the smallmouth fishing in the fall is a very overlooked,under utilized fishery.
everyone is fishing muskies,walleyes,pike and just seem to forget about bass come fall. you can have it all to yourself if you're a bass fisherman,or it's a great way to take a break from casting midday while lunching and pound up on some big bass for awhile.
big avg size fish mostly 16-20"+ that have been deeper and/or suspended most of the season after post spawning move up on bars with general depths to concentrate on at 16-24'. bars that held walleyes in july aug topping off at 18 to just below surface in the western arm (stretch and trout hole 0 area),vb,portage (tugboat and the smaller humps nearby),and the central section (deadmans,pats,etc) are classic predictable examples.
typically they will not be scattered all over the whole bar but instead stacked in smaller areas of turns and fingers.
BIG live bait (dace and suckers 4-6")on jigs and rigs are fav fall presentions though you can catch fish on tubes,drop shotted plastics,flukes and gulp,etc