Hey guys, I'm Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Pat Schlapper with BassResource.com. Today, I wanna talk about structure fishing in the fall, offshore structure fishing. And to me, that time of year, everything revolves around bait fish migration. You know, those bait fish are really getting grouped up, getting into tight balls, and most of the time they're either gonna be migrating into the backs of coves, marinas, creeks, or they're gonna suspend over offshore structure. And I like to target those fish a lot.
So a few of the baits that I'm gonna use, it's gonna be all around the bait fish for the most part. So from the top to the bottom, and the first one that I'm gonna use most of the time is gonna be a jerk bait. And jerk bait is really effective that time of year, especially if you're someone that uses forward-facing sonar.
So if you go out and you graph around and you find some structure that has bait on it, most of the time, if you hunt them bait fish down with your forward-facing sonar, you're going to see those bass suspended under those bait fish. And to me, there's nothing better to trigger those fish and trick them into biting than a jerkbait.
This is a standard Megabass 110 Vision. I use the plus one a lot too. When this bite's going on, I'll have probably at least four different jerkbaits out to cover, you know, from four foot of water down to 12 foot of water, depending upon what depth and bait fish are. So jerkbait probably my favorite way to fish.
And I'll throw a 6-foot, 8-inch St. Croix Legend tournament, medium power, extra fast action. Extra fast is really key because to work that bait effectively, you need a soft tip, but when the fish bites, you gotta have enough backbone to lean into them and get the hook into them. So that's by far my favorite rod.
10 to 12 pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon, 7:1 gear ratio reel. That's my favorite way to target those bait fish chasing bass over structure.
The other thing too, that I think a lot of time gets overlooked when you're out offshore away from, you know, shallow or water is topwater. You know, if you're in a clear water reservoir or, you know, a lake, those fish will come up from a long ways and hit a topwater bait. You know, they’re conditioned, they're when they're feeding on baitfish out there, they're looking up and they're looking for, you know, a bigger one that got off the school. They're looking for a wounded one. They're looking for something that stands out from that big ball of bait.
So a topwater is a good way to draw a big bite, you know, from those fish suspended over the structure. This is a Reaction Innovations Vixen. I do one modification on there that on all my walking baits that it's probably not super well known. I put a double split ring on every single hook and I put a number four Gamakatsu EWG Short Shank, and that's really specific.
You know, I took a lot of time to figure this out to where that hook is still a good size hook, but it's not so big that the hooks will get hung on each other. I'll do that on every single one of my walking baits, whether it's a, you know, a Zara Super or Heddon Zara Super Spook, a Vixen, Repo Man, any of them. I do that on every single one because your catch ratio goes up drastically.
This is a bait that a lot of times, those fish will slash at and they'll miss and they won't get hooked very good. And what happens with the standard single split ring is it gets bound up at about three-quarters of a rotation and it'll rip out and you don't realize that until you put that double split ring on and you can turn it almost all the way around and it won't get bound up.
So that's one modification that I will do on all my topwaters and offshore structure, baitfish chasers, you gotta have a walking bait. I don't care if it's 10-foot deep. I don't care if it's 80-foot deep, you have to have one because they will come up and eat it.
I prefer to throw that on a glass rod. This is a St. Croix Big Cranker. It's a crankbait rod. It's a medium, heavy power, moderate action, real soft parabolic. And that's part of this system that I've come up with, you know, over years of fishing this and losing a lot of fish.
So I want a real soft rod. I use a 30-pound Sunline SX1 Braid, and then I put a real short 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon leader. And I know a lot of people think, well, you think that they're gonna see the line and it's not for them seeing it. It's all about with that braid, it's really soft. So what'll tend to happen is that line will come back and it'll catch your hook and it'll follow your bait up. So I'll put a real short piece of stiff fluorocarbon and your hook will rarely ever catch that line. And it just makes it a lot more efficient. So that's kind of my walking bait setup.
The other thing that happens all the time when them baitfish are over structure, they'll come up schooling and you gotta have something to throw a long ways and something to get into that school when they're feeding on those shad. So walking bait, you gotta have it.
From there, you gotta have a crankbait. This is a Rapala DT6. Once again, depending on the depth, you might have a 10, a 14, whatever it is, but I do like to have a crankbait not necessarily dredging the bottom all the time. I said a lot of times these fish are they're feeding up. And a lot of times you think offshore structure fishing, you wanna be banging the bottom with that crankbait to get them to react, and you still can do that, but when them fish are on baitfish, you don't have to.
