TAKEOFF
SCENARIOS
KEYING IN ON DROWNED RIVER MOUTHS
HOW RON NELSON TARGETS LATE FALL SMALLMOUTHS IN THESE UNIQUE GREAT LAKES AREAS
W
Muskegon Lake is a good example of a late-season target area. It drains the Muskegon River and connects to Lake Michigan via a canal.
By Chad Love
hen fall weather finally turns
cold in southern Michigan
and sends most anglers into
the deer woods or the recliner, you’re
likely to find Costa FLW Series pro Ron
Nelson bundled up on Lake Michigan,
enjoying his favorite late-fall fishing
approach: targeting big smallmouths in
Lake Michigan’s drowned river mouths.
What are they?
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These coastal estuaries along the
shore of Lake Michigan are basically
permanently flooded areas and coastal
lakes located near the mouths of rivers
draining into the big lake. Some are
man-made, while others were formed
thousands of years ago as water levels
rose and river deltas were submerged
and flooded by the lake’s waters.
Nelson says these isolated backwa-
ter areas, usually connected to the
main lake by a canal or channel, attract
both baitfish and bass as winter
approaches.
“In Michigan in the fall, it’s all about
change,” says Nelson, who won the
2017 Costa FLW Series tournament on
Lake Champlain, “and it’s the ideal time
to fish river mouths, as the water tem-
perature is falling, the days are getting
shorter and baitfish in lake Michigan
are moving shallow, migrating into
those river mouths. The big fish are fol-
lowing them.”
Consequently, smallmouths that
have been scattered across the lake
all summer gang up in smaller, shal-
lower areas that can be fished from
first frost until he has to break ice to
reach them.
Choosing a river mouth
Nelson says there’s no hard-and-
fast rule in choosing which river
mouths to fish, but typically he’ll start
looking for potential areas in late
August as air temperatures start to dip
and the prevailing lake winds switch
around to the east and cause the water
temperature to start dropping.
He tends to key in on the ends of
piers located at the inlets to coastal
lakes and estuaries. Nelson says the
pier heads attract bass that use them
as early staging areas prior to moving
into the river mouths.
“The pier heads are a great pattern
in late August and September as they
draw those fish in,” he says. “It’s an ideal
early season pattern. Then, as you tran-
sition into late fall, you know those fish
are moving into the river mouth lakes
themselves, looking for winter spots.”
nasty Weather, hot bite
Nelson’s drowned river mouth pat-
tern is based on the old adage of follow-
ing the food. It’s all about finding the
flWfIshIng.Com I november-deCember 2017