Fall fishing tactics

[Andrew Zuber]

Hey All!

Well, it happened...

I noticed the leaves on a couple trees here have started to change...Cooler nights have lowered our water temps to around 70...

Question:

What tactics (lures/presentations/locations) do you switch to when fall arrives in your area???



az

 

[Rob LaMoy]

JIG, JIG, JIG!!!! LOL and of course the ever present jerkbait. But spinnerbaits and rattletraps for reaction bites from smallies too.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Andy - just for some of us that don't know - where are you located? It's pretty easy to guess, but . . .



Water temps around 70. Man, that's so far away from where we are at(water temps still in the solid 80's - S.C.), I have trouble understanding it! The air temps at night here, have just started dipping into the mid-60's - and then not all the time.

 

[Kraig Clement]

the lipless crank bait (rattletraps) are great on Lake Fork when the bass start feeding for the winter. Also med. divers in tiger stripe pattern orange . These are my 2 top baits in the cooler months!!!

 

[Andrew Zuber]

Rob-

Do you change your jigging technique at all in the fall? Do you 'speed up' at all???



Tex- I'm the farthest southwest you can get in Michigan without crossing the Indiana border...basically, if you drew a straight line across Lake Michigan from Chicago, you'd draw it right over my house!!! We had temps in the upper 40s last night...starting to make my 'trigger finger' a bit itchy...have you got that feeling yet Rob???



az

 

[Rob LaMoy]

OH yeah baby! Got my tags on Friday! Can't wait. Got the gear out, getting the dog ready for birds and trying to find my stand! What's up with that. Wonder if it got swiped in the burglary and I'm just now noticing. Oh well, gives me an excuse to go buy a new API climber! Hey how about a little side competition on the board to see who gets the biggest deer this year. Rack and weight each different categories. On the honor system. Just for braggin rights! See there's the tourney angler in me again! LOL

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Oops sorry, never answered the original question. I let the fish dictate it to me. Sometimes I "swim" the jig because they want it faster. When they get leary of that, I drop it and really dance it lightly until they committ. Many of the spots I jig fish, it's so clear you see the strikes. You can literally pick the fish you want. I can play with the jig until I determine what attracts the fish the most or turns them off. Really cool to watch it all unfold.

 

[Andrew Zuber]

Rob-

Are you moving to shallower water?

Different structure than summer?



az

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Andy, for smallies I will move in shallower as they begin to chase bait fish up into bays and coves, but remember, bass don't read the rule book. I have still found them out over 60' of water in October busting up shiners and shad. I thought they were lake trout until I threw a fluke in there and pulled a 4lb smallie. For LM, I find they stay pretty near where they have been all summer but are more aggressive. You can often find largemouth out deep in summer say up to 20-30 feet even with C-rigs. This is admittedly one of my weaknesses. When out that deep, I'm fishing smallies. My summer largemouth are the lunkers up shallower that are more loner, homebody types. The advantage with fall is, those loners get invaded with the deep fish that come back up and a competition if you will insues for forage. It's a win win for the angler. Come on up and we'll put it all together for you on the water this weekend! Plus start finding feeder creeks again.

 

[Chad Justice]

My fall tactic is going to be camping.. No reason for the trailer-backer-upper to go on a day-trip when the sun's not warm enough to worship, but I can prolly get her to camp with me... That means a trip or two to Norris Lake in TN, where the smallies will hopefully be up top.



I stole an idea from one of those 'AS SEEN ON TV' baits and applied it to the Zoom Fluke, and I'm DYING to try it on some big'uns on Norris. I hooked one up at the creek this weekend just to check the action for the first time and had a 4" Bluegill trying to eat a 5" bait.. He put the Fluke's tail in his mouth and tried to drag it back out into the creek! Must be pretty lifelike (or 'deathlike' ), I guess..



Other than that, I'm planning to stay in the creek until it's just too dang cold.. Found a SUPER spot to wade this weekend and my dad and I caught probably 50-60 smallies... I *hooked* one that appeared to be in the 16" range, but I lost him.. We lipped several 13-14" smallies, too, which are lots of fun on a 4.5' ultralight!!

 

[James D.]

spinnerbaits, gene larew salt craws, and jigs. gonna try some tubes as they worked good this summer.

 

[Barry Loos]

Move with the baitfish. In my area the water is just starting to cool into the high 70's and the bait fish are not heading for the creeks just yet.



When they do move I'll follow them up long points near channel bends to the back of coves with creek channels.



I'll have rods rigged with a Hopkins spoon, spinnerbait, tube, and several crank baits. This time of year I have to hunt them down with depth finders and the right baits.



Bear

 

[Andrew Zuber]

Well folks...

NOTHING worked last night in the tournament...

Team-Z (me and my boy) stunk up the lake...

The only good thing was that so did everybody else!!!

Seven boats...nobody brought in a fish to weigh...several nice pike were all that was caught...

I tried (in order of how long I used them) jig-n-pig, brush hog, spinnerbait, rattletrap, and a crankbait...NOTHING.

My boy caught 2 pike on a rattletrap...one was about 4 lbs.

Conditions were a bit tough...cold front went through on Sunday, bright blue-bird sky, and just a slight breeze.

Were is that ONE fish when you need it??? Of course, they probably would have kicked me out of the Club if I was the only one with a fish last night!!!



az