This year, fall was a lot warmer than normal and that had an impact on fishing patterns. For example, I recently fished a local jackpot tournament and the water was 50 degrees.
A buddy of mine fished an event on Lake Texoma and the water was 54 to 55 degrees. Normally, the water should be 44 to 46 degrees this time of year, but the warmer weather held it up longer.
As anglers, I think we get in our minds that it’s this time of year and fish should be in certain areas by a certain point. But when you have these warmer falls, the progression out to the main lake is a little bit slower.
The fish aren’t in such a hurry, so they take their time moving from the backs of creeks to the main lake. When this happens, it scatters the fish out a lot more than they would be if it was really cold or really hot.
For me, a warmer fall makes me diversify my bait lineup more. Instead of just having a few baits on the deck, I have baits for several different depth ranges.
While I’d normally have an Alabama rig, a Booyah Flashpoint jerkbait and a finesse jig, I’ll also have my spinnerbait, my shallow running crankbait and a different size jig. I’ve just added a few more things to my arsenal because you have to be prepared for more scenarios.
I will say this warm fall has allowed me to more or less fun fish. You can do so many different things during a warm fall because, like I said, the fish aren’t as rushed.
For example, I like to fish shallow, so it allows me to do that more. I’d normally be backed out farther to the deeper stuff where the fish have already gotten offshore. So a warmer fall allows me to catch them on these secondary points or those little pockets and not just the main drags
That’s been fun, but it looks like we’re starting to see signs of a transition into colder weather. Just recently, we got below freezing for a couple nights in a row. Normally we would have had more nights like that, or a consistent cold snap.
We’re starting to see the fish moving to the secondary stuff and a few are starting ot move out deep. Not all of them are just super shallow anymore, so we’re starting to catch them progressively deeper. By Christmas time we should be in full-fledged winter patterns.
This transition that’s getting underway provides an opportunity to pick what you like to do and have fun with it. If we continue getting more cold weather, that’s all going to come to an end. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it’s time to move on.
I won’t be on the water as much around Christmas; we just try to focus on spending time with family, eating a lot of good food and giving presents to the kids. But by the first of January, it really gets me in the mindset of getting ready for the upcoming tournament season.
