Finicky bass

Hi Folks, Double dipped yesterday guiding morning and night for smallmouth bass.  Pretty warm out there as our water temperatures are on the rise once again.  Warm sunny days and warm nights have our larger trout waters too warm to f ish.  Small brooks are still okay, but we could use some rain and the spook factor is in effect.  So when warm why fish the smallmouth.  took out the motorboat in the morning where the water temperature was 74 degrees and water clarity was good.  It appeared that the lake level was down and the smallmouth had pushed away from shoreline areas.  We made lots of cast to catch 4 small bass.  Mostly worked the surface with floating shad raps in fire tiger, however we did jig fish a 4" crawfish colored tube on a 1/8th oz. jig head.  Drew a few strikes on the jig, but the strikes were extremely subtle.  All 4 bass and numerous yellow perch were caught on the floating rapalas around downed wood that stuck out into deeper water off shallow tapered shorelines.  In the afternoon my guest and I fished from a canoe where the water temperature was 72 degrees and it appeared like the leaves were starting to turn.  Lots of red maple or swamp maple was already bright red.  We had a bit of a north west wind in the afternoon and we made a point to get on the lee side of land and out of the shade.  Pretty bright afternoon.  The wind did calm down at dusk.  Same as the morning we made lots of casts for a few fish.  However, we did land a solid 3lb smallmouth that sipped in a fire tiger popper.  Also, tangled with 2 large pickerel that exploded onto the popper.  Awesome surface strikes from the pickerel and worth the wait.  Saw a mess of flying ants on the surface a numbers of smallmouth eating them.  They just were not interested in our offerings.  Well off to chase river bass this morning.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy