Fall Bass Fishing Tips
Written By Glenn Walker
Fall time has a lot of fun things going on, football, hunting, pumpkin spice latte’s…wait, heck no…fall time bass fishing! Our Northland Tackle pros excel at bass fishing all year, but some of these anglers eye up the fall time bite and absolute put the hammer down on the bass this time of year!
The host of Teal’s Bass Galaxy and Northland Tackle Pro, Aaron Teal likes to fish the same lures he does during the summer months but will slow things down to keep the bass biting during the fall months.
“The bass are putting the feedbag on, and moving baits can be effective,” said Aaron. “Most people aren’t optimizing the possible success of these baits, as they are fishing the same way they would be fishing for them in July and August.”
As Aaron explained, bass are going to eat bigger lures, but they don’t want to work as hard for that food, so slowing down your retrieve, or going to a lower gear ratio reel will aid in the slower retrieval of the bait.
During this time of the year, when the water temps are in the 46 to 52 degree range, he’ll fish the Minnesota Mullet, as it has the amount of hair and buoyancy to present the bait effectively, a big Magdraft swimbait with a belly weighted swimbait hook, and ChatterBait (3/8 oz), retrieving it so the blade is barely moving, with an Eye-Candy Paddle Shad as the trailer as it keeps the presentation compact.
“I like to use the 3/8-ounce Mullet and just crawl it along and allow it to hover over the grass and the bass, this is putting a BIG MEAL right in front of them,” said Aaron.
He likes to target areas that hold heat, such as grass, rock or wood, and any time you have a combination of those elements in less than ten feet of water, that is the key. You also want cover that does have access to deeper water nearby.
Now when the water temperatures get lower than 46 degrees, Teal will turn to the Nedster or Finesse Football Jig with a very buoyant plastic like a Z-Man TRD. “I will just deadstick the bait or crawl it along the bottom. The bass are not going to move very far, so find them, stay put and milk that area!”
It is important to use the lightest size jig possible, as you don’t want to have your jig bogged down in the grass. It also seems like heavier jigs are more likely to be picked up and dropped by the bass in the fall, so Teal will use the 1/8 oz jig in six feet of water or less, and then the 3/16 oz size when he is fishing in six to ten feet of water.
Northland Tackle Pro and Champions Tour ace, Noah Schultz likes to fish a crankbait in the fall, as he can cover water quickly, and when the bass are chewing, in turn load the boat.
“During the fall, the Sunny B really shines in my opinion,” said Noah. “The bass have been pressured all summer long and seen every type of lure in the tackle box. With the water temps dropping, and the nice, tight subtle action of the Sunny B, it will get a ton of bites when other baits tend to quit working.”
Noah likes to look for any type of hard cover whether that be boat docks, rocks, wood or even sparse vegetation. “The colder the water gets the more I lean towards just cranking rock,” commented Schultz.
The depth of water he fishes doesn't really seem to matter as much as just being able to find rock even if it's just two feet deep.
Schultz likes to fish his Sunny B on fluorocarbon, and will use 10 lb test when fishing the Shallow Sunny B, or Sunny B. But if he is using the new Elite Series Pro Sunny B Deep, he’ll up the lb test to 12 or 14.
When targeting cold water smallmouth, diehard, bronzeback guru, Damien Luchterland will break the fall into two water temperature ranges. “I consider midfall to be when the water temps are in that 48-to-58-degree range,” said Damien. “That’s when the smallmouth are really feeding and getting ready for the winter ahead.”
The smallmouth will use the entire water column and are really focused on minnows or perch as their forage base. “This is when the Smeltinator is king! You can select whatever weight jig, hook size, or color, that works best for the body of water you are fishing.”
Damien will fish the Smeltinator in several different ways, with the first pairing it with a soft plastic paddletail, like the Eye-Candy Paddle Shad. “I like to stay in the 3.3” to 3.8” range, but don’t be afraid to go bigger in this time frame either.”
The second way he’ll rig up the Smeltinator is with a jerk shad type minnow, which he’ll also rig up on the Smeltinator Underspin, which is a very effective technique when the water temp starts dropping.
A way that many people haven’t thought about using the Smeltinator jig is on an Alabama rig, which is just another way that Damien puts the jig to work.
“Now when the water temperature gets to below 48 degrees, and all the way until ice up, this is what I consider late fall, and this is my favorite time of year to target some of the biggest smallmouths of the year!”
During the late fall Damien will still use some of the midfall tactics mentioned above but will also add in some bottom oriented techniques. This is because the smallmouth are switching up their forage focus slightly as they are getting more lethargic with the colder water.
“I’ll be targeting the bottom six feet of the water column and using three main techniques. First, a tube, specifically a baby tube, as it can mimic baitfish or crawfish, and I’ll rig this on an Elite Series Finesse Football head jig. It’s got a small, but strong Gamakatsu hook to match the small plastic.”
Next Damien will crawl a soft plastic swimbait on bottom, rigged either on a Finesse Football Jig, or the Smeltinator. Lastly, is the standby Nedster jig, as it just catches bass year long, and has quickly become Damien’s jighead choice in the boat this season.
Damien’s tournament partner, Hayden Anderson is likewise a big Smeltinator fan, and during those late fall days on the water, will use the 3/8 oz Smeltinator Jig with a 3 to 4” swimbait. “This is the first thing I’ll cast into areas holding deep pre-wintering smallmouth, so I can catch the active fish first,” explained Hayden. “I will fish it within a foot or two of bottom, and sometimes I’ll just drag the jig as well.”
After Hayden has exploited these fish with the Smeltinator, he’ll switch over to the Finesse Football Jig with a Ned style plastic. He’ll either rig something up resembling a craw or the baitfish forage that the smallmouth are feeding on, he’ll drag it slowly on the bottom with lots of pauses mixed in.
“I look for deep rock or hard bottom areas on humps and points next to main lake basins. On smaller lakes there’s usually only one or two areas that they’ll all congregate, but lakes that are a couple thousand acres or more there could be five or more areas that they’ll use.
Michigan Northland Tackle Pro Staff, Chase Serafin, loves fall fishing on the Great Lakes as it can be some of the best days of the year to catch trophy smallmouth once you land on them, “but landing on them can be the tricky part,” said Chase.
“Our smallmouth here in the north know that once those cool fall nights hit, winter and a lid over their heads isn’t far behind.”
This groups the smallmouth up in specific areas of the lake where the baitfish conjugate into giant schools and one of the main things that Chase looks for is current, which will help move the bait around. “This is the perfect time of year to pair an the Smeltinator Underspin with your favorite small subtle swim bait and have a chance at a giant every time your bait hits the water.”
Chase will look for rocks that set up perfect for giant schools of hungry smallmouth to have a great ambush point on the schools of baitfish. He likes to throw the Underspin on a 7’ to 7’3 medium spinning rod, with 10 lb braid line to an 8 to 10 lb Fluorocarbon leader.
As those air and water temperatures start to drop, don’t fret, bundle up and get out on the water, for as you have just read, there are a lot of big bass to be caught this time of year!
Find more articles like "Fall Bass Fishing Tips" here for more product releases and fishing content!