Fall bassin is drawing near.

[keithdog]

Fall bissin is just around the corner. In fact, way up north it may already be here. I live in NW Indiana and up here, fall bassin starts in a couple weeks. The transition is already starting with night time temps falling into the low 40's now. I was thinking this would be a good time to share pointers, tips, suggestions for catching big ol'e bucket mouths in the fall. While many approaches will take bass in the fall, my two favorite lures for fall bass have to be the crankbait, and the spinnerbait. Send me out with those two baits and I will keep buisy. The lakes in my area are natural lakes rather than reservoirs. So my approach may differ from some of the others in this site. Perhaps one of the reasons I prefer to use cranks and spinnerbaits in the fall has to do with wind conditions and boat control. Fall time is rather windy in these parts, and I can use either of these two baits well in windy conditions. While I catch bass year round on both these baits, I would have to say my largest fall time bass have come on crankbaits. I'm not going to go into brands as there are so many excellent brands out there. I usally have two tied to a rod at all times. One that will dive to around 8-12 feet. And one that will work well in the 4-6 foot range. By targeting submerged weedbeds with cranks, many of the larger bass who have been hanging in the deeper end of the pool are now more accessable. The migration for big bass to the shallower water grows with each passing day.
Spinnerbaits also are the cats meow in the fall. Especially in late fall here in the north up to ice out. By using a larger spinnerbait in the shallows near brush and weedbeds, many large bass can be taken. I prefer colorado blades at this time of year as I want to stay fairly shallow and fish the bait slowly. And as all year long, I will use a 4" twister grub. I prefer a white tandom colorado spinnerbait with 24 ct gold baldes, using a yellow or chartruese trailor. I use a 3/8 - 1/2 oz spinnerbait up here. Down south you may want something larger. Work this bait with a good quality baitcaster, medium heavy rod and heavy line, either braid or heavy mono. You will want to get in close and personal with brush, lillypads, and so on at this time of year. Your going to want to be able to haul that bigmouth out of trouble fast.
Don't discount the surface bait either in early to mid fall. It can still be deadly now that bruisers are cruising the shallows. Toss out a suspending stickbait, or a banana style spook bait and hang on. Other surface baits will also work well. These are just a couple of my favorites. Fish them as you would in the spring. For those who are shorebound, spinnerbaits after dark can be killer in the fall!!!
So what other approaches do you prefer to utilize for fall bassin? Any techniques that make your heart skip a beat come fall?

[carolina-rig-01]

very well said keith. one more i would suggest is a jig. in the fall you can swim it or work it slow. once the water drops into the low 50's i always go with real pork for a trailer but until then i go with a variety of soft plastic baits as trailers. colors will often change daily but when things are right it is probably the best big bass bait ever thrown. also don't overlook a swimbait (these things will catch fish in places other than california). in the fall shad will ball up in creeks and the bass follow them, making it a great oppertunity to load the boat with fish in a hurry.

[Raul]

Got me on that one, I don´t know any "fall" techniques, actually is "fall" a season or something like that ? ...... ah ! you mean post-spawn, sorry, we down here only know pre-spawn, spawn, post-spawn and huntin´.

[pig n jig]

Yep, fall is approaching fast. I like rattle traps and a brown jig with a matching pork trailer.My jig is kept close to bottom, but only pausing a few seconds before moving to cover alot of ground. I target bare bank bank areas that break off sharply.The weeds will be dying and brown, depleting oxygen from the water as they break down, so the stretches of sand bars and sparse weed clumps seem to hold more fish during the fall here. P N J P.S. Raul It is going to be 39 degrees and raining tomorrow morning here. Don't you wish you were here ?

[bassfisher02]

Wow 39 degrees... And I thought it was getting cooler when the temperature read 68 degrees the other morning. I think that day it only got up to 85 and had a nice dry breeze. It was deffinitely a nice break. But today we had solid 100 degree temps, lots of rain heating up fast after for some great humidity!! Thats probably the worst part of Florida, the humidity. I ca handle the heat just fine. But that humidity tears me up. Cant wait till I can pull out the jacket!!

