5 Best Lures For Fall Bass Fishing

Glenn: Hey folks, Glenn May here at BassResource.com and today I wanna talk about the five best lures for fishing in the fall. Now, that's kind of an odd thing to say, because in the fall, the fish are very aggressive. They're chasing baitfish. They bite a lot of different lures. So, excuse me, it can be a bonanza. There are times you can throw virtually anything in and you're gonna catch fish. So what I want to talk about is really one of the five main ones that catch a lot of fish for me, during the fall. With these five, you are guaranteed to catch fish at some point in the fall, whereas some of the other ones may not be as productive.

So let's start off with the buzz bait, or topwater lures, in general. Buzz bait, I also like to use Zara Spooks, but buzz baits and Zara Spooks catch big fish in the fall.

Keri: Woah.

Glenn: Woah.

Keri: He missed.

Glenn: There he goes. No, he got it. He came back.

Keri: He came all the way out of the water.

Glenn: He came back and hit it twice.

Keri: He came all the way out of the water for that. That was awesome.

Glenn: He missed it, turned around, and hit it again.

Keri: Hit it again. Nice looking buzz bait fish, all day long. Face full of buzz bait. Come here, baby. Oh, boy. Let me see if I can get you up. I don't know how I got you hooked. I'm trying kiddo. Nice little guy.

Glenn: Yeah.

Keri: He came all the way out of the water. Holy smokes. That just shocked me. Okay little guy go have fun. Evidently I got the fin.

Glenn: I like to throw them over the tops of weed beds. As fish are moving up shallow, they're moving into the backs of coves. They're moving into the backs of bays, these big flats, these weed flats. They set up shop in there and that's what works really well over the tops of them. And these fish are so aggressive, they'll come out of those weed beds like a Polaris missile and just clock them. Man, it's crazy. Especially buzz baits, you can cover a lot of water quickly with that. If you can tune that buzz bait to hit like say, if you're dock piling. You're fishing a lot of docks or in stumps, and you bounce it off of that and change that direction a little bit, you'll catch a lot of fish that way. It also works well on some of the points that are sitting out there, secondary points, fish will sometimes sit on that and you can bring a buzz bait over the top of that, and the fish, there's no problem for the fish, this time of year, to come up out of 15 feet of water to clock a topwater or buzz bait.

Glenn: That'll work.

Glenn: So that's number one. The second bait that I like to fish, is a spinnerbait. Now, if the fish just aren't quite committing to a topwater, maybe they'll chase it down and follow it, but they won't bite it, it's a good time to switch over to a spinnerbait. The spinnerbait with a willow-leaf blade, I like to use a silver willow-leaf with a copper, small Colorado blade in the front. It mimics the flash of a baitfish. I just use a simple white skirt or maybe a white and chartreuse skirt, and that's it, half ounce. The reason that's a little bit larger baits, because I can move it quickly and it won't lay over on its side. So use a half ounce bait, and just throw it. You can throw it just under the surface, where the fish, maybe they were chasing a buzz bait, and you can throw that spinnerbait in those same areas, but just under the surface and you can connect with a lot of those fish that weren't willing to commit.

You can also slow it down and work the water column a little bit more, a little bit deeper, little bit more on the outside weed lines, up in the bays and coves. I like to fish, speaking of those coves, I like to fish coves that have freshwater moving into them because the baitfish are looking for that oxygen rich water, and that freshwater brigs in that oxygen water. If there's a cove in there that doesn't have any flowing water moving into it, then I'll just skip it, and move to the next one, because that's where I'm going to find most of those baitfish and those active fish. So I covered a lot with those topwater, with the buzz baits and with the spinnerbaits, I cover a lot of water that way.

The next bait that I like to use is a Rat-L-Trap or a Booyah One Knocker, something like this, a chrome color bait. This does two things. First of all, I can cover big flats, big expansive areas quickly with it. If you're getting the theme here, we're covering a lot of water quickly trying to find a school of fish. And I can bounce this off of logs, and off of stumps, and I can burn it over the top of weed beds, calling up fish that are buried up in it, quite effectively. If at any time, I get bit with these baits, that's when I slow down and start to cover the area a little bit more thoroughly with these baits, because these fish school up. They're chasing pods of baitfish, so you're gonna get, you know, three to five, anywhere to 20, 25 fish in a school. And if you catch one then there's likely more in that same area, so you wanna slow down and work it more methodically and cover a lot of area in that, you know, nearby, and you might catch a lot more fish. But once you catch the fish out of that school, pick it up again, pick up the speed, keep moving down the bank and catch more fish.

Glenn: Ah-ha.

Keri: You're right, he does not... Oh, he's got a little fight left in him though. All right you. Can you do an easy release and shake yourself off? Oh, no. I got it.

Glenn: You got him hooked weird

Keri: He did that to himself. He's hooked really weird. You weren't going anywhere, but somehow you impaled yourself. You slapped at it and it got you.

Glenn: Yep. They're sharp hooks.

Keri: They're gone. Smallmouth don't mess around.

