So when do you people find the bass bite ending? I'm talking about the small lakes, not on the large bodies of water. last time I was on the water the temp. was dropping like a rock.

On the smaller lakes I'll stop largemouth fishing around the end of November..maybe the end of December on the shallow lakes. I'll fish for smallies year-round since they are a little more predictable. I've caught largemouth in January but the smallies will bite every day of the year consistently.

I agree with SlabKing about the smallmouth. Although I'm not a bass fisherman I have caught smallmouth every month of the year while trolling Lk. Washington with a needlefish.

Thanks for the reply. I normaly hang it up when the water temp. drops below 60. I guess I should work on some different setups and stay out later in the year.

I should get into the smallies, but I like to stick to the small water. I have a small boat with only my Minnkota for power. Too many mad boaterd for the big water.

There are still a lot of smaller lakes you can fish year-around. Sawyer is a good bet for smallmouth, perch, and crappie every month of the year. I've done good on Steel Lake very late in the year as well as Lake Meridian.

During cold water (anything below 49*):

If you know where there's some deep water structure toss plastics or even a small jig-n-pig and just drag them along the bottom as slow as you can. You can also troll a deep diving crankbait or tie up a walleye trolling rig but use a floating crank instead of a spinner. That setup will catch smallmouth from Dec to March. You can still catch largemouths around docks up until about the first week of Dec most years.