Conditions can change fast in the fall. In fact, that's pretty much what fall is all about. Over the period of a couple short months, the aquatic environment changes from the high-energy, high-metabolism summer scene to the near-suspended-animation of the frigid winter. In between those extremes, the conditions that determine what the bass will be doing and where they're likely to be doing it, change almost constantly.
In the fall, finding the fish one weekend is no guarantee that they will be there – or even that they'll be in the same general area – the next. It can be a time of fantastic catches. But it can be a time of empty livewells too, when last week's fantastic catch gets in the way and keeps you fishing for last weeks fish when you should be trying to find today's pattern. As surely as the seasons themselves change, the bass' behavior and location change as summer makes way for fall and fall for winter.
Some anglers though, seem to have fall patterns figured out well enough to score consistently in September, October and into November. These anglers know that fall bass success is first and foremost a matter of finding the fish and figuring out the current patterns. More importantly, they know how to find fish in the fall and find them fast. They know that there are myriad possibilities, and that myriad possibilities take too long to check out. So they've developed shortcuts.
The calendar says fall starts in late September. But late September in Maine or Minnesota is not the same as late September in Georgia or Texas. Bass are triggered by changes in their environment, not by a calendar. From a fishing perspective, fall starts when summer oriented fishing patterns start to dissolve and ends when stable, winter fishing patterns are established.
Bill Alexander, of Sylvan Beach, New York, looks to moving water to provide some predictability in a time of change. "In a river, or way up the largest tributaries in an impoundment, the current is the major factor in the bass' lives, and overrides the changeable conditions to a certain extent. No matter where the fish are, they are somehow relating to the current, and it gives you something to key on."
That's a shortcut. By limiting his search to areas where current is a major factor, Alexander eliminates a lot of the possibilities.
"In the fall in a river, I tend to look for things away from the bank. Logs lodged against the upstream end of a sandbar or the point off the end of an island are good. I also look for any places where fresh water comes in. Feeder creeks, storm drains. whatever. As the water level recedes in the river as most do in fall, incoming water erodes a gully out to the main channel. That gully is one of the most consistent places to find fall bass."
Alexander fishes those spots with a variety of lures, from topwaters and spinnerbaits to small crankbaits. But he rarely leaves a spot or considers it thoroughly checked without tossing a small hair jig. "It's my number one fall bass lure, and the one thing I know they'll bite if I get it in front of them. I'll try to get them to hit something faster. But before I write the spot off, I've got to prove to myself whether there's any fish there or not, and that means giving them a chance to bite my hair jig."
Just as Bill Alexander finds the current to be a controlling element in a riverine environment, Terry Baksay, a full time pro from Easton, CT, looks for his shortcut in the condition of the submerged vegetation. "Traveling around the country fishing tournaments has taught me that fall patterns are different in different places, but the change is almost always related to the vegetation. As the different weeds start to die-off, the things that happen are pretty predictable. The bass aren't really as concerned with what temperature it is as much as they are with where their next meal is coming from. The prey uses the weeds, and moves in accordance with the condition of the weeds. Looking at the weedbeds is a lot more reliable than looking at the water temperature.
"Early in the fall, it's like there is a surge of activity in the shallowest weeds ... especially if there's densely matted milfoil. That's when a Rat or a weedless spoon really pays off. You just get on the thickest weeds you can find and cover water until something rolls at the lure. If you catch a couple fish ... or even get a few hits ... in one area, then you try to find out what's different about that spot, and see if you can duplicate it elsewhere on the lake.
"As the matted, shallow weeds start to turn brown, the bass pull out to the next level ... the green weeds that don't form a solid mat on the surface. The bait fish hold back in the heavier cover for a while, but as they move out, the bass are waiting. Depending on the density of the weeds, a Rattletrap, a buzz bait or a Slug-Go might be the way to get them. It's the most aggressive time of the fall, when the shallowest vegetation is dying off and forcing the baitfish into cover that's a little less dense. fish fast and cover a lot of water.