Glenn: This One Knocker's also really good for fishing along the weed lines. As the fall progresses, and this is from, you know, late summer, as you're moving along in the low 50s, the temperatures get in the low 50s in the fall, what happens is the weeds start to die off. And when they die off, they consume oxygen. Well like I said before, the baitfish are looking for oxygen-rich water, so they'll move out to the greener strands of weeds that are still remaining that's in deeper water, anywhere from 10 to 25 feet deep. You can use that One Knocker to just parallel along those weed lines. It's a great way to fish at this time of year. You throw it out and let it flutter all the way down, and then move it along, lift it back up, and let it flutter back down. Baitfish are starting to die off this time of year and that mimics that action that the bass are keen on. So you can catch a lot of fish working at that.

We also work outside structure the same way with that One Knocker, fishing those points, those humps, those ditches, those ledges, those rock piles, those type of things that the fish are on. As you move into the fall and closer in to the winter, those fish are going to move out of the shallows and start moving out to deeper water, and you can target it with the One Knocker, fishing it that way, just letting it fall down and lifting it back up, and letting it fall back down, you can catch a lot of fish late into the fall, doing it that way.

Now, the other bait I like to use, the fourth type of bait, is a tight wiggling crankbait. This is one that's got a narrower bill like this. Okay? So it's got a real tight wiggle to it. This I'll use towards the later part of the fall. The water temperatures gets into about the mid-50s or so, and it starts to cool off even more. That tighter wiggle sets off a less action, less vibration than a big wide action, lots of movement, type of bait. You don't want that when it's cooler. That tighter wiggle is perfect for targeting those outside structure, the deeper structure, main lake points, everything I just mentioned. I like to fish it with that and I like to position the boat up shallow. And I'll throw out to deeper water, and I'll slowly crank it up, and let it bounce and wiggle along the steeper point, or along a rock hump, but something like that, just bouncing off and triggering those bites deeper into the fall. Colors, I just like to use fire tiger. It's a great color to use for crankbait during this time of year. It's universal, works all throughout the fall. I've practically don't throw any other color except for maybe a chrome color when it comes to the one knocker. But with those two types of crankbaits, I can do most of my crankbait fishing in the fall.

Now, this brings me to my fifth bait. If you notice, all four of these baits are aggressive, fast-moving baits because you're covering a lot of water, and the fish are aggressive, and they'll actively chasing forage. But there are times when you get a big front that blows through and as the water's cooling down, there times where the fish will shut off, and there in that neutral than negative feeding mode and they don't wanna chase down something. That's when I break out my fifth, my little secret bait here. This is a sixth-inch finesse worm. Check that out. This is something not a whole lot of people fish during the fall, but this is perfect when that bite is off.

Keri: Oh, come on.

Glenn: There we go.

Keri: Got one already.

Glenn: Oh boy.

Keri: Got a big one already.

Glenn: He came all the way out of the water. Don't go in the weeds. Come on, baby. Come on out. Don't go in the weeds.

Keri: Using finesse worms today.

Glenn: Finesse worms.

Keri: Finesse worms.

Glenn: I don't think he hooked right. I don't know what's going on there.

Keri: Yeah, that hooked weird.

Glenn: I got it hooked, but boy. If I could get your face, that would be helpful. There we go. He's got a lot of fight in him.

Keri: He's a little angry.

Glenn: Oh boy. He's got that finesse worm just hanging right there. That works. That does the trick.

I put an eight-ounce tungsten weight on it. Why? Because look, it's a real slender profile bait, doesn't have a lot of appendages to it. It doesn't have that bulk like the other Texas rig baits do. So it falls very fast through the water column. So an eighth-ounce weight, it'll fall nice and slow like the other Texas rigs that are using 3/8th ounce or half-ounce weights. If you use too much weight on it, what happens is it just goes right through the water column, and all the bites on this come on a fall. And so you're missing, you're really not utilizing this bait very well if you're letting it shoot down to the bottom really quick. So I rig it with a tungsten weight, because it's very sensitive, so it transmits every little bump, and tick, and anything that happens underwater, you're gonna feel it, whereas lead kind of absorbs it and it deadens that feel.

I'm using a bobber stopper because I want the weight, I'm using the weight for the action of the worm. And if you can notice, I got it kinked just a little bit, not much, but just a bit on a two-watt extra white gap hook. Now the reason I'm doing that is because when you rig it this way, when you throw it, it does this nice slow death spiral. Okay? That's what you want, a nice, easy, slow death spiral. That's exactly what the baitfish are doing this time of year in the fall. And if those fish are in a lethargic mood, kind of a neutral and negative feeding mode, this will trigger bites. The key with it is, you're not flipping and pitching this, or throwing it in nearby cover. You've gotta back away from the cover because I don't like bringing a 20-foot boat right up on top of the fish when they're in a neutral feeding mode. It just gives them another reason not to bite. You can spook them that way. Especially in the fall, as you move along, the water starts to clear up, they can see you coming. So I back away from the cover and I make long casts with this and let the worm just do its death spiral.

So that's what you want and you're gonna catch a lot of fish when they decide that they're just gonna shut down for now, and not bite a whole lot. This is great when you're fishing behind people, too. When they're knocking them down on crankbaits, and you can't buy a fish on a crankbait, you can use this when you're throwing behind them. You back seaters make a note of that, you can catch a lot of fish that the guy's missing with his crankbaits, because this is attracting a different kind of fish, one that isn't as willing to chase down a crankbait and there's a bunch out there, you're gonna catch a lot more fish this way.

So armed with these five baits, you're gonna catch a lot of fish this fall. For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.