Pennsylvania bass fishing

After my second straight soggy writers’ trip, I am contemplating starting a new business entitled Rainmaker, Inc.
Any lake or river area that needs rain or even just a couple of cloudy, windy days can hire me to set up a writers’ trip and when my group of writers arrive, so will the inclement weather.
The latest trip I took to Pennsylvania featured just about every form of foul weather imaginable, including rain, ice pellets, snow, gusting northerly winds and air temperatures ranging from the high 30s to middle 40s. Yet despite these miserable conditions we still managed to catch some quality Conneaut Lake largemouth and smallmouth bass for photos. The weather probably prevented us from seeing Conneaut at its best since this natural lake is noted for its trophy smallmouth. The lake contained several off-shore humps for smallmouth and lots of shallow weeds for largemouth. For more information about Conneaut and the other fishing opportunities in this area, call the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau (800-332-2338) or visit the web site www.visitcrawford.org .
Three of our most productive lures on this trip included the Gene Larew Biffle Bug (www.genelarewlures.com) and the Sebile Lures Magic Swimmer Soft and Flatt Shad.
The Magic Swimmer Soft is a swim bait with a unique weight system that slides up and down the hook to alter the action of the lure. Positioning the weights near the hook tie makes the lure dive nose first and zigzags when twitched while placing the weights near the rear of the hook makes the lure flutter horizontally. I spent most of the first morning running the lure steadily with the weights near the head of the bait but had only one tap, so I switched the weights to the back of the hook and decided to twitch the bait a couple of times and then let it fall. My first cast with this retrieve produced a 13-inch largemouth and I had another fish boil at the lure while I twitched it through lily pads. That was the last action I had on the bait for that day, but others in our group also caught quality largemouth and smallmouth employing the same retrieve with their Magic Swimmer Soft.
This lure will definitely be making an appearance to Lake of the Ozarks bass the next time I get the chance to throw it.
For more tips of fall fishing, visit my website at www.jnoutdoors.com .