You can almost make, you know, work your rod and make that thing. It's almost like fishing, not completely like fishing it like a jerk bait, but instead of a straight wind, you know, you're kind of popping that rod and making that bait do erratic things. That's what we'll get them fish to trigger. Actually the same rod, I throw that topwater on the Big Cranker 7',4" medium heavy moderate just with a 12 to 14-pound Sunline FC Sniper Fluorocarbon 6.3:1 to 7:1 one gear ratio reel, just kind of a standard setup and just something you wanna have out when you're targeting those fish.
Other thing, other technique that I love, love fishing, especially for big fish, it's gonna be some sort of paddle tail swimbait. This happens to be a Scottsboro, which is a kind of a custom hand-poured out of Guntersville, Alabama. Thrown them for years. Just a little different than a standard ribbed paddle tail, a little more rock in the body, and I've actually got it on a, it's called a Ledgehead. Smaller company, I actually found a couple packs of them down in Guntersville when I was fishing down there and I thought it looked, it just fit that swimbait really well. And because of the keel on that, it really makes that swimbait rock. And it doesn't work...that jig head to me doesn't work as well on a standard paddle tail with like a rib body.
To me, it really shines on something like this, or, like a Big Bite Suicide Shad is another one that would work really well on that. This is a 3/8ths-ounce head. Depending on the depth the fish are at or how you know, I'll go up to an ounce and I'll go to a 6-incher on here depending upon the size of the baitfish. That's something you wanna look at too is how big those baitfish are, but swimbait, you gotta have it. And this particular one in the smaller size, this is a four-inch. I'm going to throw it on a St. Croix Legend Tournament 7-foot, 1-inch medium, heavy power, fast action with 14-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon.
You don't wanna go, you know, too crazy on the line, in my opinion, especially if the water's clear. You don't wanna go something too heavy because most of the time you're out in the open water. It's not like they're gonna get you hung up. So that's what I'll do with my swim bait. And then even though we're concentrating on baitfish, I still think you gotta have something out there to drag because not all them fish are gonna be up on bait.
You know, my personal belief is a lot of times when those fish get real fed up on shad or whatever they're feeding on, and you're over a rock pile or you're near a brush pile, whatever it, sometimes those fish will just get down in the rocks or they'll get in that brush pile and they'll just kind of hang out and they're just like, I just ate a bunch of food. I need to relax for a little bit. They'll go down in that brush pile or in that rock pile. And they'll just kind of hang out.
So you wanna have something to drag. And a lot of times I'll go with a, you know, a magnum finesse worm. This is an 8-inch Big Bite finesse worm, half-ounce head. And I'll just cast that out, drag it along the bottom. And a lot of times you'll pick up some big fish that I said are just, like I said, are a little more lethargic, and not as active as the bait chasers. So still in the same area, just a little different approach.
Seven, four heavy St. Croix Victory. This is 18-pound Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon cast it a long ways, drag it along the bottom, work it in that brush pile real slow. Work it over the top, let it hit the bottom, let it sit there and shake it. Remember, this is a technique where you're kind of targeting those lethargic fish, so you don't just wanna be winding it. When you're around that piece of structure that you think that fish might be in, work that bait, you know, shake that thing down there and just maybe for a minute before even moving it. And a lot of times you'll feel a little tick and you'll get a big one.
So from there, I'm still gonna have, always gonna have no matter what time of year it is, if I'm fishing offshore structure, no matter what the fish are feeding on, I'm going to have a drop shot because every year I'll catch some of my biggest fish on this. After I've caught 30 of them on other things, I'll throw out something like that Scentsation Cliff Hanger from Big Bite and I'll catch extra fish and I'll catch big fish. So the St. Croix Legend Tournament drop shot rod 6-foot, 10-inch, medium light, extra fast, 8 to 10-pound Sunline SX1 Braid, and I'll typically run an 8-pound FC Sniper Fluorocarbon leader.
Sometimes I'll go down to a six, very rarely will I ever go over eight. Even if I'm targeting big fish around structure, I just feel like I get more bites on a lighter line. And once again, this is something that you're, you know, you've already thrown the swimbait. You've already thrown the jerkbait, the crankbait, the stuff to trigger the active ones. You're looking for those sneaky ones, those tough ones to catch. So you want to keep it real finesse. So that's why I usually go with a lighter leader on there just because I feel like I get more bites.
So that's kind of a rundown on how I would approach offshore structure in the fall.
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