"Even later in the fall, when the fish are hanging off the edges of the deepest submerged vegetation that's still green, I like to crank them," Baksay continues. "Everybody and their brother is tossing a jig and trailer at those fish, and that's fine. But I feel I can trigger more bites by running a crankbait right down to the weeds, then letting it float back off a little.
"You don't want your weighted crankbait for this. The more buoyant, the better, when you're bumping it down to the weeds then letting it back up. I use the Luhr Jensen Brush Baby, which was designed to bounce through heavy wood cover, but works real well in the weeds, too. It's so buoyant that when you drop the rod tip, it goes right back out the way it went in. That's when the bass nail it."
Ed Cowan agrees with Baksay that the key is to find places that the bass are taking advantage of prey being forced out of the fertile shallows by the approach of colder weather. Ed uses key transition spots as his shortcut. "Early on, it might be way back in the shallowest corner of a big bay, throwing a spinnerbait as the grass thins out. Later, it could mean sitting on a point just inside the mouth of that bay, working a deep diving plug across the stumps in 10 to 12 feet of water. A few weeks later, the key transition spot might be a couple boulders on the drop into the main channel just outside the bay, and it takes a slowly fished jig to catch them.
"I prefer to fish shallow when I can, and often especially on really big bodies of water, you can follow a particular pattern down the lake, starting in the shallower, upstream end of the lake, where things change the fastest, and working your way down to the deeper end as the fish there reach the same fall patterns a couple weeks later."
Cowan's "shortcut of shortcuts" is a narrow passage that connects a large, food-rich shallow area with the main body of a lake. "It could be a narrow channel, or a culvert through a causeway, whatever it is, it's like a funnel. A place where all the bass, and all the bait must pass during that transition period. The bass know the bait gets concentrated there, so they spend a lot of time there too."
Because the bass are there to feed, Cowan fishes these funnel areas primarily with crankbait and spinnerbaits. "Usually, there's at least a few fish on this pattern at any time during the fall," Cowan says, "so you usually fish pretty quickly, hitting as many spots like this as you can."
Art Singer uses a different philosophy. "I like to get as far away from the pressure as I can," Art says. "I look into that shallow bay with the dying weeds, and I'm interested in finding the deepest spot. A hole, a ditch, a channel, whatever. I want to find the last place the bass hold in the shallows before they are forced out. Depending on how far south you are and what else is available in the lake or river, a lot of them may never leave that last refuge in the shallow bay. On rivers, where all the deeper water might be subject to strong currents, they could just hole up and spend the winter in a 12 foot deep hole or gully a half-mile back in a 3 foot deep cove.
"The good thing about this kind of spot is that not many other anglers are going to key on it, because when they are back in the shallows, they only see the weeds. When they don't find fish in the visible vegetation, they head off for greener pastures. Even if only 10% of the fish stayed behind in the deep hole, if I've got them to myself, I'm in position to win."
If Singer can find an isolated hole back in a shallow, cover-rich bay, he's apt to invest a lot of time trying to figure out what the fish he believe mist be there will respond to. "Usually, you can get one or two quick fish with a spinnerbait or something," Art says. "But sooner or later, you've got to start figuring out what color jig and how heavy a jig you've got to work them over with to catch the bulk of them." Art's jig preferences run the gamut, from living rubber and pork in weights approaching an ounce, to undressed hair jigs that drift down through the water gently and slowly. His shortcut is locational only, and he has enough confidence in it that he'll spend the time to figure out the rest of the puzzle.
When the isolated deep hole in a weedy bay isn't available or doesn't pan out, Singer's next shortcut is to " ... find the most significant piece of wood or pile of rocks near the weeds or between the weeds and the deep water. If there's 300 acres of grass and three stumps. There may be a hundred good fish using the area, but I know right where at least three of them live."
Shortcuts are based on experience and personal preference. In the fall, they are an important part of simplifying an otherwise complicated procedure. With a few good shortcuts to rely on, you'll get to spend a lot more of the autumn catching fish instead of looking for them.
END
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