)

Bucket mouth, this is the link to the real time water level page on http://www.thenaturalresource.com/walleye_run_2007.php This gauge incorporates the USGS gauge on the Waterville bridge and converts the data to the level that you see on the I-475 bridge in Sidecut. Remember the days when we actually had to go to the river to see the level. 
www.thenaturalresource.com


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

phisherman said:


> Bucket mouth, this is the link to the real time water level page on http://www.thenaturalresource.com/walleye_run_2007.php This gauge incorporates the USGS gauge on the Waterville bridge and converts the data to the level that you see on the I-475 bridge in Sidecut. Remember the days when we actually had to go to the river to see the level.
> www.thenaturalresource.com



That's the link I use. I keep it on my favorites. It just seemed weird to me that the levels dropped after 2 decent rains. I figured it would go up 4-6".

naturalresource.com is a good site. Lotta good info there.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

I went down again yesterday (10/4) from 5:30-7:00pm, and caught (4) 10" SM. Lots of surface action, but not alot of interest from the fish. I may have been a bit pre-emptive on the fall bit claim, but I have been having some moderate luck.

I again threw 3" fat grubs in bumble bee and also watermelon w/ red core.


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## yonderfishin (Apr 9, 2006)

floating jig head or lead ?


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

1/8 oz lead, but I suspect you could go to 3/32 oz or 5/32 depending on the water depth and current. 1/4 can be fished, but it is more than likely too heavy. 

I had quite a few casts where I was coming back with a leadhead full of seaweed. I didn't get hung up too much with the 1/8 oz but was definitely dragging the bottom and coming up with junk. The slack water bottoms are covered with seaweed right now.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Went again today, 10/6 with a couple of my friends from MI. It was a long hot day, and the fishing was sub-par. 

I ended up with 8 SM, the largest @ 16", the rest all around 10-11", 4 Sheepies, and 2 cats. I hooked something big and dark grey that jumped twice and spit my lure. Dunno what it was.

My buddies ended up with a total of 4 SM (all dinks), 6 Sheepies, and 8 cats, 4 or 5 of which were pretty big. In addition my friend snagged a 4" logperch darter, which I thought was funny. I had to go the DNR page to identify it.

We were out from 8am-5pm with a few breaks in between. Too long for so few fish.


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## Redhunter1012 (Feb 6, 2006)

Bucket Mouth said:


> I hooked something big and dark grey that jumped twice and spit my lure. Dunno what it was.
> 
> QUOTE]
> 
> There are some trout and salmon in the river right now, very few, but more to come.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Redhunter1012 said:


> Bucket Mouth said:
> 
> 
> > I hooked something big and dark grey that jumped twice and spit my lure. Dunno what it was.
> ...


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## Redhunter1012 (Feb 6, 2006)

The warm water wouldn't be good for the steelies now that you mention it. In the spring of 06' during the walleye run, I seen several steelies caught. I know of 2 guys that do decent for salmon and steelhead at the dam in GR during the fall. Coulda been a sucker, or old bugle mouth.


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## phisherman (Jun 10, 2004)

Here's a maumee river chromer. Like the guy said it came in the spring on a pink/white twister and leadhead.


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## Bling (Jun 28, 2007)

Spent ALL day on the river yesterday. 1-7pm. Buttonwood, jerome rd, weirs rapids, and otsego park. Best luck at Otsego but could have just been because of the time. Ended the pathetic day with 5 nice sized WBs, 7 average SMBs and 4 cats. Ton of baitfish on the surface but didn't see much action. Good thing I got my First Master Angler status in the bag already. Anyone know what that entails??? Is it just another pin??


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

phish-

nice pic. I wouldn't mind latching into a few of those. The pic is HUGE. How big was the fish?


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Bling said:


> Spent ALL day on the river yesterday. 1-7pm. Buttonwood, jerome rd, weirs rapids, and otsego park. Best luck at Otsego but could have just been because of the time. Ended the pathetic day with 5 nice sized WBs, 7 average SMBs and 4 cats. Ton of baitfish on the surface but didn't see much action. Good thing I got my First Master Angler status in the bag already. Anyone know what that entails??? Is it just another pin??


