It’s fall again. Bass are schooling up shallow. Â I’ve had memorable seasons getting savage bites in the backs of inlets on top waters and swim baits. But as fast as the bite emerges, it disappears all the same. It’s a difficult season to master – bass are on the move. They’re corralling bait fish and following them as they fatten up, so finding them is challenging. However, fall provides fun power fishing opportunities you won’t have the rest of the year. You’ll be mostly cruising while on the hunt, making long casts, and following boils and birds diving. Â So, it pays to have a few tricks up your sleeve in preparation for this magic.
Target Coves, Inlets, and Points
Find your main lake points using Google Earth if the bass on your lake have transitioned to fall mode. Points are a good starting place because they hold fish that haven’t fully transitioned. Use a contour map to identify points that lead to deeper water on one side. Here, you can use a deep diving crank, paddle tail swim bait, or a drop shot to pick that point apart. As bass transition to fall mode and chase bait fish, they’ll push them to the back of coves and inlets. These are easy areas to identify on a map. Keep your eyes open for top water boils and birds diving on bait fish.
Fall Bass Fishing: Use Noisy Lures
It’s important to stand out this time of year. Bass will be corralling thousands of small fish and gorging heavily, which presents difficulty in making your jerk bait or crankbait stand out. This is where a lipless crankbait shines, in my opinion. It’s a perfect mix of sound, action, and vibration, and imitates small shad perfectly. Lipless crankbaits like the LV-500 are excellent search baits and tend to entice savage bites. Chatterbaits are good when bass are concentrated on larger bait fish – they draw attention away from the bait balls via noise and action. I like targeting the same areas and using a lipless crank first as my main search bait and if all the signs point toward larger prey, I’ll pick up a rod with a chatterbait.
Don’t Neglect the Drop Shot
The drop shot has unbelievable power this time of year. It’s a go-to rig for me when bass aren’t chasing yet. Find common habitats that would hold bass like brush piles and docks. I like to follow the drop shot up with a moving bait I can flip/pitch easily like a swim jig with bluegill patterns or bottom bouncing bait like a flipping jig. Don’t expect the largest bites of the year. This is the setup I go with when all else fails – when I want to throw a fish of any size on the deck. Consider bolder colors like a purple flake and June bug for poor clarity.
Fall Bass Fishing: Power In The Eyes
I read somewhere that lures with different color eyes stand out, particularly red eyes. Since then, I’ve fished lures with 3D eyes, yellow or red, etc. You can even paint different colors onto the front of the bait allowing the bait to pop like a lighthouse. However, it’s not just in the eyes. I think the head of the bait is where the attraction lies. Find lures with good attention to detail at the front of the bait or feel free to let your artistic vision fly and paint something new. The same goes for jig heads when fishing a soft plastic swim bait. Find unique-looking designs, magnified eyes, etc.
Downsize Your Presentation
You can stand out with a smaller bait presentation like the finesse jerk bait or crank. The Megabass Vision 110 +1 Jr. is a good way to fish deeper pull away from school and imitate a wounded fish. Â The same goes with crank baits and paddle tail swim baits – downsize the presentation and try to call the attention that way.
Recommended Tackle:
Noisy Baits
- Lipless Crank Bait – Lucky Craft LV 500 Lipless Crank Bait: Buy from FishUSAÂ
- ChatterBait – Z-Man Tungsten ChatterBait Elite Evo: Buy From FishUSA
Baits that Stand Out
- Jerkbait – Megabass Vision 110 Jr: Buy From FishUSAÂ
- Jerkbait -Megabass Vision 110 Jr + 1 : Buy From FishUSA
Nice article – and the noisy bait tip is something I’ll be trying out here as well. Seems counterintuitive but if they are aggressively feeding, I suppose not! How long does your season go, out by where you’re at? Thanks!
Thanks AJ! Our fall season goes from September through November with a slow temperature decrease. Last year was fun. Our bass were schooling in classic locations, smacking top water, mostly – bait balls all over the graph. But I found that a Drop shot worm and a 2″ rage swimmer got the most bites for a solid week or two. Its a weird combo, I know. But I really think they stood out against the larger forage that I saw shimmering on bright days. My initial thought was to fish an underspin to match the shimmer, but I didn’t get a bite. As soon as I downsized and ditched the underspin, they clobbered it. That week saw the highest percentage of bites and fish landed. But having the lipless within reach is essential for me. You can pick off those fish leaning toward sound and vibration.