Got a chance to fish American Lake for smallmouth and it was a blast. I haven't really fished for bass on this lake but figured they would be following summer patterns that I see on other lakes. Found some points on a map and fished dropoffs going from 15 to 25 FOW. Seems like fish were most congregated near open water on outside edges of weedlines.

Started throwing my all time favorite SMB crank, the BILL DANCE EDITION BOMBER FAT FREE SHAD! it surplanted the Rapala Risto Rap once those went out of production. I would throw it as far as I could and get it down deep and keep a steady retreive running parallel to the outside weed edge. Caught a 1 1/2 pounder on my first cast and five larger bass followed him up. Kept catching fish so I kept on the edges and kept throwing the crank. Kept a whacky rigged Senko on standby for the followers and we were able to pick up a couple. Probably a 20 fish per person day today of healthy bass. All C&R.

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