Fall Bass fishing can be some of the best fishing you experience all year.  It can also be very hard for several reasons.  Let’s take a closer look at the obstacles you may face this time of the year. 

Weather:

The weather this time of year is constantly changing.  The temperature is starting to fall and the water temp. will fall as well.  With this comes cold fronts and some times very hard fishing conditions like 20mph winds.  Now the wind can for sure be your friend but it can also make it very hard to fish.

On the move:

The fish are keyed in on bait. This bait is constantly moving and the fish are as well.  So just because you caught the fish there one day does not mean they will be at that same place the next.  But have no fear because they are usually close by. 

They won’t stop moving:

In addition to them moving to different spots.  They are actually going to push back further in the creeks.  So you have to keep pushing back if you can’t find the fish where they were the week before.  

So when the water temperature starts to dip below 73 degrees and below things will start to change.  Typically the fall fishing temperature is between Low 70’s to upper 50’s.    The main thing you need to focus on is finding the bait.  That is all they care about this time of the year because they know that they absolutely have to eat to get ready for the winter.  Have you ever caught a bass during the Fall that looks like if they ate one more piece of bait they would burst??  Well that’s the idea.  They are going to eat as much as they can to prepare themselves for the winter.  Depending on what part of the country you are in the baits are gong to vary.  They want to eat so you will have to focus on matching the hatch.  In Florida they are gorging on shiners or bream and in Georgia they are feeding on herring and shad.  Michigan it may be perch and Gobies.  Guntersville may be crawfish and shad. You get the idea and only you know best on what the forage is in your home lake.  

Once you get keyed in on the type of bait you need to find the size of the bait for the best results.  Getting the size down can make the difference in catching 10-15 bass in a day and catching 50 plus in a day.  This time of the year you can have those absolute Highlight reel days.  So as you are reeling in your fish a lot of times you will notice the bass spitting up bait (since they are gorging up).  Once you get the fish in the boat grab your net and scoop up some of that bait.  Or you can  look in their mouths and see if they have any left overs and pull those out and look at them and match them to something in your tackle box.  I have had days when fish are schooling all around me and I am using my favorite lure that I have a ton of confidence in and not hooking up.  A lot of times when they are schooling and busting on top you can see the bait fish being knocked out of the water.  And I would be willing to bet that 9 times out of 10 (me included) we need to downsize our bait.  I know we all like throwing the big spinner baits and the big top water plugs.  A lot of times you may need to down size to a lip less crank bait or (one of my personal favorites) a 3/8 oz jig head with a small paddle tail swim bait on it.  A lot of times downsizing the bait is the key to catching one after another.  Or you can downsize your jerk bait (excellent for fall fishing) from the three treble hook variety to one with two treble hooks.

Try the Bottom Also

So I know up above I have talked about fishing and mimicking the bait fish.  But sometimes I have found that it is just too hard to compete with the plethora of baitfish.  The bass just aren’t able to find my bait with there thousands of baitfish flying around looking just like my lure (hopefully).  So this is an excellent time to try a bottom bait.  It can be a worm, tube, or jig just to name a few.  The fish are there so sometimes it is good to show them something totally different on the bottom and see if they will oblige.  Typically if the fish are schooling like crazy you will keep a moving bait in your hands and want to power fish.  If you find the bait and find some fish and see them on the bottom then put something like the above mentioned in front of their face and see what happens.  Remember they want to eat non stop at this time just find what they want.  

Think Hard

This actually means two things that apply to fall bass fishing.   First think about throwing hard baits.  We have talked about hard baits above.  But we did not mention crank baits.  Crank baits can be excellent for this time of year.  Remember you will probably want to use a smaller more compact bait this time of year since the shad are a little bit smaller.  Also just as important is to make sure these baits have a tight wobble to them.  This should be paired with our second part of “think hard” which is the cover.  You will want to target hard types of cover in the backs of creeks.  

For example:

• Boat Docks
• Stump field
• Shell bed
• Brush Piles
• Rip rap
• Rock Piles

Also it is important to note with any type of crank bait you want to have erratic action with your bait.  Reel and pause, reel and twitch, etc…  You never want to just cast and reel in.  Try to hit the rocks and pause or knock it into a stump and pause.  If you are around grass you want to rip it through the grass and pause.  Just make the bass react to the bait with your action.  I always find it best to use fluorocarbon with these types of bait to get them down faster.  A basic strong palomar knot will hold up and give it the best action.  If you are digging into the rocks or shell beds consistently with your baits it is important to check your line for abrasion.  I find that I need to retie more often when hitting these targets so when I do get that crushing bite my line will hold up.  

Early Fall and Late Fall

So we have already talked about where the fish go and what they do in the early fall.  Early fall the bait starts to move shallow and the fish follow.  The first couple cold fronts and the leaves changing will be your trigger.  In the later fall the transition to their winter time spots.  For my home lake of Lanier they get down in the ditches.  We can catch these fish in transition though as they migrate to their deeper winter time spots.  They will stay around the creeks but they will push to the deeper part of those creeks called ditches.  I explain the ditches in this video Calling Audibles   at the 11:00 minute mark in the video.  So we can catch them in transition and follow them to the bottom of the ditches.  When they start to make that move you will see the big clouds of bait make the move first and the fish will follow.  These fish will hold on the steep drop offs on their way to ditches.  You may have to slow down your presentation for the late fall pattern and start bumping the bottom a little more.  Something like a Fish Head spin paired with a small white fluke may be a good option.  You will want to reel this in painfully slow so it maintains bottom contact.  If it starts to come off the bottom let your line back down and start reeling again.