Northwoods Bass 2026 Fishing Itinerary
Even though I’m taking the year off from guided fishing trips and living in a retirement life to take care of a newborn child, I’m still thinking about fishing and day-dreaming as if we were planning to hit the water.
While you could be preparing your 2026 fishing trip plans, or in the early stages of them, utilize this seasonal planner and itinerary to help you plan your fishing trips.
If we had it our way, the months of May, September, October, and November are the months you should truly want to prioritize for your trips to the northwoods. This is due to excellent fishing and trophy fish potential every day. Additionally, more peak periods will present themselves throughout these months than any of the others.
Who knows, maybe next we return to a more part-time and exclusive-only basis. I am keeping the business afloat and renewing all my licenses and commercial insurance after all.
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Opening up the season, plan to hit the water right now. The ice has just melted. Backwater largemouths and ice out smallmouths are early season favorites. Most years we are on the water by now.
Walleye opener is Saturday May 2nd. Fish all week for pre-season bass, and then proceed on to walleyes. How fun.
May fishing for pre-spawn smallmouths always ramps up around Mother’s Day weekend and this peak bite can run all the way through Memorial Day Weekend. Only cold fronts and uncooperative fish can hamper catch rates and your success. With Memorial Day weekend running a week earlier than usual, I would expect pre-spawn smallmouths to remain active and the last week of May to be the potentially best week of the month on the assumption it’ll be a late spawn this year.
The first two weeks of June will be best spent on multi-species activity as you wait for smallmouths to complete their spawn. When spawn starts and concludes depends on weather, climate, and water temperature. But after first two weeks of June we are in the clear for most activities. In 10 years of doing this we have never hosted a bed fishing trip.
Usually the month of June is excellent and dependable for action trips. Each day, the expectation can be numbers and good average size. Trophies are harder to come by, due to recovery from spawn and forage overabundance. To take advantage of bass numbers and other multi-species opportunities, plan your fishing activity around warm fronts and stable conditions. June peak periods center around the mayfly hatch, and this is a prime time for smallmouth fishing if topwaters and surface lures are of interest.
Despite the high traffic and congestion on our lakes in mid summer, July and August can be great months too, so for mid-summer I urge you to always consider mid-week fishing if possible. Favorite mid-summer activities always revolve heavily around trophy largemouth bass and the progression of summer peak. Largemouth trips are a personal favorite, where we will target bluegill patterns, algae bloom lakes, and deep weedlines. By the time the crayfish molt occurs in late July and nice daily weather gives us consistent patterns, smallmouth fishing greatly picks up, where action and trophies become the daily norms. Open water and pelagic fishing strategies for smallmouths are also a personal favorite for the summer months.
Later in the year, September and October offer premier fishing. Both months must absolutely be treated for trophy hunts and big fish trips only. The quality trophy fish water we’ve worked at daily puts us in the best position possible to catch these fish. This is my favorite season of them all due to big fish abundance and vulnerabilities. Much of the fishing we do from Labor Day through early October revolves around casting and power fishing atop shallow flats and tapping into the perch patterns and their shallow water migrations. This leads to smallmouths invading these same areas for their heavy pre-turnover feeding. These strategies cater to proficient casters – intermediate anglers and better. These last two fall seasons, the boat captured over 100 smallmouths from 20-inches and larger from Labor Day through mid November.
Depending on how you fish and operate, I also encourage you to be flexible, open minded to the thought that other species could be more active than smallmouths on some days, and always give strong consideration to scheduling weekday trips especially during the congested tourist summer season.
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April
Ice out is right now. Early season smallmouths and largemouths are favorites. Prioritize midday and afternoon fishing times.
- Backwater largemouths
- Swim jig and warm water jungle fishing largemouth early season
- Largemouth bass lake hopping
- Flowage smallmouth
- Wisconsin river system smallmouths (1 angler only)
- Staging smallmouth on lakes
- Coldwater tactics for smallmouth
- Crappies
May
May trips can run first days of the month before and after walleye opener, and after Mother’s Day Weekend until we see it being still worthwhile. May weather has been God-awful these last several years, between massive cold fronts shutting down the activity, to intense heat waves that prompt fish to being nesting without any regard for their surroundings. May 2025 was awful cold front after cold front, so if you weren’t mentally and physically prepared you’d be mailing it in early and fishing in misery. Ice-out timelines and climate ultimately dictates spawning movements, which is something we have no control of. Traditionally, the spring peak and best fishing of the month takes place from third weekend in May through the end of month. Prioritize midday and afternoon fishing times.
