I’m writing this column in Florida the Wednesday before the final Bassmaster Elite Qualifier of the season takes off on Lake Okeechobee. My dad, Stephen, and I have competed in all the EQs. We’re hoping one of us can pull off a victory and earn an invite to the 2026 Bassmaster Classic.
A cold front rolled in Tuesday, bringing strong winds and a low of 42 degrees. Florida’s bass notoriously shut down in those conditions, but it’s supposed to warm up when the tournament gets underway.
The chilly weather reminded me of how I’d be fishing if I were back home in Arkansas. In that part of the country the bass are transitioning from fall to winter patterns.
Fall is my favorite time to be on the water in my home region. With the nights getting colder and the days getting shorter, the bass become very bait oriented. Find the shad, and you’ll be within casting range of the bass.
This time of year, the shad and the bass follow a textbook pattern. The shad migrate up major and minor creeks in just about any lake in the Midsouth and central part of the country.
While fishing the EQ in Florida, I’ll be dissecting a wide variety of shallow aquatic vegetation: bulrushes, Kissimmee grass, hydrilla, eelgrass and more. But at home I’d be idling up a major or minor creek looking for shad with 2D and side-imaging sonar and with my eyes.
The shad might be near the mouth of the creek, in the middle section or in the back. I might see them on my graph’s display or spot balls of shad flicking the water’s surface. Either way, when I find the shad, I know the bass have moved to that location to take full advantage of the silvery forage.
I’d have several rods rigged with shad-mimicking baits, including ChatterBaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, underspins, a Z-Man Evergreen Shower Blows 105 topwater pencil bait and a Z-Man Minnowz Swimbait rigged on a 3/8-ounce jig sporting a 2/0 hook.
I’d cast to whatever bank cover would draw strikes from bass waiting in ambush. Whenever I saw balls of shad roaming around in the middle of the creek, I’d target any bass that might be lurking beneath them.
The Shower Blows and the Minnowz would get the call in that situation. The key with the swimbait is to retrieve it under the shad balls.
As fall turns to winter, the shad start migrating out of the creeks and into the deepest guts within the creeks. On a lake like Table Rock, it’s nothing to catch bass 60 feet deep. On a lake like Hamilton in Arkansas, 20 feet is about as deep as they go.
This is when I go to work with forward-facing sonar and a Z-Man Scented Jerk Shadz rigged on a 1/4- or 3/8-ounce jighead.
Then again, you can still catch them by fishing the bank. I’ve had my best success at this time with a red craw crankbait and a jerkbait.
I’d also pick off bass by fishing anything that retains heat in the cold water, such as banks and riprap warmed by the sun and shallow docks that have black floats.
I’ll be back in Arkansas fishing those patterns soon enough. Tomorrow, my dad and I will be hunting Florida heavyweights with the goal of fishing the Bassmaster Classic.
