So here are the top five baits you can use for September bass fishing, starting with the jerk bait. Yeah. The jerk bait, a lot of people think that it's only for cold water or for in the spring, you know, pre-spawn, and then they put it away in the tackle box and don't take it out until it gets cold again. Mistake. Guys, I learned how to fish jerk bait in the peak of the summer heat and caught a lot of fish doing that, and it just bled on over into September and into the fall and I kept catching fish in the wintertime, and the next thing you know it's spring, and here we are back to summer again. It works year-round. It's a really good bait, but particularly in September because that's when the bass start keying in on baitfish, and a jerk bait resembles an injured baitfish that may have been hit before by bass that are schooling up on them. Easy target, easy prey. So you gotta throw them. You can throw them over points, over humps, in deeper water, or along docks and weed edges. Basically, any depth where the bass are holding, it's a great lure to throw in September that I have a lot of confidence in.
The next bait is the squarebill crankbait. Now squarebills, again, work really well in the spring, like I mentioned before, but they work exceptionally well in September. The key thing with making them work in September is to downsize a bit. The baitfish are a little bit smaller this time of year, so a 1.5 squarebill probably won't do the trick. You want to move down to a 1 and throw it in real shallow areas, especially riprap or docks, or places where you can bounce and bang that lure off that and get it to deflect and attract those bites. That's really what elicits the bites, is that erratic action. That's what a squarebill is known for, and it doesn't get hung up. So squarebill works really well in September.
The next one are topwater baits, like a Zara Spook or a Sammy. Holy moly, man, topwater in the fall is dynamite, and it starts in September. I'm telling you, guys, you gotta have one tied on and ready to go at all times, because you don't know when that schooling action is going to start, right? Bass will start blowing up on baitfish, and you'll see that surface activity, and a walking bait like a Zara Spook or a Sammy works really well. Again, downsize a little bit, maybe go to a Zara Puppy, that might be too small, but a junior or something like that in between, a little bit smaller size. And the key thing with these baits is bringing them back at a real fast cadence. So we're used to doing the sashay side-to-side thing during the summer months. Well, when fall kicks in and that feeding frenzy picks up, you want to bring it back so it does this, right? I mean, it's constant reeling. You're just basically popping the rod tip, and it just does this real quick right back to the boat, and that usually gets a strike.
Now, the next bait is a buzzbait. Buzzbaits work really well, of course, whenever it's really warm out. I love that, but in the fall, particularly in September, this is when bass are starting to go after those baitfish, and they will be in areas where it might not be as easy to throw like an open-hook bait. Buzzbaits work really well. So I'm talking about weed beds, where you can get that buzzbait over the top of it or along the edge of weed beds, or you're going along lily pads or docks, things like that. That's where a buzzbait really shines in September. All's you need is white, really. You don't need to go crazy with the colors, just a white buzzbait, bring it back very quickly across the surface, simple, easy cast and throw, and you'll catch a lot of fish that way in September.
Finally, the last bait I like to throw is a shaky head. That's really not a bait, that's an actual rig, but rig it with a finesse-style worm, like a 4-inch Aaron's Magic. I like Aaron's Magic. I like People's Color [SP]. I'm talking roboworms here. Anyway, put it on a shaky head, like a 1/8 ounce, maybe 3/16 ounce, real small. You want a real slow fall. That's the type of thing you want to throw when, say, you've got a front and they start coming through here in September, and that may shut the bite down. That's when you pull out the shaky head. Best places to throw it are like, docks that have a lot of water underneath it, so deeper docks, because there's a lot more shade under there, the water's a bit more cooler under there, and that's where bait fish and bass will congregate. Just throw it up or skip it, either way, right along the dock, and just let that slow fall do its trick. So spinning gear is what you're going to use here. It's a lot easier to control the bait that way with spinning gear. Just let it slowly fall and wait for that subtle bite. You can also do it off of points, humps, weed edges, things like that, but docks is where I really like to throw a shaky head.
Those are your five baits to throw during September. Go out there and grab yourself a bunch and catch yourself a bunch of fish.
