Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Fall Bass Fishing

I think I stored my boat too soon.....Friday, 40+ fish topped by a 5 and 6.5 pound fish. Rattletrap and Beaver on 1/2 oz footballs. Rattletrap fish came out of 2-4 ft. of water.Water temp 48.

These fish were fired up pretty good,and one shallow bay produced about 15 fish on the Trap.Looks like it's peaking right about now but have to get ready for deer season later this month. If we stay ice free we should be able to get on them in November and into December as well.

But you guys up north who still have boats in the water.....get out there! If you have the deer hunting out of the way!

Sounds like they are ON! I have been after them as well but the water temp is still to warm around 70. They are taking buzz baits and spinnerbaiting at night. Cranking a DT6 and swim baits and swim jigs in the day and an occasional spook fish over shallow wood. GOD I LOVE IT! Only 5 - 15 a trip right now but December is usually better.

Used to when dear season opened I had the lake to myself but that is no longer the case. There's a bunch of winter tournaments now, which sux but it beats sitting on the couch.

Keep smoke'n em up there.

Seal Billy: Lakes here are EMPTY! Had the whole place to ourselves...

On the bigger lakes guys are waking up to fishing this late but the lakes are still empty.Hard core guys only are out there.

They are shallow right now. It won't last much longer; they will migrate to winter areas and bunch up. Last year, day after Christmas we caught 60. Hit the right spot you can do 30 pounds for 6 fish easily;maybe better.

Later, we throw Silver Buddy's, Gitzits,hair jigs,and 3/4 oz footballs with Smallie Beavers when water temps hit mid 30's to low 40's.

Water is still warm here so swimbaits and deep cranking are doing the trick. Tournament winner yesterday at a pro-am caught them cranking and two best fish were a 9 and a 10 for 34 lbs for 5 fish.

coyote I hate you California guys....

Your fish are bigger than ours!

Keitek swim baits were murder here for me through Labor Day. Not doing anything on them now. In the cold water a crankbait with tight wobble does better here.Shallow they love the Trap. Deep, it will be blade baits here on out;down to 25-30 ft.

We do the silver buddies and hair jigs in winter also. A friend of mine won a tournament on that keitek 2.5 model. You can't reel them to slow for the tail not to work. Like em I do. Very expensive though. I gotta start using football jigs more. I quit bass fishing cause I got burned out on tournament fishing a few years ago and have just started fishing for them again. Learning a few newer techniques, flick shake, swimming a jig which I just fish like a spinnerbait. I sure missed it.

Seal Billy: Tournaments will burn you out. But they are a lot of fun. I do a few each season.

Star jigs for the season were the Mop Jig football,3/4 oz on deep structure. I move it pretty quick,staying in contact with the structure,like a crank bait.

The HackAttack 3/4 oz was an awesome producer in any heavy grass, shallow, or down to 12-15 feet on grass. On heavy braid it digs into grass.I slide it in the grass until it hangs up, then rip it....hard. They react and slam it.

I like the gambler flapp'n shad with the tail cut like a speed craw over grass. It works like a weedless buzz bait. Try it, it skips well also so docks and low hanging limbs are accessible. We don't have much grass here cause the water levels fluctuate so much, 60 vertical feet in some lakes. But the lakes that have grass are very fun to fish and the population of big bluegills are better. Anyways it's a fun bait to fish in grassy lakes.

sealbilly I will remember that. Thanks!

Last night 20.5 pounds 4 largemouth and one smallmouth in my buddy's boat, I had to work today so I didn't care a thing about staying out till 3 or 4. Wished I had now.

I hear night fishing is a fact of life down South.

Nice bag!

Yeah it's awesome. Daytime fish are hard to come by but once the sun goes down they become hungry, bigger and mean as a dog $hiting tacks.

What are your summer water temp like up there? Ours are in the mid 90s and I have even seen it 99 once. That's why we fish at night, this time of year at night the lake is empty nobody but a couple of guys fishing at night and I know most of them. It's tough to slow roll a spinnerbait while it's frosting on your boat but the smallmouth are unreal strong this time of year.

Also what are your lakes like? I fish hill land and highland reservoirs. Deep clear and tough most of the time. Douglas is the best but it's not so clear.

Our lakes are probably what you'd call clear but really a lot are more stained.Some are deep with lots of rock structure;some are shallow and weedy since they are actually impoundments that were dammed in the 1800's.

My favorite is 5500 acres and loaded with humps,submerged points,and depths to 60 feet or so. It also has broad shallow areas. It has weed beds to about 12-15 ft. But has short grass as deep as 22 ft.

Places like Sebago (25,000 acres) and Winnie in NH (40,000 acres) have depths over 100 ft. Both are trout/salmon fisheries as well. And then of course there is Champlain which is more like one of the Great Lakes. It's huge.

I don't recall any temps over 80 this year and most main lakes were about 79 degrees;protected shallows can hit over 80 mid summer. All the deep lakes I was on this year had a thermocline forming at 21-22 ft.

