All right, this video is about setting yourself up for some great fall fishing, starting with scouting spots. I know that we're not right into the fall quite yet, but now is the time to go out and find those hot spots so you're ready and you know where they are when the fishing action begins.
If you're in a reservoir, what you want to do now is start graphing spots because in the fall when the fish are all up shallow, they're easily spooked by your sonar or just getting right over the top of them. So find those spots now when they're not there. What I'm talking about are things like hard bottoms, small creek channels or narrow creek channels, ledges, things that the fish will stage on as they move up shallow like they do in the pre-spawn. They'll work their way up shallow and then in those bays and coves, they'll start off in the very deepest part of those coves and hang out there before they spread out and feed shallow.
Also, if you get some fronts coming through in the fall and they're back in those coves, that's where they'll go back to. They'll just pull off a little bit into deeper areas and find those deep spots in the middle of those bays and coves. You need to find those now so you'll know where the fish are when they're up there in the fall.
Other things you want to look for too is if you're in a reservoir, a lot of times the water fluctuates and it's down this time of year. Look for those visible areas that will be covered by water later where the fish will be hanging out. Things like rock piles, stumps, boulders, isolated boulders particularly. If these things are near ledges, drops, points, creeks, even better right? That is going to be the hot spots that you want to find. Laydowns, logs, all of these things. A lot of them are above water or you'll find them when you're scanning. Those are the things you want to find and just mark them so you're ready to go right to them and you're much more efficient and catch a lot more fish in the fall that way.
Now if you're not on a reservoir and you're fishing lakes, natural lakes, hey, the key thing about those is that they don't fluctuate in water level so you get an abundance of weeds, which is great. You don't have that as much in reservoirs. So weeds become your main thing. You want to find those. Particularly in the fall, the fish will first start using the inside weed lines.
What I mean by that is the weed edge that's closest to the shore, right? So right up shallow. They'll get right up in there and as the fall progresses, the weeds start to die off, it'll push them out to the outside edge and they'll just roam in and out right on that edge darting out and attacking baitfish. So those two areas are what you really want to focus on. Now if they, again, are near any of that structure I mentioned, like a point or a ledge or near an entrance to a bay perhaps, those are really good hot spots. So find those now.
But also note wind direction. See, in the fall, you get these fronts come through and you get stronger winds, and depending on which direction that wind is coming from, it can blow up on a bank and produce some excellent fishing, right? The reason for that is that the wind, it blows the zooplankton and it blows the organisms up into the shallows and the baitfish follow to feed on that and, of course, they're the bass.
And a lot of these times these banks are places that don't produce any other time of the day or week or even a month. It has to have that wind in order to happen. So look for that stuff. Look for those banks, like which ones and points to, and those type of things, shoals, things that will push that organic material up into an area and trap it depending on which way the winds are going. Mark those areas now.
And if you're fishing in a river the bass will utilize deeper pockets in the river and also backwater eddies. I mean, we know that they like to stay out of the main current anyway but it really becomes important in the fall. So the backwater eddies and the little pools and those things, that's really going to become important in the fall. So find those areas, mark them, know where they're at, but also the deeper parts of the river, so outside bends, and look for humps where it breaks the current. They can sit behind the hump and dart up and catch any baitfish coming by.
If you've got bridges that go over the river, a railroad bridge, or any other, especially if it's not the original bridge, so it's been replaced by a newer one, go and graph. A lot of times you find debris from the old bridge when they demolished it. So you'll find these big cement piles and rebar and whatnot that really snag and catch all your lures and you hang up and you lose a lot of lures. But they can be very productive, especially if you fish the downstream side when you've got some strong current. You want to find those right now, and the fish set up on those in the fall. That can be some sweet hot spots.
The next thing is watching the weather, both short-term and long-term. Now what I mean by that is short term, we've all been there where we've watched the weather report every day and we know what it's going to be the day before we go fishing. We get out there on the water and it's not what they predicted, right? So you got to punt, right? You got to pivot and adapt very quickly. Be ready for those things. In the fall, the weather can change very quickly.
And if you're on a large body of water, just a little increase in the wind can mean a big increase in the waves. So you got to be aware of that. If you're well away from the launch and the wind gets stronger than predicted, then you might have a real rough ride coming back, maybe a downright dangerous ride coming back to the launch. So if that happens, just pay close attention if you're really far away from that ramp. If those winds are really picking up, then you might want to start working your way back closer to the ramp so you don't have as far to travel if the wind continues to increase.
