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Last Chance To Catch Big Bass Before It Gets Cold

I cast the diving crankbait into the rocks at the shore, knowing full well the lure was a deep runner and that this water was only a foot or two deep. The largemouth were stacked up like cordwood, apparently feeding on crayfish that had moved into the shallows during fall. Either that or the bass were trying to stock up on groceries before the coming winter. In either case, it was a fishing bonanza. In cast after cast, my buddy and I were able to put the lures where they would dive and scrape along the bottom, often running sideways as the bill scraped the rock ledges before a bass hit on every few casts. It was the kind of day you dream of.

My buddy was already into a fish when I hooked one, a 3-pounder that gobbled up the diving plug. It turned out to be a bookend for my buddy’s fish, and both were soon released as we continued to cast and catch.

It can be like that in fall. The water has turned over, the bass are scattered and sometimes you just find the mother lode of bassdom. Fishing for both largemouth and smallmouth bass in the shallows, where the fish are searching for easy prey, is just one way to cash in on great fall bass fishing. Indeed, fall has a lot going for it.

Conditions in fall often mean more variety in bass fishing, along with more opportunity to try different places where bass are cruising. Fall means the lake or reservoir that stratified during summer will at some point turn over. This occurs when the cooler days chill the top warm layer of water, which causes that layer of warm water to sink to the bottom. This process continues as the weather cools, with the lake water mixing the temperature and oxygen content and also dispersing the baitfish, crayfish and other groceries on which bass feed. The turn-over period is a tough time to take bass, since they are also scattered and getting used to this change in their watery climate.

What follows can be one of the best times of the year-long bass season. The bass are cruising, foraging in the shallows to stock up on food for the coming lean times in winter. They become more active as the water cools. Couple this with the increasingly overcast skies that keep bass from hunkering down tight in the shady side of structure on a bright day, and you have bass that are looking for food and anxious to grab almost anything.

This means blind casting is more likely to produce bass during fall than at any other time of the year. Bass are concentrating in the shallows, off points and on flats since that is where most of their food — minnows, crayfish, hellgrammites, eels, sunfish, etc. — will be found.

Of course, none of this occurs overnight. The late-season period, beginning with the first cool days of late August or late September (depending upon latitude), will result in a change from the summer fishing, as the lake starts to mix and then settles into the mixed-water fall pattern that extends into and through winter. In general, the time from late summer to early winter can be a great one for bass and bass anglers.

This does not mean bass are not still hiding in structure. On one fall day with mixed sun and clouds, I found bass hiding in and around structure such as logjams, stumps, boathouses and such, with brushpiles producing the best. It might have been the attraction to crayfish again, but a black jig tipped with a brown soft-plastic crayfish tail proved to be the ticket. In similar situations, a jig rigged with a pork chunk in a crayfish-imitation orange color can be the bait de jour.

In addition, the shallows are not the only spots to fish in fall. In some parts of the country, particularly in the South on water-supply reservoirs, the lakes are drawn down in fall, resulting in a complete change in the shoreline, bass habits and habitat. Usually these lakes can have the best fishing in or next to the weeds that are close to a severe drop-off. Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, weedless spoons and the like that will wiggle or churn their way through or over the weeds are ideal.

On the outside of the weedbeds, often the best lure is a large, slow-fished crankbait worked parallel to the weeds and shoreline and fished deep along a breakline. Frequently bass will hole up in areas like this during the day, moving back and forth between the protection of the deep water and the food availability in the weeds.

Generally, one of the best ways to work a crankbait in fall when the fish are more active and feeding is to rip a deep-diving crankbait through the water. When worked deep and in colors to resemble crayfish, these lures can imitate the action of crayfish with some rip-and-pause techniques, triggering lure-stopping and heart-stopping strikes.

Where leaves do not blanket the surface and where a flat allows shallow fishing, buzzbaits are a great choice, particularly when fished early and late in the day. Who knows what buzzbaits are simulating, but obviously they appear as something good to eat and getting away to a hungry fall bass.

Of course, fall bass fishing is not without problems. One is that the name “fall” is appropriate. Fall means leaves and all the deciduous detritus of trees will be in and on the water. We all know that a leaf caught on any kind of lure will not take bass and will even put them off. There are some tricks to avoid this when confronted with a lake surface spotted with leaves or a smallmouth river with fall leaves instead of summer insects floating downcurrent.

One way to avoid leaves is to not fish on a windy day. Wind separates more leaves from the trees and can blanket the water with leaves that not only distract bass, but often keep them from taking surface lures.

However, even without wind, you can still have leaves on and in the surface film from previous windy days. One trick is to use a long rod so you can position it to the right or left to snake a way through the leaves. This will enable you to make a lure run in a zigzag pattern that will cause it to take a course between patches of leaves or individual leaves.

You don’t want your lure or your line to catch any leaves, since a lined leaf will run down the line to catch on the lure, ruining the retrieve from that point on. A longer than normal rod extends your reach to each side to make it not only possible but easy to track your lure between the leaves.
A low rod position is best, since it allows you to be in more of a direct contact with the line and lure when a bass hits, ensuring a solid strike that might be more difficult with a high rod. A high rod is necessary in some situations, like when working a topwater chugger or stick bait in walk-the-dog fashion, running a buzzbait across the top or fishing a single-bladed spinnerbait just under the surface.

Leaves do offer a plus in some fishing situations, such as when you want to get a plastic worm to a bank under some trees, where even a low-trajectory flip-cast would be impossible. For this, get upstream of the spot you want to reach, use an unweighted Texas-rigged worm and float the worm on top of the fresh leaf you intercepted.

An alternative is to secure the hook to the outer edge of the leaf before making the final penetration of the hook into the worm. Next, free-line the reel to float the leaf with the worm down to the impossible spot. Then, engage the reel to jerk the worm off or through the leaf and drop it into a spot least expected by a bass. The result is almost always a strike.

The main thing to remember about fall bass is that they are moving out of the tributaries and into the main part of the lake or river. They are also working bait more actively, particularly as the water cools with the coming cold weather. Capitalizing on fall fishing requires getting through the tough times of the turnover, but then being ready to experience the great fishing when the bass begin actively searching for food. Put that food in front of them in the form of the right lure, and the result can be some great action and another bass in the livewell.