Glenn: Hey, folks. Glenn May here with BassResource.com, and I'm here with my buddy Justin Kerr, FLW Pro. He's been a pro since 2002, and also a guide for many, many years. You've fished all over the country, under a lot of different conditions, with a lot of different people. Who better to talk to about fishing for bass, right? Let's talk about fall fishing a bit here, Justin. I wanna talk about kind of the progression as the water starts to cool, the season starts to change, more fronts are coming through. The fish, they've been stable all summer long. The fishing's been really good, and now things start to shift. What do you do? Let's start at the beginning of the fall when the water starts to cool. What do you start to look for, and how do you start to find those fish?
Justin: Yeah, baitfish is the number one deal with fall. Always follow the shad around. That seems to be my favorite thing to do, is fish for topwater fish and schooling fish. And they move a lot during the fall, so you're gonna have them in one pocket one day, and another pocket another day, and just cover a lot of water. That's usually my main thing is the fall is covering a lot of water, and fishing topwaters, and reaction baits, you know. Jerkbaits, and topwater, and sometimes some spinnerbaits work great. Just focus on the shad, and follow them around.
Glenn: As a general rule, say I'm pretty new at fishing, and I'm not sure about what that means.
Justin: Okay.
Glenn: How would I follow that baitfish around? What would I look for?
Justin: You know, in the fall as the water gets cooler, the shad will love to go to the backs of pockets, backs of rivers, so I usually start there. I'll go to the back of a cove, back of the river, and look for shad, and go out from there. So as it gets cooler and cooler and cooler, the fish love to get ready for winter, so they're gonna eat as much as they can. And, you know, I'll go in the back of a cove, and those fish will be in a foot in a half of water chasing bait, and no one around, you know, so...which is a really cool thing to have, and it seems to be real productive for me to just keep moving around till you find that baitfish, and locate that baitfish. But as it gets cooler it's very important to go to the backs of everything. That what I've seen.
Glenn: Super shall.
Justin: Yeah.
Glenn: Super shallow.
Justin: Yes, yes.
Glenn: And what, you just fishing Jags or topwater?
Justin: You know, square bill crankbaits, spinnerbaits, topwaters, and I just plug on those pretty much, and fish around till I can narrow down what they're biting the best.
Glenn: So it's just like fishing in the springtime almost.
Justin: Almost, almost the same.
Glenn: You kind of reverse now.
Justin: Almost the same, except for we don't have as much shad showing up in the early spring as you do in the fall. Fall, it's a major player. You know, coming in the spring, they're really thinking about spawning. There, they're thinking about eating. They're really thinking about eating for the winter.
Glenn: Now, what about about lakes that don't have shad?
Justin: You have bluegill. Most lakes have bluegill, crayfish. Some places have gobies, and stuff like that. So you still concentrate on the baitfish, keep your eyes on the graph, idle in the creeks, backs of bays, see if you see anything on your fish finders and just keep a big eye out of anything you can for forage for bass.
Glenn: It's a big crankbait time, that's what I'm hearing.
Justin: Yeah, yeah.
Glenn: What's your favorite crankbait to throw during that time of the year?
Justin: You know, it just depends, but mostly I like silent baits. And Evergreen makes a nice Combat series 400 that I love. And I actually hollow it out and make it quiet, because I really like having quiet baits. Especially fishing tournaments, it seems like having that silent bait, there's just...so many fish are so used to so much sound of baits. I think having that silent bait is a big deal.
Glenn: Nice tip, nice tip.
Justin: Yeah.
Glenn: Keep these in mind, folks, when you're fishing during the fall. Follow that baitfish, and you're gonna be really successful. Thanks for all the tips, Justin.
Justin: Hey, no problem.
Glenn: I really do appreciate that. For more tips and tricks, visit BassResource.com.
