Looks like Fall is finally here. It was cool enough to have frost on our grass this morning. Bass love the cooling water and will bite better than any other time of the year. I've found that when the water temp gets around 70 degrees the bass bite like crazy until it gets about 60 degrees. On my last trip, the water temp was 75 degrees. It was still a little warm to be ideal, but it's been getting better and better. Three weeks ago, about the fish I could graph and catch were over 30 feet deep. Two weeks ago, they were 25 feet. Now, they are 15 feet and shallower. And the shallower they are, the better they bite - especially when the water temps are between 60 and 70 degrees. It's time to go!
Something the average fisherman probably never considered is how expensive it is to run all over the lake trying to find fish, compared to just catching fish. Now that Fall is here, I expect to spend a lot more time catching and a lot less time looking. So, I'm going to pass that savings on to my customers. For the rest of 2017, I lowered my standard rate for 2 people to $350 for a full day and $200 for a 1/2 day. And if you do a full-day or take a kid, I will include a 1 to 2 minute video of you and your catch.
Additionally, if my calendar has an opening (including Saturday) and you book a full-day on short notice (3 days or less), I will offer an additional $50 discount. So the rate is $300 on short notice. No, this is not a gimmik or typo. I want to do more trips while the fishing is good!
This time of year, I try to match my fishing to my customers. So I will fish quite a bit different depending on whether my clients just want to catch fish or if they're prefishing for an upcoming tournament. I love fishing with amateurs and kids, because most are happy just to catch a bunch of fish - and we don't have to leave a spot just because the fish we're catching are the wrong color. But I also like taking out customers to prefish for tournaments, because it makes me work harder - and I like to see their names on the winner's list.
My favorite way to fish in the Fall is to graph fish on the humps and fish with drop-shot worms and my homemade spoons and tailspinners. The dropshot and tailspinner catch almost exclusively largemouth bass. Wheras, my homemade spoons will usually catch at least 5 species every day. When I have tournament fishermen, I will fish those same spots and lures (they can usually get a quick limit in the Fall). But I will also fish shallow with an assortment of different baits. I run the boat from the center and will have a customer in the front throwing ahead of the boat while I hand him different rods to fish. Last trip, we caught fish on topwaters. Most full-days I end up fishing shallow around some type of vegetation at some point of the day. But we almost always end up catching our biggest fish on the humps where we catch all the different species on spoons. So I'm often hesitant to leave the deep water.
If you are interested in keeping fish, I will fillet them for you if you want to sacrifice the best fishing time at the end of the day. Otherwise, bring a big cooler or a filet knife - as I expect we will catch enough to bring home. This year, I've added some more spinning rods to my arsenal, so we can do some crappie fishing while the bass fishing is slow. So, if you want to do that, you should get some crappie to go along with all the white and yellow bass that I'm certain you will catch. If you go a full-day and don't catch enough fish to clean, I'll take you back out (on short notice) for free.

If you would like to book a trip, you can see my schedule and book your trip online at http://www.bassfishing.org/go
Check out my video of 10 pounders at https://youtu.be/XwuzdbYmr5A that my son and I put together.
I plan to start uploading (to Youtube) my 1 to 2 minute "quick clip" videos of my clients (hopefully you) catching fish on on a regular basis. Please click the video and subscribe to my channel to get notified when I put them up.



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I try to post pictures/videos to my Facebook page often. So keeping up with that page is a much better report than what I can do in front of my computer at home. If you follow my Facebook page (actually, the Facebook term is "like"), you can get my posts without delay. I often post pictures the day we catch them. So if you see several big fish in the same day, you can rest assured the fishing is good then. If you wait until I post a fishing report, you can be sure that it has slowed down enough for me to leave the lake. Go to www.Facebook.com/LakeForkFishingGuide and click the "like" option to get the posts. Go to any page on www.bassfishing.org and you will find the feed.

Be sure to "like" the page so you can get the information as soon as it gets posted.

If you would like to receive my fishing report notifications by email, go to www.bassfishing.org/dbaccess/fishingreportrequests.cfm
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Good fishing and good luck. You can't catch them if you don't go.

Great report Richie.

You should rename your Ten Pounders video to"The Dr JL Show"

What report? Please tell us how you did the last few days (since the front rolled in). I was there and it was extremely tough....

Yes, I've definitely caught a lot more crappie, yellow bass, and white bass than largemouths this week. But the water is still very warm. This frosty morning might have been the trigger to get them fired up. I didn't go today.