"The Mayor's" Masterclass: Hot, Humid, Two Ponds, Same Result!

 

We are in the last weekend of September in the Heartland USA and the weather in the last week has been very hot. It has been a typical September for us where it is above 90 degrees between 12pm-3pm but can still plummet to 65 degrees at night. The one thing that I noticed this last week is the 100%+ humidity, even at night when the sun is down. We went to my son's football game against Edwardsville High School last Friday and it was miserable because of the humidity.

As for the fishing, it was great yesterday! Two different ponds same results. The bass are definitely chasing the minnows right now. The movement baits are working very well. I started out with four poles in the truck but decided to take one ultra lite pole with a Mepps #2 Aglia dressed spinner attached, and a spinning combo with a Rapala Crush City "The Mayor" 3-inch swimbait in the Albino Shad color. I figured I would focus on moving baits first as it is that time of year. See if I can make something happen with the moving baits before I spend time doing anything else.

I have not used this type of swimbait with much luck in the past. Some of my past experiences with this type of swimbait are not very productive because I am not using it in the right conditions. On this day, the bass were definitely aggressive and were in the mode of "fattening up" for the winter. I started out catching bass and even a nice green sunfish on the Mepps, take a look:

I was out at this neighborhood pond for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I was then soaked with sweat from head to toe. Like I said before, the humidity and heat felt more like a July day than the end of September. Any time you can catch 7-8 fish is a nice outing! I went home and went into the AC in the house.  

Later that day I dropped off my daughter at her tennis practice...I still had my fishing gear in the truck so on the way back, I stopped at another pond on the same route. I went to the dock at this location and did a couple casts with the Crush City smiwbait. I see in research of these Crush City baits that they are marketed with using a jighead. I was using this swimbait in a bit different way with a 3/0 heavier gauge gamakatsu hook. So the presentation was weedless and perfect for the heavy grass in this second pond of the day. The first picture in this blog post is what I caught out of the second pond using the Crush City swimbait by walking the dog in top water retrieve. Bang! Bass came up and it was truly "Crush City"! :)

Overall, it was a great day of bass fishing with aggressive fall bass patterns in full effect from the banks of two different Heartland USA ponds. I hope you are all staying committed and driven in your lives. Happy tight lines to you all.