Fall fishing tips 2020
It’s funny, while a lot of people are cleaning out their boats to reorganize their tackle for next year. Fall is actually a time when you want to make sure you keep a good selection of baits handy.
Coast to coast, fall offers ample opportunities to catch a variety of gamefish, as cooling water temperatures spark hot bites for everything from catfish and crappies to bass, sunfish and walleyes.
To help you reap the autumn harvest, these tips can offer you the ability to catch more fish and have more fun.
Bass of all stripes strap on the fall feedbag. Many anglers believe bass gorge themselves in preparation for winter. But biologists tell us the fish are simply reacting to invigorating declines in water temperature, and also taking advantage of seasonal concentrations of baitfish.
For example, as fall marches on, shad and other forage fish in many systems school in predictable places. When hungry bass move in for a meal, savvy anglers can enjoy epic action.
During fall, smallmouth bass are also looking for bait fish, but they will be deeper, so try long, slender, diving crank baits that dive from 12–30 feet. Tube baits are also good, but try to match them to the size and color of the bait fish they are feeding on. My favorite bait for smallmouths is a jigging spoon. I like to use a variety of colors and jigging actions because every day is different. Just let the fish tell you what they want. In most cases, hits will come after you let the spoon hit bottom, lift it a few feet and then let it flutter back down.
Rivers are often overlooked fall bass hotspots. Low water often forces fish to main-channel areas offering some type of modest current, but the presence of baitfish is key. Also look for current breaks ranging from boulders and logjams to manmade structure such as riprap or pilings.
5 bait for fall bass fishing are
1. Topwater: Until the water gets below 55, I love to throw a buzzbait to find those scattered fish. You can cover a lot of water with it, and it catches big fish.
2. Lipless bait: The fall fish like to school up on bait, and no matter where you go in the country, they like to get on flats out in the middle on isolated cover like stumps, brush piles, grass clumps. Whatever the lake has, the fish will be on a flat with a ditch running through it.
3. Spinnerbait: I use this in a similar application as the lipless bait but it’s a different style. When the fish are schooling on a flat, a lipless bait will get under them, but I can keep that spinnerbait up in the water column.
Fish love to feed up in the fall, but they may not want a topwater. With a 3/8- to a 1/2-ounce, depending on the water depth, you can keep that that spinnerbait high and you can even wake it when the situation calls for that.
4. Zoom Trick Worm: Texas rig this bait with a 3/16-ounce pegged weight and flip it on isolated cover like stumps and blowdowns. You can mix up colors with green pumpkin, Junebug and red bug, but also use a Merthiolate for an unweighted floating worm application to keep it higher in the water.
5. Flat-sided crankbait: This is actually what I’d call a wintertime bait, something that will run 6-7 feet deep with a tight wobble. You can use this in the late fall when the water temperature gets down into the 50s.
The fish are still keying on bait and they’ll suspend a lot in 5-8 feet. So, a Livingston Flatmaster SQ is a good bait to wind over isolated cover and also to catch fish out of the middle of a creek when they’re schooled up on bait, especially in the morning.
Overall, if I had to pick my favorite part of a fall day, it would have to be the first two hours after sunup. Whether it’s early fall or late fall, that’s when the fish get out there and roam around in the low light and you can really catch them fast.
What you throw depends on the time of the year. If it’s still warm, you should cover as much water as you can with the buzzbait or the spinnerbait. Once the water gets below 55, you should throw the lipless bait on the flats and if the fish are farther along in their seasonal pattern, that’s when I’ll throw that flat-sided crankbait.
When they have that bait bunched up early in the morning, you can catch them cast after cast.
Conventional fall walleye wisdom calls for fishing classic structural sweet spots such as steep main-lake breaks and rocky points. While these areas can indeed be goldmines, shallow weeds often hold untapped options other anglers miss.
As water temperatures fall through the 50s and beyond, shoreline weedbeds comprised of hearty stands of cabbage and northern milfoil that are still green and thriving attract oodles of baitfish including juvenile panfish, yellow perch and bullheads. Depending on the lake, productive depths range from 6 to 15 feet, and having deep-water refuges nearby is a definite plus.
Artificial softbaits are great choices for plying weed edges and open pockets in thick cover, where hungry walleyes wait to ambush passing prey.
Cast to edges and openings, let the bait fall to bottom, then begin a steady retrieve spiced up with periodic lift-fall theatrics, which often push tentative 'eyes past the breaking point.
Another option is slow-trolling baits along weed edges, keeping the rig just off bottom. It's worth noting, however, that low light and wave action can draw aggressive walleyes high in the water column, so be prepared to cover a variety of depths.
If panfish are your forte, follow the seasonal migration from the outer edges of deep weedbeds onto nearby drop-offs and finally into deep holes, often in 25 to 35 feet of water.
Top presentations include small jigs in the 1/16- to 1/8-ounce class, dressed with a dainty, scented softbait such as a 1-inch Gulp! Fish Fry or numerous other Gulp! and PowerBait options. When the fish school in deep water, add small jigging spoons to your repertoire, tipped with Gulp! Maggots or Ice Waxies.
The dropping water temperature causes many fish to behave more predictably as they anticipate the incoming winter. The "Fall Feed", as some fishermen call it, is the time where fish become more active and aggressive in their efforts to find food. Walleye, pike, perch, and trout are popular ice-fishing species and are also the most active this time of year. The reason fish are said to aggressive feed in the fall is because baitfish and other creatures that they usually prey on will go into "Winter Rest" and will become much harder for the predator fish to find.
Bait recommendations for the fall:
Crankbaits
Crankbaits are particularly effective when you match colors (silver chrome, bone, or white) and movement of shads. Shads are still the main forage bait for bass in most major reservoirs during the two earliest phases of fall.
Topwater Baits
This type of lure is great for targeting larger fish because they work on the heightened predatory instincts of fish in the fall. They can't help by attack something that looks like its trying to get away.
Shallow Jerkbaits
Again, these types of baits are more effective because of the increased aggression of bass, walleye, and pike in the fall. The jerking and slashing action of the bait will it stand out from the twigs and leaves floating around near shorelines.