- Lipless cranking largemouth
- Swim jig and warm water jungle fishing largemouth early season
- Largemouth bass lake hopping
- Big water smallmouth and trophy hunts only
- River and flowage smallmouth
- Cold water paddletail and rip jigging smallmouth
- Suspended jerkbait and fluke minnow fishing for smallmouth
- All pre-spawn fishing for smallmouth
- Crappies
June
June is a top month for action and numbers. Since we never fish bass beds around here, I always have workarounds to the dilemma, whether it is fishing different water bodies, rivers, or temporarily seeking other species. Throughout June, finesse plastics and tube fishing produces huge numbers. Topwaters can too, on calm humid days. Hair jigs are a top producer for numbers and if mayfly hatches are present. Don’t want smallmouths? Largemouth bass explode in June, and I personally enjoy fishing them most during this month. Largemouth are more responsive on foul weather days and anytime smallmouths aren’t going. Additionally, their spawn finishes quickest, fish recover quickly, and we enter their summer patterns. On junk weather days, my preference is to do mixed bag fishing – a foreign concept to most. June is a great month for walleyes and pike, as some bass fisheries we visit contain them both. June fishing tends to peak around the summer solstice and final days of the month.
- Post spawn largemouth and smallmouth
- Drop shot and finesse plastics smallmouth
- Wacky worm largemouth
- Mayfly hatch and hair jigs
- River systems and flowages early month
- Smallmouth cranking
- Topwater smallmouth
- Frog fishing largemouth
- LMB and SMB numbers fishing
- Multi-species and mixed bag trips (walleyes and pike)
The entire tackle box is open in June. This is an awesome month because every day can fish differently. All species of fish are active and feeding heavily.
July
Summer fishing patterns are in play, and summer peak happens. The 4th of July Holiday week delivers the most boat and vehicle traffic too, and I refuse to fish anywhere that week. With heat and high fishing pressure & boating traffic, I only fish in July during the second half of the month. During busy weekends I will also stay away from popular lakes with heavy recreational (non fishing) boat traffic. It’s a good month to seek backwoods destinations and other locations off the grid.This time of season early mornings, evenings/nights, and traveling to lakes off the beaten path are prioritized. Largemouth bass fishing peaks on the season, where we hunt for trophies.
- Night fishing smallmouth
- AM and late PM topwater smallmouth
- Power cranking smallmouth
- Swimbait and suspended open water smallmouth
- Cisco lakes
- Mayfly hatch smallmouth
- Surface frog and slop fishing largemouth
- Crayfish patterns and the molt
- Onboard and offshore
- Bluegill patterning largemouths
- Remote & wilderness lakes
July is an accommodating month if you seek action and numbers. Trophy largemouths are tops in my boat if considering for summer fishing.
August
The same fishing patterns and strategies from end of July carry-over into August. The fishing improves drastically at the onset of summer peak, as trophy hunting patterns become more predictable. Much of the fishing we do is out in deeper depths; for smallmouths onboard and offshore, and mid-depth and deep structure. I prioritize targeting the deep and cooler-water pelagic and cisco based fisheries, and lakes with high crayfish populations.
Largemouth fishing peaks on the year too, with us frequently fishing algae-bloomed and shallow eutrophic lakes, targeting offshore locations and 10-15ft grass and weedlines where greater catch rates and giant fish can be had. Depending on water temps and weather, some shallow water opportunity is available early and late in the day.
In August, we prefer targeting mostly trophy largemouths and trophy smallmouths. Other gamefish opportunities will present themselves late in the month as our first cooldowns of fall arrive. Muskies and northern pike are great targets for these events.