[JB]

its supposed to be 38 here in the next couple of morning (south of the great lakes by 3 hours) and then rebound to mid 70's. Today was 80 and the crops have turned brown, but the fall leaves haven't turned yet.
They always say that its the amount of sunlight that makes the leaves turn,
less sun during the days, but everyone notices after a cold snap the next day the maples have lot more yellows, purples, and reds n greens.
It's beautiful till a couple days of rain starts knocking them off. They usually last about 3 weeks of peak colors in Ohio.
When you're on the lake, the first couple of weeks looks like this,


then at its peak it will look like this

[bassfisher02]

I think that second one is my Grandmas background on her computer....

Haha.

[JB]

it could be, I've known granny fer years ROFL

[bassfisher02]

Hahaha!

It happens.

[JB]

I've had it on wallpaper before too, all that yellow is usually a sugar maple, generally speaking most trees you pass have a variety of colors.

[brushhog]

Fish more than you did in the Summer!

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by pig n jig

P.S. Raul It is going to be 39 degrees and raining tomorrow morning here. Don't you wish you were here ?

Man we are getting a break this week, only in the 80's Wow I still can remember thhose freaking cold days. I don't miss them at all. I never want to see snow again, except on TV.

Lizards

[Rebbasser]

It sure is, Keith, and I am looking forward to it!

[lunker-lander]

Goin out tomorrow at 6:30 AM, any tips? Bought some Carolina Pumpkin/Chart. YUM Dingers today, plan on T-Riggin' them and using my Tux and Tails Booyah! Spinerbait. Should slam 'em, got a 7.68 pounder out of there last weekend!!!

[1FASTLASER]

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HUNTERS!!!!!!!! They leave ALL THE WATER to me when huntin season starts. LOL!!!!

Got to go this weekend and blow some of the summer crap outta me and the boys heads. Caught 19 biggest 3 1/2lbs doing the usual early and I do mean early fall pattern. Slow rolling a 3/8oz spinnerbaot about 5' deep along the weedlines. The best producer for me this early season is a great spinnerbait that a friend of mine sent me from Texas...I call it the Reb Special. It aint quite time yet for the Zook-En-Stein. But I gotta sya when it does get a little cooler...around 65 water temp. the ole Zook_En-Stein gets dusted off and one helluva workout for about the next month.

[JB]

Same pattern here to laser, denny and me were out last night and I was using rebs spinnerbait, about 3-5 feet of water, and got 5, and one on the
popR, the fish sure are pulling hard!
We are hitting brookville lake this weekend, hope to get some smallies

[wargoth]

Oh, sure, all you Ohio boys go out without me... I see how you are... LOL.

[1FASTLASER]

Ill be puttin the finishing touches on the SILVER MISSLE this weekend and all I gotta say to them basses is " YOU CAN RUN BUT YA CANT HIDE"

[Charles E. White]

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago and thought I would share it about fishing cold water in late fall.

When late fall comes around most anglers slow down on their fishing. Yes, the catch may be slower but you have to remember one thing…..the last thing a bass wants to do in the late fall is go deep, even with a cold front as long as their plenty of shallow cover. Wood is an excellent place for bass in the late fall, especially submerged and laydown trees.

Jigs, spinnerbaits, small crankbaits like the Little N, all are good lures to use at this time of year. Fishing pockets is also very productive this time of year. Remember to fish a spinnerbait lengthways down a submerged tree and lead the lure using your rod so it bumps off of big limbs from the tree.

Try using SuspenDots on the crankbaits to catch those suspended fish. Fish the trees by points and coves. Fish slower and don’t run from spot to spot but fish an area thoroughly. If you can fish trees submerged where one end is in about 7-9 feet of water, make sure you fish it.
Try deadsticking a Senko, I have had a lot of luck in late fall with this method, fish it slow and let it set for a little longer than you think you should.

Overall, the best I have done is with a little crankbait with a SuspenDot and fishing submerged trees on a point in fairly shallow water. Just because the temperature is lower doesn’t mean you can’t have a good day of fishing even if you have a cold front to go along with it.