Bass fishing gets overlooked in the fall.
And that’s a shame since some of the best bass fishing of the year happens during autumn.
Main-lake points and creeks entering the main body of the lake are the important areas to fish at this time of year as they give the fish access to shallow and deep water and hold fair to good amounts of shad. Throw large Beetle Spins and wacky worms during the midday period; fish topwaters and buzz baits early and late. Another viable option is to fish the riprap and bulkheads along some of the big marinas, especially in the evenings. These areas will hold many bass, especially after a front blows through.
If the bites don’t come easy, use a slow-sinking lure like a Senko because they appeal to both temperature stunted slow moving fish and aggressive feeding fish as well.
Between fronts, look for shad bunched up around the secondary points and start fishing a crank bait like a Bomber 9A with a slow retrieve. If you find fish and they are active, switch to something like a Rat-L-Trap and boost the retrieve up to medium speed. Sometimes the shad are spread along the shorelines, stacked horizontally instead of vertically. If this is the situation, the bass can be scattered as well. This is a good time to throw a square bill crankbait since you came cover lots of water. If the fish are a little deeper try something in the medium-diving range.
If the water is high as it is on most East Texas lakes due to the epic rains we’ve had use spinners when the shad are clinging tightly to the shoreline. Cast parallel to the shore and work it back at a medium pace for best results.
Brush piles set for crappie can be tremendous places to score on fall bass. These brushpiles bass are famous for biting at specific depth when they get choosy, say 14 feet, and ignoring anything they have to move very far to ingest. That is why boat positioning is such an important part of brush pile fishing. If you get right over brush and vertically drop a live shiner or run a crank bait by it your chances of catching a mess of fish increases greatly. The same is true of fish around natural structure in relation to drop-offs. A good way to fish these spots is to use a depth finder to locate those that have big schools of shad around them. Bass do not hang around spots that are devoid of baitfish very long and the bigger the bunch of bait, the more fish will be around.
Drop offs around the river channels on the lakes can be productive. A difference of two or three feet in depth is major when putting things in perspective. Micro crankbaits are great for fishing along main river channels to locate fish suspend over deep water when the barometric pressure is running high and the bait is slow. If the pressure is low or dropping try larger crank baits or spoons.
These are just a few notes I put together on bass fishing in the fall. This is more about catching numbers of fish. Tactics for the super big ones differ and we’ll cover them here in the coming weeks.
To contact Chester Moore, e-mail him at chester@kingdomzoo.com. You can hear him on the radio Fridays from 6-7 p.m. on Newstalk AM 560 KLVI or online at www.klvi.com.