Also just, you know, if the rain comes through and you weren't expecting that, sometimes the rain can really activate the fish and you get a big feeding frenzy all of a sudden. So be ready for that. You might be fishing really slow-moving lures and the bite isn't really there. Clouds come over, the fish start to get active, and then boom, you got some rain. Suddenly, you're very active. And those slow-moving finesse-type lures, you got to set those down and pick up crankbaits, spinnerbaits, topwaters, things that will capitalize on those active periods. So be ready for that kind of stuff. That may not be in the forecast.
Now if you're looking for the long-term stuff, think about this. Now wind, for example, if you've got a steady wind blowing from one direction up on the banks, like I mentioned earlier, that blows all the organic material up there and small insects and whatnot and that brings the baitfish up in those areas. So pay attention for that. Days of that can really just electrify an area that's normally dead. So now you've scoured these spots out before so watch for that weather. If it's doing that for several days, those spots can really be on fire.
But also note, if you're hitting, say, a muddy bank and you've got steady wind on that for several days, it can make that area muddy, the water muddy. However, there might be a mud line, right? A mud line between all that muddy water and the clear water. Typically in the fall, the water's a bit clearer and the fish will use that mud line as ambush points. So you can fish it just like a weed line. And along those lines, if you've got rain that's occurred for several days in a row, the streams might just wash out and you get this bunch of muddy, dingy water that gets flushed into the lake or reservoir. And again, that will form a mud line. So look for those. Look for those mud lines. In the fall, in particular, that can become a pattern and you can catch a ton of fish that way.
So the other thing also is if you've got a lot of rain for quite a while, it may raise the level of the body of water that you're fishing. It doesn't matter if it's a river, lake, or reservoir. If you get a lot of rain, especially heavy rain, that water's going to rise. And typically what happens is the bass will move up shallow and their dorsal fins are almost sticking out of water. They'll get so dang shallow. So be prepared for that and adapt. Don't fish those same areas you would if the water was down. Move up with them and fish those new areas. And you can catch a lot of fish that way. It can be really fun.
Conversely, you may end up in a situation where you've had a long summer where it hasn't rained that much, and coming into the fall it looks like it's not changing either and the water levels drop and keep dropping and keep dropping. Well, that's going to get bass to pull out into deeper structure or deeper weed lines. So watch for that too. The weather changes, both short-term and long-term, can really have a big influence on where the fish are positioned.
Now as you're getting ready for all this fall action, the next thing you want to do is make sure your tackle and your baits are ready to go. The thing about fall is there's really two things. One, the bass are feeding heavily on forage, so baitfish. And number two, a lot of times the baitfish are a bit smaller this time of year. So you want to use smaller versions of crankbaits, topwater, spinnerbaits, jigs, plastics, that sort of thing. Just a little bit smaller version in the fall period.
For crankbaits, you want to have three types. The first is a rattling-type lipless crankbait, like a Wameku Shad from SPRO. Those are excellent for just probing the shallow areas. You want to bounce those off of areas over the top of weeds, along weed lines. Those are great. You want a medium diving crankbait, like a RkCrawler 50 from SPRO. Those are great crankbaits, man. They seek and hunt and find bass because they're a small profile and they've got that action that resembles a baitfish. That's exactly what the bass are honing in on. So that's the perfect size and action that you want in the fall.
And then also you want to have a little bit in between crankbait, like a squarebill crankbait. Those you want to fish in that 4 to 6-foot range and bounce it off rocks, bounce it off logs, stumps, that erratic action. You fill your tackle box with just those three types of crankbaits for the fall and that is going to be killer for you. You're going to have a great time with those.
But let's move on. You're going to have spinnerbaits. Spinnerbaits, the best ones to throw during the fall, the 3/8-ounce double willow silver spinnerbaits with a white skirt, no trailer. Yeah. Just wake them back to the boat. You want to bring it back as quickly as possible. Now if you're bringing it back really fast and the bait starts to lay over on its side then heavy up the bait, you can go to 1/2 ounce. Some folks even go to a 3/4-ounce. Typically a willow leaf blade doesn't have enough torque to flip over anything heavier than 1/2 ounce. But a double willow leaf. And if a bass is following it but they're not committing it or maybe they're nipping at it, then just change the blade colors from silver to gold and that typically will get them to commit.
