When I head out for a day of fall fishing, I know I’ll be facing a very dynamic scenario, with bait and fish on the move. This can make for a very challenging day on the water, but I try to keep things simple and break it down into a few logical steps.
In the fall, I’m looking from the middle of creeks and pockets toward the back. Typically, the water temperature’s going to be in the low 60s to mid-50s, say 62 to 55.
That time of year, everything is related to bait. The fish are following their food source, so they’re moving off the main river or main lake and moving into the backs of those pockets or creeks to corner the baitfish.
Most of the time, I’m targeting threadfin shad, but there will be some of the larger gizzard shad in my local lakes. The gizzards are kind of an okay deal, but they’re not as consistent as the threadfin.
Obviously, bigger fish follow the bigger bait and, to me, it seems like targeting a more abundant food source in the fall — the threadfin shad — usually means more catches. For the tournament guy, I’m chasing not only quality, but quantity.
If I were just a big-fish hunter, I’d target more of the gizzard shad fish. Your chances of catching a big fish go up, as opposed to just trying to catch a 15- to 18-pound limit.
It seems like the fall brings inconsistent weather patterns. Whether it’s a cold front coming through or sometimes, we’ll have three or four days of really warm weather.
If you have those cloudy, nasty, miserable days when you really don’t want to be on the water, those can be some of the most consistent. The low light conditions last all day and those fish stay up shallow.
Then you can turn around and have post-front bluebird skies that can make those fish hunker down and really get tight to the structure, instead of roaming.
Changing weather patterns may seem frustrating, but I’ve found the most inconsistent can be the most consistent, in terms of finding fish.
If I have one of those nasty, drizzly days, I like the Booyah Counter Strike Buzzbait, a War Eagle finesse spinnerbait or Screamin’ Eagle spinnerbait. When it comes to bluebird skies, I’ll pick up a War Eagle Heavy Finesse Jig with a YUM Spine Craw.
That’s usually what it comes down to for me. They’re either on the bank chewing or they’re out there sitting on something and I’m going to flip a jig to them.
Normally in the fall, it seems like you get so much randomness. I’m very hard-headed because, even though you can get bit on so many different things, I stick with my Counter Strike Buzzbait, my War Eagle spinnerbaits or my jig. That’s what I have major confidence in.
That being said, you have to be able to make adjustments. If I’m getting some short strikes on my buzzbait, I’ll pick up a spinnerbait because I’m still wanting to cover a lot of water.
It’s the same thing with my spinnerbait; if they start just kind of hitting it and knocking it sideways, I realize I’m going to have to slow down. Those search baits give me the confidence to be in an area and the jig has me stay in that area.
