I’m headed north

As of right now I’m on my way to Bays de Noc. Although I don’t know much about it, I’m really looking forward to the experience.

I’m writing this column a couple of days early. As of right now I’m on my way to Bays de Noc. Although I don’t know much about it, I’m really looking forward to the experience. It’s exciting to fish new places and to chase smallmouth bass.

Over the years I’ve developed a great deal of respect for them. I grew up fishing for largemouth so until I started fishing professionally I didn’t know much about the brown bass wing of the family. The thing is, though, the more you fish for them the more you want to fish for them.

They’re very different and it takes some time to learn to catch them, but do they ever fight hard. And, they’re about as pretty as anything Mother Nature has put together, dark brown with those bars running up and down their sides.

Hard fighting and pretty is one thing. Catching them is another thing. That’s the job at hand.

I packed a little of everything for this trip. You can’t really do much else when you don’t know the fishery and you don’t know where the fish will be when you get there. I’ve got drop shot tackle, crankbaits, all sort of lures with spinners on them, plastics and a solid assortment of topwater baits. If that don’t get it done I suppose I’m in trouble.

It looks like it’s pretty much fall up there. I’m thinking the fish will be somewhat shallow, or at least moving in that direction. Shallow is a matter of definition, though. It means different things on different bodies of water. We’ll see when Monday comes.

I sure hope it’s not cold when we’re out there. I’ve never made any bones about the fact that I don’t like cold weather and I sure don’t like to fish in it. You’re supposed to sweat and swat bugs when you’re fishing, not wiggle inside a sweatshirt.

My goal is to finish the year in the Top 10 in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings. Obviously, I intend to do everything possible to win this event but, realistically, if I can finish the year as a Top 10 angler I’ll be satisfied.

I’ve had a good year. It would have been better if I hadn’t had tough finishes on Dardanelle and on Cayuga. At Dardanelle I was 98 and at Cayuga I was 72. My worst finish was at BASSfest but that didn’t hurt me. Everybody got the same number of points so nobody’s position changed.

You’re not going to win the AOY with two low finishes like that. But don’t take that for complaining. I won on the St. Johns River and had fairly high finishes in a couple of other events. That’s a blessed year. Now it’s time to finish strong so that the year will end as strong as it started.

Go catch some fish guys. Now is the season to do it. It won’t be long — just a few short weeks — and a lot of the water will be hard.

Chris Lane’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook or visit his website, www.chrislanefishing.com.