As the leaves begin to turn into their autumn glory many anglers hang up their fishing poles in favor of their favorite deer rifle or their bow and hit the woodlots in search of the wily whitetail. For the die-hard bass fisherman the approaching weeks mark one of the best times of the year to be on the water.

The only other time of the year that there are more fish are in shallow water and accessible is during the springtime. The problem with the springtime is that the fish are there not to feed, but to spawn and are pretty much pre-occupied with this activity. In the fall they are in the shallows for just one reason only… to eat and store up reserves for the impending cold weather that lies just ahead.

The frequent passage of late winter cold fronts during March and April make fishing an “iffy” game. With the water just beginning to warm up after a long winter, it takes little cooling effect to really affect the activity level of this fish. If your trip happens to be scheduled the day after the front passes the fishing really slows down and makes springtime excursions uncertain at best. On the flip side, the passage of a cold front in the fall often times triggers feeding activity causing the fish to feed like there were no tomorrow. The water has been hot, too hot for comfort for several months and the activity level actually elevates as the waters begin to cool. The effect of a cold front in the fall is often opposite to the springtime cold front.

With great numbers of fish shallow and accessible, with fish feeding aggressively, and with a marked absence of anglers on the water, the best fishing of the year is often overlooked. The angler that hangs up his rod and heads to the field is missing what is quite possibly the best fishing time of the entire year.

By early September most of the fish will start to leave the deep-water sanctuaries that they have called home during the hotter months. The shad population is at its peak and the lake is crawling with food… a time of plenty for the bass. As the surface water cools to a point to where it is more dense and heavier than the water underneath, a temperature inversion occurs which scatters the bait fish and in turn the largemouth. There is about a two week period during September when the fishing really turns sour as the bass have left these deep water areas, triggered by this inversion, and started moving with the bait fish toward the backs of the coves and into the creeks.

It is during this transition time that the savvy angler will travel to the far upper reaches of the reservoir, where the main feeders enter the lake. There is a resident population of fish in these areas that never leave. Travel up the lake to where the ambient depth is three to five feet deep along a creek or river channel that is from ten to twenty feet deep or deeper. This area of the lake is the most stable part of the entire reservoir during this time of the year as there is not enough depth for there to be a stratification of the water column. As a result there will be no fall “turn-over” or temperature inversion. Additionally all the fish in the area will be related to the river or creek channel itself as this is the deepest water in the area. To find the fish, it is a simple matter of putting the boat in the creek channel and covering water with a crankbait or spinnerbait until the right creek bend is located.

The fish tend to gather in schools during this period and when they are found holding in a certain section of the creek there are usually numbers ganged up in the same area. They tend to be more predictable as well making repeat trips much easier and more productive. This pattern will last until wintertime but don’t get so wrapped up in these fish that you forget what is happening further down the lake. By the end of September the water will have stabilized on the rest of the lake and the fishing in the coves off the main lake areas will have picked up with new fish moving into the backs of the coves on a daily basis. Search out coves with a main channel in them. These coves will hold the greatest population of bass for the fish use these channels as migration paths as they move from deep water to the shallow feeding areas. It is seldom that fish will strike out across an expanse of flat featureless water to move… they always follow paths.

The really neat thing about fall bass fishing is that the fish may be caught on many different lures allowing an angler to fish the technique that he or she likes best, and to do so productively. This is the time of the year that an angler can go out and catch fish using many different styles on the same day!

A typical day in the fall would be to start early in the day with a top water lure like the Pop R, Zara Spook, or Buzzbait in the shallows, or along submerged weed beds in the back one-third of the creeks. The buzzbait is especially effective this time of the year as the fish are often aggressive and willing to chase their prey down. They are feeding mainly on shad and the sound of the buzzbait is thought to be similar to that of shad feeding and flitting on the surface. It is important to experiment with different sizes of buzzbaits at this time as many times the shad are quite small. This being the case a 1/8th or 1/4th ounce lure will often out-produce the larger versions. Another trick that is very effective is to remove the rubber skirt from the buzzbait and place a Sassy Shad on the hook in lieu of the skirt. Be sure to match the size of the Sassy Shad to the size of the bait fish in the area.