I think you would find a lot of our lakes similar to your highland reservoirs.

Sounds like our lakes except our water levels fluctuate a lot. That's why most of them don't have grass. Deep rocky structure AND shallow grass! JACKPOT!

Went out for an hour or so Sunday evening before sunset. Only one strike and it was maybe a 9" largemouth. Beautiful day to be out, but the fish just weren't doing anything. Mepps, Blue Fox, Rapala, spinnerbaits.. nada except the 1 small guy on a white Mepps.

Calhoun: Do you know water temp by chance?

This time of year,with water temps falling,days shortening,active feeding will come in spurts. In some lakes in the morning, in others the afternoons. In our lakes, by 4 PM it is over(they may activate at night but I'm not there then so don't know).

Point being feeding activity will be in short windows. Last week when we had 40+ fish, the majority came from app. early morning until 11-12. Then we had to scratch them out with slow baits.

If spinnerbaits and rattletraps(horizontal presentations) don't work, try a tube bait or smallie beaver on a 1/4-3/8 football. Plastics should be subtle with not much action....at least that works here.

If I catch small fish in an area, I leave.Whatever small fish are doing,big fish are generally doing something else.

Or fish different type of cover, structure, depth or area.

This stuff is killing my bank account! 105 bucks at bass pro and all I went for was a baitcaster handle. The bearings wore all the way through the knobbs on my old 1600 promax. I have been cranking off and on with it since the 90s, it deserves a a picture on the wall of fame! I saw a Pflueger president limited I had to have and bill norman crankbaits were on sale for 1.99! How do you resist that?

Don't know the water temp, was fishing from shore. Water was pretty cold tho, that was one cold little bass.

Probably 50-ish. That feels cold.

SealBilly none of this is cheap is it?

No, but I usually am the one with self control! Sad thing is I have bought 20 deep tiny n crankbaits the last 2 time I have been there. I shouldn't have bought the reel but I have a 7' st Croix light action panfish series on its way and it will need to be armed. Crappie will be chewing in not long!

20 Tiny N's? Twenty? SealBilly you got it bad LOL!!

I have a deep tiny n fetish. I throw them in early spring and in the fall in lakes, big creeks, rivers, ponds, you name it if it swims it will catchem. I crank blow downs with them for crappie, they catch bigger ones than grubs or jigs and minnows. Yeah I got it bad.

Who makes the Tiny Ns, how deep do they run, weight?

They are made by Bill Normans Lures the deep tiny n runs about 5' deep and they weight 1/8th oz. I fish them on 4-8 pound test mono with 6 being what I usually fish them on. I fish them on spinning tackle (shimano crucial medium light) most of the time but if you have a casting reel that is really lose and has centrifugal brakes it's doable. Buy a few and throw them when the water temp is in the 45-65 degree range, you will catch everything that swims.

billy: Sounds enticing!

I throw the Deep Little N and DD22 a fair bit.

DD22s are from the throne room of God. I crank them at night in the summer. LOVE'EM. Big fish bait for sure. I love crankin. I have a thousand styles of crankbaits. Flat As, fat As, DT series rapalas, bandits footloose, square bill, 200 and 300s, strike king 4Ss are killer (i don't like the kvd square bills) #5 and #8 shad raps, manns minus 1 and 20 plus, hot lips, old poes, bagley DB3s, I'm a crankbait whore.

If I had to choose 4 crankbaits it would be a DD22, deep tiny n, DT6, 4S. All though wiggle warts in early spring are quite awesome as are bandit 200s.

What are your most productive cranks and when do you use them?

billy: My most productive crank baits are the Storm Wiggle Wart,right after the ice goes out in March and April,depending how far north.

I use it then because of the yellow perch spawn,which are the first fish to spawn. LM bass will follow them shallow when the ice goes. I weight them with suspend strips to make them suspend.They seem to work late into pre spawn.

In post spawn I like the Skeet Reese models, the small square bills,for shallow work; and the DD22 for post spawn females suspended near off shore humps. I have recently started throwing the DT16 in 12-14 feet near new grass in the post spawn as well,but have not had a good bite with it....yet.

This year when blue gills start spawning I will try throwing the Bagley's balsa square bill that runs 2 feet+- and looks like the old Big O.

From post spawn through summer it's something like a Deep Little N or DD 22. As the water gets cold I like something flat sided and more subtle. The Shad Rap is a good producer.And of course a rattle trap bait.

Keep in mind I am not as much a crank bait fisherman as I am for jigs,which probably account for the majority of fish I catch each year.

A bass is a bass I guess north or south cause I throw many of the same baits at the same time. Warts early pre spawn cause they thump also flat side cranks, then I go to a square bill 4S, bandits or a minus1 during the spawn I fish them anywhere you would fish a spinnerbait bait. 22s post spawn and I too fish hump a lot that's when I also football jig a lot. Full blown summer the crankbaits get put up unless I'm fishing at night then the 22s come back out. Fall anything goes from a mouse to a DD22, on our lakes in the fall fish are where you find them.