For jigs, jigs are great year-round, right? But I find finesse jigs work best in the fall. Again, a little bit smaller stature, a little bit less action. In the beginning of the fall when it's still warm, you want something that has a little more action from a craw standpoint or a trailer on, so that's why I would use a Rage Craw, you know, a small Rage Craw. But then as the fall progresses and the water gets cooler and cooler, then flip over to something that doesn't have as much action to it. But stick with those finesse-style jigs.
And then plastics. Again, we're talking baitfish. Tubes and grubs reign supreme in the fall, right? Because they resemble baitfish. So make sure you have those ready to go. Green pumpkin is a great color to throw all around, so you can use those. You can...clear with salt pepper is also really good. Smoke is another good color. Again, that's all just your baitfish colors. Those are the things you want to load up on and get ready to throw in the fall.
Topwaters can also be really good, right? Like a Sammy or a Zara Spook. Again, you want to downsize a little bit, so you might want to use the junior sizes of those and have those ready to throw because...and even buzzbaits too. Because I'm telling you what, those fish, what they do, the bass will corral the baitfish up towards the surface and hunt them.
And when they do that, they hunt them in packs. When they do that, you'll see the baitfish trying to flee and they'll jump on out the surface and there's a lot of activity. When you see it happen, man, throw that topwater right into the fray and you're going to catch a bass. But you got to have it ready and ready to throw. So you can't be digging through your tackle or through your rod locker getting ready. You'll miss the action. So have them on the deck of your boat ready to throw.
The other thing you want to do to make sure you have some great fall action is to pay close attention to the water temperature. This is really important because it dictates the activity level of the fish. So if the water temps are above 70 degrees, they're pretty much in the summer pattern still. And even if the calendar says it's September, the fish still haven't started to move into their fall movement. So don't be fooled by the calendar. Watch that water temperature.
If it's above 70, still fish it like it's summer. If it's between 60 and 70, now the fish start moving shallower. They start using those staging areas I talked about in the beginning of the video, right? Those creek channels, those ledges, those points. They start staging getting closer to shallow waters towards those areas where there's those back creeks and those back eddies and the rivers, those things. They start moving up on those areas. So start fishing those areas that you graphed earlier in the year.
As the water gets colder and you get between 50 and 60 degrees, man, it is game on. Feed bag time. This is when we're talking about that fall-feeding action, when everybody talks about that. A lot of times the air temperature is colder than the water temperature. And this is why a lot of guys miss this action because it may be 40 degrees. It might even be freezing out in the morning and may only reach to the low 50s in the daytime, if that. And it's cold. It might be windy, it might be rainy.
A lot of guys, they're out hunting or they're just staying at home by the fire. But the water temps are still between 50 and 60 degrees. To the bass, it's playtime. And sometimes this is November or later, depending on what part of the country you're in. Don't go by the calendar again, go by the water temperature. But that 50 to 60-degree mark, that's when you're breaking out all these fast-moving baits I just mentioned in the smaller profiles and do it to it, man.
Now the water temperature starts to go below 50. That's when the bass start backing back out and moving towards their wintering areas they hang out during the winter. So they'll go back to those areas we had mentioned when you're between that 60 to 70 mark. They'll back out to those again, those humps, those ridges, ledges, points, those things I just mentioned, on their way back out to deeper water. So follow them on out and fish them if you can.
Sometimes it's way too cold that time of year. The ramps are iced up. It's a little dangerous to be towing a boat. So you may or may not want to do that. But in areas down south, it doesn't get below freezing. Just pay attention to that water temperature. Right around that 50-degree mark, it can be plus or minus a little bit, that's when you see that migration. When you get into that mid-40s level, then you're into your winter pattern. So pay close attention to those water temps.
And all along, you'll notice too, the water usually is clearer this time of year. So use that to your advantage. Longer cast, using fluorocarbon line or monofilament line instead of braid. Pay attention to where your shadows are if the sun's up, right? All those things you would want to pay attention to if the water's really clear. Fish a little bit deeper if you've got bright sun. All those things apply even though it's still fall. All right. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.
