All right, it's October. And you guys that live in the Northern climate know that ice up is coming, but you can still get in some really good action if you use the right lure. So let's pick off the top five lures on my list. First is the lipless crankbait. Now this time of year green weeds can be a little difficult to find because the days are getting shorter, and the water is getting cooler, and the weeds are dying off. So what you need to do is find them a little bit deeper, use your graph and find those strands of weeds, take your lure, get it down there, hook some of those weeds and bring them up and take a look at them. If they're brown, move on. If they're green and healthy, that's what you want to target.
Now this technique with the lipless crankbait is different than what you've been fishing all year long. Now, the lipless crankbaits are good year-round, but it's how you fish and where you fish makes the difference. Here you want to target those green weeds. And instead of casting and winding, here you're doing a jigging technique. Throw it out, let it sink down to the tops of the weeds, and then rip it out. Reel up that slack line as you let it flutter back down into the tops of those weeds, and rip it back out again. So you're jigging it back to the boat. That action of it ripping right out of the weeds usually elicits a strike from active bass. So that's a great technique, but there's some key things about it to make it even better or to make it more productive.
One of them is use a half ounce or less, like a 3/8 or a 1/4 ounce lipless crankbaits. A heavier lipless crankbait will sink into the weeds and make it harder to rip it out. So you got to be patient for it to get down there. It slows the fall if you rip it out, which entices more strikes. So a lighter one is key to this. The other one is you're fishing in clearer water, so you'll want to use more natural-looking crankbait colors such as shiners or perch, bluegill. That's the kind of thing you want to use right now. And then your equipment will make all the difference. So here we're using fluorocarbon line. Fluorocarbon because it sinks. Fluorocarbon has sensitivity. Fluorocarbon because it is less visible in the water, and also it has a little bit of stretch to it so when you're fighting the fish back to you, has that give that'll help keep the fish pinned.
Next is your rod. You're going to use a little bit beefier rod than you normally use for crankbaiting. Here's a heavy power medium action rod is what you're looking at. It's got a little bit stiffer backbone to it but that's what you need in order to rip it out of the weeds like I just told you. So a little bit stouter rod, 7.3 to 7.5, maybe 7.6 rod, that's what you're looking for. And your reel needs to be a faster gear ratio, above 7.1 to 1 gear ratio so you can reel up that slack line quickly and keep with the bait because a lot of the times the fish hit it when it's falling. So you need to have connection with that bait as it's falling, and a faster gear ratio will enable you to reel up that slack line, and keep your rod in that hook set position ready for that bite.
The next lure is spinnerbaits. Now as fall progresses, the crankbait bite will start to die off but they still will hit spinnerbaits. They'll still hit moving lures, just switch over to a spinnerbait. You're going to fish those same weed lines and weeds like I mentioned before but you're going to fish them different. With the lipless crankbaits you're fishing on the top of the weed beds. A lot of the fish will sit there in the weeds sunning themselves and that's a little bit warmer, and so that's how you draw them out with that lipless crankbait. With the spinnerbaits you're targeting weed edges. This might be the outside weed line, it might be pockets and holes in weeds. Areas that's got scattered boulders or stumps can be really good because those form those weed lines and those holes. If you've got them right along the outside weed line mixed in that's even better.
What you want to do with the spinnerbait this time is get it down to the base of the weed line. A lot of times the fish when it's colder out, they nestle down, they get right at the bottom and they snug up right on the bottom of the weed line. Cast out there, get it down. Let it sit on the bottom and then begin your retrieve. What you want to do is get the spinnerbait just off the bottom but moving along the contour of the bottom, just barely. So it's kind of a slow rolling technique. You don't want it to get up and away from the bottom because now you're getting away from the fish. So in order to do that, you need a heavier spinnerbait. I like to use 3/4 ounce spinnerbait for this. I do use a trailer because it does make it a little bit buoyant so you can still keep it slow but keep it up off the bottom. It aids in that. But also having a slower gear ratio reel from 5:1 to 6:1 gear ratio is the key to keep it from pulling away from the bottom.
What I like to do especially when I'm first in an area is I need to learn that slope. So as you're reeling it, just stop and let it sink and hit the bottom. It'll give you an idea if you're pulling it too far away from the bottom, or if you're right there with the bottom depending on how long it takes to hit the bottom after you stop. Doing that a few times will give you an idea of how slow or how fast, and where your rod should be positioned in order to keep it in parallel with the bottom as close as you can. If it occasionally bumps into a rock or stomp or something, that's great. That's fine. That little bit of change in direction often triggers a strike. But that is the key to fishing spinnerbaits during this time of year.