When the day brightens up and the topwater bite slows down it is spinnerbait time. The spinnerbait was tailor made for fall fishing. When the fish are “up” and willing to chase a lure there is no bait in bass fishing that can cover the water as effectively or draw more reaction bites than a spinnerbait. As is always the case, blade configuration and skirt color must be determined by the clarity and color of the water being fished, but typically more fish are caught on spinnerbaits that have been downsized to match the size of the forage base. Spinnerbaits of 1/4th to 3/8ths ounce are usually the best choice. Silver or Nickel, tandem willow-leafed blades with a skirt color to match the color of the bait fish is best. White, chartreuse/white, or one of the new translucent colors draw strikes on a regular basis when the fish are feeding primarily on shad. Another skirt color that is often overlooked for fall fishing is cotton candy… I have discovered that a small cotton candy colored spinnerbait will catch fish in the fall often better than any other color. This is especially true in water that is clear to slightly stained.

Fall is also crankbait time! One mistake that many anglers often make is to assume that all fish are shallow when they move back into the creeks. Much of the time, however, many of the larger fish that followed the fall migration to the backs of the creeks never get near the shoreline, but suspend along the treelines, fencerows, and stumps along the river channel. The most effective lure to catch these fish is the crankbait.

The right tools for effective crankbaiting consist of a six and one-half to seven foot fiberglass rod, fifteen pound monofilament and a 5:1 (or slower) bait caster. Crankbaits perform best when retrieved at a slow to moderate retrieve. To slow and the lure never reaches it’s potential depth, too fast and the water actually slips across the lip of the lure impeding it’s action and also reducing the depth potential of the lure. Again, the most effective retrieve is a slow to moderate retrieve with a moderately geared bait caster.

The fifteen monofilament is small enough in diameter to allow a big lipped crankbait to get down to the depths where the fish are holding, yet strong enough to handle fish in heavy cover where they are likely to be holding. Be sure to use a premium monofilament like Silver Thread or Excalibur that has good casting qualities for maximum distance. These lines are also smaller in diameter for a given pound test which allows the lure to run a bit deeper.

The fiberglass rod not only will allow you to cast long distances, the soft, slow tip will increase your hook-up to strike ratio. Many people make a mistake by throwing crankbaits on the same graphite rod that they would worm or jig fish with. They do this because the rod made of graphite is much more sensitive and they can feel what the crankbait is doing better than they can with fiberglass. This is certainly the case, but the same thing that makes the graphite rod so sensitive is the very thing that makes it undesirable as a crankbait rod.

I have heard many professional anglers say that the graphite rod is so sensitive that they jerk the lure away from the fish before the fish completely takes the lure. I feel that these guys are giving themselves too much credit! It has nothing to do with their ability to feel but with the responsiveness of the rod itself that causes the problem! To fully understand this point you must understand how a fish takes a lure. He has no hands or appendages with which to reach out and grab a shad and bring it to his mouth. The bass approaches his intended target, opens his mouth, flares his gills creating a vacuum and draws the baitfish into his mouth where gill rakers strain the water preventing the bait fish from being flushed right on through.

As the crankbait is being retrieved through the water it has a considerable amount of drag placing a bow in the rod, pre-loading the fibers. As the fish approaches the lure, the fish opens his mouth, the vacuum starts, the bait actually enters the fish’s mouth, but as the vacuum is reduced, the responsiveness of the graphite rod quickly springs the lure forward and out of the fish’s mouth before he completely closes it! What results is a missed fish or one that is only lip hooked and he gets off before he gets to the boats or pulls off on the first run. Whereas the softer, slower reacting fiberglass allows the fish to completely take the lure and close his mouth on it. The result is a greater number of hookups and more solidly hooked fish which greatly increases the number of fish put into the boat to be taken to the weigh-in.

The urge to take to the woods is certainly understandable as the first frost performs it’s magic on the flora of the countryside. But don’t get so wrapped up in chasing that big old buck this fall that you forget to see what you have been missing by putting the fishing equipment in mothballs too early in the season.