Here’s how I fish in the fall

After a long fishing season, most of us are pretty tired of getting up before daylight, so it’s nice that fall doesn’t require that. Sure, you can get out on the lake as early as you want to go, but fall is one of the few times when you don’t have to get out on the lake early to see a lot of activity.

As the day progresses, you can see the activity increase. Backing up a little bit, 12 months out of the year, there’s always some kind of early, first light bite anywhere you have open water. In the summer, as the sun gets higher, fishing can get tougher; but fall is different. When the sun starts warming that top layer of the water column, that bait gets active and therefore, the fish get active.

Fall is just a nice break in the fishing grind because this is a good time of the year to sleep in, eat some breakfast and get out there mid-morning. A lot of times, it can really get good in the middle of the day.

When I fish a fall day, the first thing I do is I look for the bait activity. You may not see bass chasing, but if you pay attention, you’ll run into a pattern of where the bait is holding. Is it on the main lake? Is it in the creeks? Is it all the way in the backs of the creeks?

Once you run a couple of these areas and you start seeing some consistency, you can actually put together a little bit of a pattern without ever catching a bass. Those bass may not be active when I first get out in the morning, but I pay attention to where I’m seeing a lot of the bait and I’m going to focus in these areas the rest of the day.

Now finding the bait can take some time, so I like to go from one extreme to another. I may start out throwing a Zara Spook on main lake bluff and then I may run all the way in the back of a creek and throw a 1/2-ounce Booyah spinnerbait.

All I’m doing is really trying to figure out where the bait is. But the thing I have to clarify is that this like an investment for future benefit. What that means is that I’m trying to find those spots where the bait is congregating because I want to be in the most promising areas during the midday when I expect for fishing to be pretty good.

Once that prime time arrives and I’ve got my spot dialed in, there’s something about a buzzbait in the fall. I catch a lot of fish on a buzzbait in the fall and the cool thing about it is that it can be sunny or cloudy, as long as you have some semi-stained water, it triggers some big bites this time of year. 

I catch fall fish in the morning on a buzzbait, but it seems like that midday to late afternoon is when you can really catch some big fish. That’s especially true on the day before a front or the day of the front when those big, dark clouds roll in. You can cover a lot of water and whether you’re fishing rocks or wood or docks, you can cover lots of water and find those big ones.

There are ways of catching a lot of fish, but it’s hard to beat that buzzbait for quality fish. I think some of it is that the bait mimics the activity of baitfish on the surface, but it’s also about the fish’s disposition. They’re so aggressive in the fall, they want something big.

The fish know winter’s getting close and they need to eat. A lot of these fish have come out of deep water and they haven’t seen a shallow bait all year long, so you can put that buzzbait in front of them and get some aggressive responses.

You know the thing about fall fishing is that you don’t often find an area that’s just loaded with fish; you just cover water until you find a few fish. In addition to the buzzbait, I like a spinnerbait, a squarebill — baits that I can fish around a variety of cover.

One thing to keep in mind for the fall is that the fish will stay shallow as long as that water temperature stays comfortable. It may be 30 degrees outside, but the water temperature is 60 and I see guys starting to fish deep. There are some fish out there, but as long that water is above 50 degrees, I’m still on the bank.

I’ve caught fish on a buzzbait in 52-degree water and they absolutely kill it. I just didn’t have to get up early to catch ‘em.