The next bait are tubes. Yeah, tube baits. Again, these, just like the other lures, work well throughout the year, but it's where and how you fish it right now makes all the difference. Bass are getting close to being in their wintertime positions right now. They're out of the main bays and coves and whatnot. They're on the main lake right now, and they're getting deeper. This is where they're still feeding on bait fish but they're also...some of them are transitioning to bottom dwelling creatures. So a tube does a really good job of imitating both. The key is with the jig head that you use. The jig head is going to be like an 1/8 ounce jig head where the eye is at the top. This is what you want to do for your targeting bass that are still eating bait fish.
You find the schools of bait fish on your graph, and what you want to do is take your tube and cast it above or below. You want to work the tube above or below the school of bait fish. You want it to look like one bait fish that is wandered off from the school. Easy prey for the bass. So that's what you're trying to imitate, and you do this by kind of swimming your lure back, giving it little pops with your rod. You just kind of want to wiggle it and make that lure dance. With the eyelet at the top of the tube it's going to make that tail flick up and down as you pop it back and forth with your rod as you reel it in. So you do that making it look like a little swimming bait fish. So the colors got to be, you know, you got to mimic a bait fish, so make it a shiner color or a perch color. So you're looking at clear with silver flak, smoke with pepper flake, watermelon seed with red flake, you know, those kind of colors. That's what you're looking to use for this type of technique.
The other one is when they're on the bottom, and here you're imitating crawdads or sculpin, something like that that's feeding on the bottom of the river or the lake. Use a little bit heavier now. We're doing a 3⁄8 ounce to a 1⁄2 ounce ball head jig. Same thing with the eyelet sitting straight up. But here you're dragging it on the bottom. No popping and wiggling. Dragging on the bottom. What happens is as it's moving along the bottom and it's hitting little things, the tail is coming up like this. It's popping up. It's rolling on that ball head and popping. So it looks like a little crawdad moving on the bottom, or a bait fish nose down feeding on the bottom. Paying attention to that. Not looking at surroundings. Looking all vulnerable, right? The bass will come up and just swoop down and pick it up right off the bottom like that, right? Kind of a cool thing. You just got to maintain bottom contact. And sometimes you got to go heavier if it's windy out, or if you're dealing with current, you might have to go a little bit heavier than that, but typically I don't have to go any higher than a half ounce to do this technique.
The key here is you're using spinning gear. All right? Spinning gear rules supreme with this because the hooks are a little thinner diameter using a little bit thinner line and lightweight. The line I'm using six-pound line here. I know it's a little scary for some of you guys to think about that, but six-pound line really enables that bait the freedom to move about and act real natural, and still gives you the sensitivity you need. Plus it's lower visibility. I'm using straight up fluorocarbon tying directly to the lure. No leader, no snaps, swivels, nothing like that. It's just straight up all fluorocarbon spooled up tying directly to the eye of that ball head jig. That's the key to it. It really is. And I use a rod that's about a seven foot one medium heavy fast action rod, and that works for this technique.
The next lures to use are jigs. Yeah, again, a year-round lure but where and how you fish at this time of year is critical. It's the difference between catching fish and not, so pay attention here. What you're targeting here is inside weed edges on the main body of water. The main lake. The main lake, it takes longer amount of time for it to cool down so it's still gonna be warm. Those inside green aquatic vegetation will be a bit shallower. This kind of goes against the grain. This is important. Listen up. A lot of people are fishing deeper this time of year but that inside green weed line on the main body of water typically will be shallower than where most people are fishing and this can be really productive. These bass are still cruising up along there chasing bait fish and crawdads and other things. Those are gonna be your most active fish right now so that's why you want to target them. With a jig what you want to do is you cast it up shallow, and work it down towards the weed line.
Steeper banks are better for this technique. Ones that have rock, riprap, that sort of stuff even better because it stays warmer longer. That's ideal. Doesn't mean if you don't have it, you can't fish it this way, but in an ideal world that's what you're looking for. Cast it up into shallow water, and work it with your rod to drag it down towards that weed line. There's fish that are cruising that weed line and hunting, they'll see it coming and come up and grab it. They usually hit it before it gets to that weed line. Once it gets to the weed line while you're there, reel it up and make your next cast.