- Night fishing smallmouth
- AM and late PM topwater smallmouth
- Power cranking smallmouth
- Swimbait and suspended open water smallmouth
- Surface frog and slop fishing largemouth
- Bluegill pattern largemouth
- Crayfish patterns and the molt
- Ned rigs
- Drop shots
- Onboard and offshore
September
The best fishing of the month fires up after Labor Day weekend. This is the big transition month when all fishing, strategies, location, and lake selection is based on weather and the timing of turnover. Most days of the week, we will be on lower density trophy fisheries where the expectation is fewer bites but big fish. Catching 10 to 20 fish per day from these waters is a good day, and about average. Our September and fall lake rotation only consists of 10 to 15 different lakes, and we’ll camp on a single lake per day. If you are looking to experience new lakes or lake-hop, this is NOT the time of year to do so. Nearly all of our September month fishing revolves around shorelines, huge expansive flats, and weedlines where casting search lures and moving baits catches them all. Patterns depend on the forage and water temps, but following young of the year perch schools throughout the lake often pays off for catching big smallmouth. Paddletails, swimbaits, football jigs, and crankbaits are some of our preferred methods.
September is my favorite month of fishing, and for smallmouth we prioritize trophy hunting and full day trips only. We might fish only 1 lake that day only. I reserve these months for my experienced and experts. THIS IS NOT THE MONTH FOR NUMBERS AND FAST ACTION.
- Swimbait and suspended open water smallmouth
- River and flowage smallmouth
- Midday and afternoon fishing times prioritized
- Shallow flats swimbaits and lipless cranking smallmouth
- Offshore and deep grass largemouth
- Vertical jigging smallmouth
- Football jigging
- Blade baits and rip baits
- Largemouths on Indian summer days
- Muskies (repeat anglers only please)
September is full day trophy hunts only where we prioritize seeking the biggest fish of the year.
October & November
I don’t host wintering trips because exploitation of wintering holes and sensitive lake locations isn’t of interest, and I really don’t want to show you my secret honey holes. October fishing is similar to September’s strategy. Except after mid-month we enter post-turnover and coldwater period. Many of the same fishing strategies from September are still utilized in early October. After turnover mid-month, almost 100% of our fishing is over deep water, incorporating jigging, casting, and position fishing. Most days we will also incorporate the usage of specialized livebait rigging, running my spreads off the back end of the boat.
We will continue fishing shallow until turnover. And this could last through the first week of October. Once we start seeing signs of turnover and the water temps drop to 58-59, we’ll take a break from the bass and guided trips for a week or two until things stabilize down below.
Most bass trips for the year are completed by turnover in second week of October. At this point, fish enter yet another transitory and transitional period as they make their descend into deepwater structure and wintering sites. Once they’ve settled deep, late October into the first half of November have proven to be outstanding in recent years. A pro-longed productive season may still continue into late month into early November depending on weather, climate, water temps, and ice formation. We are done bass fishing for the year by the time water temps reach the low-40’s. During October month, the tackle box closes. I also limit my lake selection to a rotation of about 5 to 10 different lakes whose fall patterns and locations have been specialized. Go to trophy water for whatever you do in October and November. Midday and afternoon hours prioritized.
- River and flowage smallmouth
- Midday and afternoon fishing times prioritized
- Shallow flats swimbaits and lipless cranking smallmouth
- Deep water position fishing
- Vertical jigging smallmouth
- Football jigging
- Blade baits and rip baits
- Live bait rigging
- Muskies (repeat anglers only please)
October trips are full day trophy hunts, and smallmouth trips only. Midday and afternoon hours are prioritized daily. We’ll only fish 1 lake for the full day. This is not a numbers month. Live minnows are carried in the boat for insurance purposes. Trips can last through end of the month, weather and water temps permitting.
Even though I am physically unable to take people fishing this year, I am available full-time on a consulting and virtual-only guiding basis for now. To consider these services, as well as my lake map services, visit each of these links below to schedule and coordinate your trip and lake learning lessons with me.
Thank you so much for considering Northwoods Bass Fishing Adventures, LLC
Andrew Ragas
Northwoods Bass Fishing Adventures, LLC
Licensed and Insured
Specializing in Northern Wisconsin inland bass fishing
tel: 708-256-2201
email: andrew@northwoodsbass.com
web: www.northwoodsbass.com