You flip a lot or are you a deep structure football jig dude? I do a little of both but I'm not great at either. I used to fish jigs more than I do now. Which is crazy cause a jig will getem 365, deep or shallow.

I started using jigging spoons a few years ago and am trying to get stronger at that. I also wished I was better deep structure fisherman.

Billy you're right. A bass is a bass,north or south. There's regional differences,but I have yet to be anywhere (including Florida and Texas) that I could not get bit on a B&B jig and a spinnerbait.

My tournament partners mostly fish shallow,meaning throwing at a lot of visible cover. I go along with that and we skip under docks,pontoons, wood,anything. Many fish come from less than a foot of water.

But fishing on my own, I fish deep structure more;rock piles, humps,points etc. I will only fish 4-5 spots a day, rotating because bigger fish come and go on that structure. If you run around too much you miss that bite.

In August here, bait bunches up. Big fish follow. I spent a week following huge schools of white perch in 20-22 feet of "nothing",just above the thermocline,drop shotting and fishing swim baits vertically on 3/4 oz footballs.I caught a lot of big large and smallmouth bass shadowing that bait.

I use the electronics for that stuff.

That sounds fun vertical fishing big schools of bait. I fish humps and points, road beds, creek channels, and rock piles also but from triangulation and memory, I don't have electronics on my boat, she's a work in progress. I bought a tunnel Jon to get way up in the river, I put it on a trailer I traded from a friend and a motor I bought off another friend. I put a I-pilot terrova on it and now I need a good depth finder with all the bells and whistles and rig it with black lights for night fishing.

This is a good thread.

Billy: Something happens here from mid-August on. Bait aggregates on deeper flats,and big fish you haven't seen since pre spawn suddenly show up with them. One largemouth puked up a 10" white perch at boat side. They are chowing down as days become shorter.

I have found a lot of structure your way and still do it. But electronics confirms what's down there. They make the lake "bigger" as you discover structure you didn't know existed.Also, fish relate to the structure and weed lines certain ways; like deer they have run ways for moving up and down on contours.

"Spots' on spots.

Not bad action under 50 deg water! I would think that they would be slowing down by this time! Never can tell how things will work out. Gotta be on the water to know for sure.

I'm glad for the report back on this. Water here is still 57deg on the columbia so I might have another month before it's down to 45 deg.

Water was 64 today and I don't remember the lake being so dead. I fished 4 hours today and only had 1 strike and missed it. I talked to several at the ramp when we were leaving, same thing for everyone. Lots of bait up on the surface, in the backs of pockets and no fish. I have never seen it like this at this time of year. They should be chasing schools of shad.

Billy: Here water temps in the 60's are the worst for bites. We are usually past it by late October but maybe you get it in November (?).

That temp signals what we call "turnover". Warmer surface water starts to cool and settles down. Wind causes turbulence and in combination lifts debris off the bottom as the thermocline begins to disappear.The water is filled with debris suspended. Fish shut down. It will pass in a few days to two weeks or so depending.

In summer lakes form thermoclines and most oxygen is above the thermocline.Water below the thermocline is oxygen poor,so most bass/bait activity occurs above the thermocline Ours runs to about 20-22 feet. Yours may be deeper.

You can actually see the thermocline with suspended debris on your electronics

As the thermocline breaks down and turnover ends,oxygen is more evenly distributed in the lake,and the bite can move deeper as fish migrate to winter areas.

best strategy during turnover is to fish shallow. But it's still tough. As water moves into the low 50's/high 40's, turnover should have ended and you should start to see a hot shallow bite for awhile. But there could be regional differences for you guys down there. I don't know exactly how your lake reacts.

Just got a call from my friend. Yesterday 45 fish,Rattle Trap and beaver/football bite is still strong. Water temps in the 40's.

Yes it's just now getting into the high to mid 60s, remember I'm way south of you. I night fished the first week of October shirtless! It was still that warm. My buddy Knobby was still wake boarding.

It's not turned over yet I don't think as the whole lake is clear as a bell, probably 8' visibility. The water coming out of the dam is about 55 so I'd say it will turn over closer to that temp, I may be wrong though. I used to know all this stuff but I quit bass fishing for 5 years and I'm forgetful. I usually fish shallow in the backs of creeks where fresh water comes in during turnover.

Idk what is going on but it was tough. When it turns over here it's usually redish brown and dirty as the devil. I haven't been spanked like that in years! It reminds me of a Bassmaster tournament here back in the early 90s. The first day it was so bad pros were leaving, on the second day big weights where coming in, all caught on a buzzbait'n in the snow. Crazy stuff this bass fishing, they are where you catchem.

Bob, Do you have any openings next fall?

I'd like to book a week with you! 😀