So the key with equipment here, you can start off with a 3/8-ounce jig, that's fine. You might bump it up to a half ounce if it's a really steep bank, or if you're dealing with a lot of wind or current. So a half ounce is definitely not out of the question. I fish it with 20-pound fluorocarbon line. Now that's for starters. Now the reason why, so braid holds a lot of water. It absorbs a lot of water, and this time of year it's really cold and you have problems with water freezing up on the eyelets of your rod. So the less water that your line holds, the less freezing up and ice on your line guides that you have to worry about. So that's why I go with fluorocarbon.
It still absorbs water though but not as much as braid, but if I'm still having problems with icing, then I'll go to monofilament. Twenty-pound monofilament line, that holds the least amount of water and that can really cut back on the amount of freezing water on your eyelets. So just kind of keep that in mind. I start with fluorocarbon and then I adjust from there. I like fluorocarbon because it offers more sensitivity and it's less visible. The other bonus amount of monofilament, it's a thicker diameter, and when your hands are really cold, it's a little bit easier to handle and manage, tying knots and whatnot. Again, tie directly to it. I don't for this reason, again, no braid to floral leader, any of that because you're gonna get the ice up. So I don't use any braid in this situation. Just straight up fluorocarbon or straight up mono, and I use a medium heavy power fast action rod.
And the colors I use are your browns and green hues. Right? Your natural bait colors. Again, the water's a little clearer this time of year so you don't want to deviate too much and make it look way out of position or not natural. So your browns and your greens with a trailer has to be one that doesn't have a lot of action to it. So those craws that's got the ridges to them that make them [vocalization], go crazy, not this time of year. You want something that's less action like a Zoom Chunk, for example. Doesn't have a ton of action to it but it adds some bulk to it. That's the kind of trailer you want to use.
Now blade baits are gonna be the last lures that you throw before ice up. These are gonna be when it's really cold out but they're super effective because of their tight wiggle and the way they fall. Super effective right now. The way you fish them though, a little bit different. You're back to that jigging action that we talked about with the vibrating crank baits, but your actions are a lot more subtle now. Let it settle down to the bottom. Again this is the deeper areas. You're right now with the river channels. You're right close to the areas right where the fish are gonna sit for the rest of the wintertime. My neck of the woods, that's 45 to 55 feet deep on most lakes that have that kind of depth. So you're pretty deep, but let it get down there. Let it settle on the bottom, and then all you're gonna do is just lift it up a little bit. A few inches so you can just feel it vibrate.
And then let it settle back down and wait. That's the hardest thing for us bass anglers to do. Is to do nothing. But this is when the fish get it. They pick it up off the bottom typically. They usually don't hit it on the fall this late in the season with this kind of bait. You just give it that little bit of an action. Lift it up a little bit off the bottom. Let it fall down. Let it sit 15, 30 seconds, or more for the...and wait for the fish to pick it up. In order to do this correctly you need a shorter rod. So a 6 foot 8 rod, a 6 foot 10 rod. Something like that is what you need. It limits the amount of movement as you lift the rod up, and the slower gear ratio helps with this too, as you reel up the slack. You move it a lot less when you have a five to one gear ratio, for example.
Color wise, silver, silver metallic works great when it's sunny out. Gold when it's cloudy out. If you've got some stained water, then you can experiment with painted colors, like white, chartreuse, fire tiger, that kind of stuff. The key here with the whole technique is the line you use. I know a lot of you guys, you like to use braid. You like to use braid to fluorocarbon. Now I talked just a minute ago about using braid and icing so that's a problem, but there's an additional problem with braid using for this technique. Braid is thin and wispy limber like thread. Not a good trait that you want because when you cast this bait out and it's falling they don't fall straight down like this. They kind of tumble and turn as they fall. They're flat sided, they catch a lot of friction as they come down. If you want to call it...that's not true. Some guys go, "It's not friction." Yeah, okay. But you get the point.
The hooks can foul up in that braided line because the braided line is just all nice and wispy, and it's limber, and it can get tangled up. And it'll be fouled before it even hits the bottom, or it can foul while you're doing this jigging technique. So braid isn't really a good choice for this. I like to, again, go to fluorocarbon because it's really flexible. I try to stay away from the monofilament because it's not as flexible, but monofilament is pretty limp and limber. It works really well for this technique. But it's still stiff enough where it tends to stay out of the hooks. Another thing you should do to prevent that from happening is take a locking snap, and connect that to the bait and tie directly to the snap. Okay, it's not a snap swivel. Snap swivel is too heavy. It's gonna just cause more problems. Just a snap. Tie directly to that with your fluorocarbon line. That's how you work this, and this is how you gonna catch a lot more fish just before ice up, and you're gonna have yourself a fantastic fall using all five of these baits. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this visit bestresource.com.
