Fall Bass Fishing—Baits and Techniques for the Fall Transition

Mike Brown of Clarks Hill, South Carolina, is a member of the PartsVu community and a bass tourney winner. He generously provided invaluable advice to help people interested in improving their bass fishing skills. In this article, he discusses the approaches that work well for fall bass fishing.

Within this article, I’m going to discuss a few baits that work well in the fall as well as the types of structures bass frequent during the fall transition.

As bass move from deeper and cooler depths, they use a few pieces of structure to reach the optimum shallow water where herring and other baitfish begin to gather. Bass commonly use long sloping points, river and creek channels, and old roadbeds, which act as “roadways” for the bass to follow.

An angler should give special attention to any changes to these routes. A quick rise of even a couple feet on a point will be a good stopping point as will a small rockpile, brush or cane pile, or rocky ridge. Many of these small rocky ridges are now visible with the current water levels, but there are many more on Thurmond still below the surface. A topographical map will not show these ridges, but they are fairly easy to find on your graphs. If you see one out of the water, you can often find more of the same extending out into the lake on the same line. Rock piles are about the same: they are somewhat smaller in size than the ridges but can provide even better hiding places for baitfish and crawdads. However, brush and cane piles can be the best form of cover in the fall. They provide shade, cover for baitfish, and good ambush points for the bass.

River and creek channels offer more travel routes for bass. Key points along these channels are turns, especially those that come close to banks and points. Often there are small bluffs where the channel swings close to the bank and stumps where the channels make acute turns. A significant place is where old roads cross the creeks or rivers. Keep a close eye on your electronics as you cross where the channel and road bed cross because you will often see bass stacked up at these junctures.

Baits & Techniques for Fall Bass Fishing

Top water bait is especially effective over cane and brush piles, as is buzz bait over the same type of cover. The difference is a walk-the-dog style of top water bait will work all day long, whereas buzz bait is best during low light conditions.

White or shad-colored fluke-style bait rigged on #12–15 test fluorocarbon with a 4/0 wide gap hook works relatively fast with a jerk and pause retrieve.

Double fluke rig is a variation on a single fluke. This rigging is a little difficult to explain, so I encourage you to Google it to see how to rig it. It looks like two bait fish zigzagging through the water and is best used when you see schooling fish.

A sled-head jig is possibly the most effective choice for long points or the ledges along channels. The jigs come in a variety of sizes, but the most commonly used sizes are 1/2 and 3/4 oz heads. The best soft plastic bait for the sled heads is Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw in green pumpkin. The brand I like best is the Buckeye Lure Sled head, which is made in Augusta. The retrieve is simple: Drag the bait along the bottom using a slow sideways sweep of your rod, keeping your rod tip pointed downward. When you detect a strike, just keep reeling, and do not use a traditional hook set by lifting the rod tip, but use a sideways sweep of the rod.

Effective baits for working near the bottom are large Texas-rigged worms in the 10–12" size. Plumb and green pumpkin are two of the more popular colors. Probably one of the most effective and popular techniques within this type of cover is a drop shot. It’s also one of the easiest techniques to use. It is rigged on a medium or medium/light spinning outfit with #12–15 braid and a 10–15' fluorocarbon leader. The setup is a #1 or 1/0 drop shot hook tied with a Palomar knot about 10–24" above a small drop shot weight that sits on the bottom of the rig. You can use a wide variety of soft plastic baits including craws, tubes, small imitation minnows, and 4–6" thin worms. The worms can be nose hooked or rigged wacky style.

I let the bass tell me which bait or method is best for the conditions. A drop shot is also highly effective for suspended bass that you see on your electronics. Drop it down abovethe fish because suspended bass rarely feed down but will come up to feed. When using it on the bottom, you want to keep the weight in contact with the bottom. Shake the bait as little as possible. I find more success when I slightly vibrate the rod or impart no action at all because the rocking of the boat or wave action gives the bait all the action it needs to attract a bite. My favorite drop shot baits are watermelon or green pumpkin 4.5" Roboworms or white or watermelon/red flake tiny Zoom Flukes.

I’m always experimenting to find baits that work during the fall migration to the shallows, but the abovementioned baits work as well or better than any others. Hopefully, these fall bass fishing tips help. Tight lines and happy fishing.