What lures did you use?


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## yonderfishin (Apr 9, 2006)

Does anybody know how far up the maumee that steelhead and or salmon may travel ? How about the sandusky, do they run up that river ?


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## Redhunter1012 (Feb 6, 2006)

yonderfishin said:


> Does anybody know how far up the maumee that steelhead and or salmon may travel ?  How about the sandusky, do they run up that river ?


I know they catch most of them at the dam in Grand Rapids. It wouldn't be nothing for them to jump over that dam also. I'm sure they run up the sandusky also, prolly not in any noticable numbers though.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

yonderfishin said:


> Does anybody know how far up the maumee that steelhead and or salmon may travel ? How about the sandusky, do they run up that river ?


I would venture to say that the farthest they could go is to the Providence dam. The dam height is around 6 or 7 ft, so I am not sure how they would clear it unless the water level was around 586, which would be pretty ridiculously high, and more than likely entirely unfishable.

Don't know about the Sandusky, but I am assuming that if some rogue steelies are coming into the Maumee, they probably go into the Dusky as well. DNR stocks steelies as far was as Vermillion, so that would probably be the spot to go to target em directly.


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## Walleye007 (Apr 2, 2006)

My son and I ventured out on Monday evening. 
I went to my fav. catfish hole, but nobody was home. 
After an hour or so of trying for cats, I switched my rig to a Mepps
Aglia with #3 blade. BAM! The Smallies and Whities were all over them.
The biggest SM was around 16." Great fighter with all the acrobatics you could wish for. I wanted to snap a pic, but he took off right after I landed him. The other SM were sub 12 inches, but a blast as well. The White Bass were around 12-14 inches. Seemed that from 6-7pm the bite was on. Once the sun was out of the sky, they stopped.


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## MJS (Sep 14, 2006)

I was at Buttonwood Monday and caught my largest smallie to date, I 
left my camera in the truck but I was able to measure him and he just
made 20 inches, probably 5 pounds, he hit a pop-r in the rapids and cleared
the water 3 times. It was the best fight and the most fun I have had this year.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

MJS said:


> I was at Buttonwood Monday and caught my largest smallie to date, I
> left my camera in the truck but I was able to measure him and he just
> made 20 inches, probably 5 pounds, he hit a pop-r in the rapids and cleared
> the water 3 times. It was the best fight and the most fun I have had this year.



Nice. I shoulda headed that way. I thought about it, and went to Jerome Rd. Rapids area instead for some after-work action. 4 SM, 1 WB, and 1 cat in about 1.5 hours of fishing. Nothing big sized either. You gotta love the 20" fish that explode the surface to smash a lure, then to fight them through the current is a nice rush.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Hi the Jerome Rd. Rapids area 10/15 from 5:30-6:30 and pulled 4 SM. None were very big. The biggest was 11". The water is pretty clear through that area. I was surprised. Hopefully the rain we are supposed to get only raises the river up a tiny bit and not flood it out.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

Hit Jerome Rd area again on 10/17 from 4:45-7pm. Caught 6 SM, all between 10"-12", and one 8" White Bass. All fish but one were caught in less than 2'6" of water. The water was stained more than it has been, probably from the rain, and there was quite a bit of mossy/weedy crap that was either on the surface or suspending. Casting was a bit tricky. 3 out of every 5 casts resulted in a waste because of the amount of crap that would end up on my lures. Pitching into shallows with slow/no current was pointless because the amount of weedy crap in them (a bunch of fish were hanging out in those pockets too, and that wouldve been great spots to fish).

I used a 1/8oz black spinner with 2 silver Colorado blades, and then switched to a knock-off Mepps #2 inline spinner (silver blade, gold body, red skirt).

The fish were definately chasing minnows and were actively eating in the shallows. Some spots they were at were so shallow that if I spooked em, they made a wake in the water and I could tell exactly where they were going until they made it to deeper water.

Its time to get out and slam some smallies! Weather is getting cooler and the water temp is soon to follow!


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