Fall Struggles

[Jeremy Coalter]

This has been my first fall that I have stayed committed to Bass fishing but it has been a struggle and am looking for any suggestions.  

 

I did all of my homework and was very excited about what most people say about the fall bite, I have been throwing everything that resembles a baitfish(spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, topwater, crankbait, bama rig, ect) since September and the 70 degree water until now when the temps are around 58 degrees.  I am in the Kansas City area and have mostly fished smaller lakes within an hour drive but went to Truman this past weekend(only one small bass).

 

I had one nice day back in early September where I caught about 10 fish, but since then I have only landed a couple small bass and on some days completely shut out.

 

Where is this fall bite I keep reading about, or what am I doing wrong?

 

I usually start my morning with a spinner and top water combo, moving to crankbaits and lipless later on.  When I get completely desperate I pull out the Bama rig.  I start going around the edges of the bank and hit the flats I am aware of on my lakes, its like the fish are nowhere to be found.  I have also mixed in a jig and shakey head, and have caught a couple small fish.

 

Later on I will try to target fish I think are out on ledges and points, but can't get them to bite.  While I"m no electronics expert I think I see fishing holding to balls of baitfish but I can't get them to bite.  I tried to fish the creek channel targeting fish on my sonar, but couldn't get them to bite.

 

I'm hungrier than ever to figure this puzzle out, so any help would be greatly appreciated.  Also, at what temperature to bass start holding to a winter pattern and get out of the fall pattern?

 

Jeremy

[bigbill]

I throw a ritual of different lures and different colors. Till I get action. It's good to use a variety of lures and presentations. One problem you may have that I have too at times I rush to fish and end up not reading the water clarity correctly. Plus I end up fishing too fast too. I end up telling myself to calm down and slow it down. I haven't done that much late fall fishing but one word comes to mind it's swim baits. A dying minnow presentation by just snappy short twitch and let it do its on thing like a yum money minnow or something similair will do it.

[Jeremy Coalter]

I have never tried a swimbait or a fluke, any suggestions?

[AK-Jax86]

I have never tried a swimbait or a fluke, any suggestions?

 

zoom flukes are good and there are tons of swim baits that work. They have some cheap ones like Berkley, Tsunami, Storm (you usually get atleast 4 and they run around $5 or less per pack) or they have some expensive ones. I just ordered a Huddleston Weedless Shad I see a lot of people have success with them so I figured I'd try them out. 

 

Try to match colors and patterns similar to the bait fish in your local spots

[paul25]

I fish a fluke just like i do a jerkbait , jerking and pausing flukes are good to use this time of year i've had good success with the albino zoom fluke in the past. This fall the fish im catching are deeper than in previous years comin in 10-15 ft of water just about every fish i've caught have come in that range with a jig or crawdad colored crankbait

[michang5]

I'm also totally missing out on this mythical Fall Bite, too. I've been skunked 7 of my last 10 times bank fishing two BOW.

It happens to coincide with my decision to try jigs, too. Hmm...

[Jeremy Coalter]

With stained water and the water temp at 50-55 degrees what approac/lure do you suggest?

[Bluebasser86]

The fall bite has not happened for me or anyone around here really. I have a theory on why that I posted on another topic. Most of our lakes have gizzard shad in them that spawn during the late spring/early summer period and are then fed on heavily by everything all summer long. Those YOY shad are reaching prime bass forage size by fall and are supposed to be thinned out. Problem is we had an extremely cold spring, even snowed in early May this year and water temps stayed below 50 into May. So our shad spawned very late in the year and are still tiny (1-2 inches) and way more numerous than they're normally this late in the year. So now there's tons of food in the lakes while the fishes metabolism is slowing down and they don't need to eat as often. So basically they can sit around and wait for the food to come to them instead of having to fly around chasing bigger shad that are around in much smaller numbers.

 

This is just my theory that I've come up with and it's probably 100% wrong but it makes me feel better about my lack of productivity this fall

[Bluebasser86]

With stained water and the water temp at 50-55 degrees what approac/lure do you suggest?

Sounds like perfect conditions for a rattle trap to me. I like to parallel riprap or weed edges.

[Bankbeater]

It slows down around here this time of year also.  Try fishing around logs, or in grass.  If your weather is unstable I would hold off going on the water until you get 2 or 3 days of the same type of weather.

[BuckMaxx]

I throw a shad square bill almost exclusively during the fall up shallow. I also would rule out a buzz bait. I caght my biggest fish of the year on one about 3 weeks ago.

[speed craw]

I don't know about everyone else but this time of year , but  I am running and gunning , I to have had the same problem with finding bait but nothing happens . It can be very frustrating , with saything that I think you may have partially answered you question with using smaller finesse baits . Some times thats the difference in catching fish and not . When it gets tough I fall back on slowing way down and rethink my strategy . Now are you seeing certain water temps when you are catching fish compared to when you are not and what about the thermocline ? Also certain areas just about always I will find fish such as , rip rap , bluff walls or drop offs , humps etc . However when fish are on the move god only knows . Hope that helps anyways .

Didn't think of this till now but is your lake turning over , if so you might find fish in other areas depending on which of the lake it has started .

[einscodek]

In my area its really late fall weather so the good part of early and mid fall just seems to have been passed over this year.

I never really ever got too excited about fall bite anyway.. with all the cold fronts going thru the fish get dormant for days after each front and this year there have been some wallopping fronts.. 

For me its just good to get out there and pull a fish here and there and work some lures which ordinarily dont work as well for me..

Spring is where its at and Iike fishing Summers too..

[Dyerbassman]

Glad I'm not the only one having a tough time!

[dreamertino]

I'm also totally missing out on this mythical Fall Bite, too. I've been skunked 7 of my last 10 times bank fishing two BOW.

It happens to coincide with my decision to try jigs, too. Hmm...

 

Same thing happened to me and I finally caught one today keep at it. I caught my second biggest bank fish from the lake.

[BadBassWV]

Whew!!! I thought it was just me. I haven't caught a fish in my last 3 outings. Going tomorrow, just got my Matt Lures Bluegill Swimbaits. Hopefully I can at least get a bump. I usually fish from sunup to sundown so 24 hours of fishing and not even a hit. Like the O.P. I have thrown everything in the bag.

[DelcoSol]

The fall bite has not happened for me or anyone around here really. I have a theory on why that I posted on another topic. Most of our lakes have gizzard shad in them that spawn during the late spring/early summer period and are then fed on heavily by everything all summer long. Those YOY shad are reaching prime bass forage size by fall and are supposed to be thinned out. Problem is we had an extremely cold spring, even snowed in early May this year and water temps stayed below 50 into May. So our shad spawned very late in the year and are still tiny (1-2 inches) and way more numerous than they're normally this late in the year. So now there's tons of food in the lakes while the fishes metabolism is slowing down and they don't need to eat as often. So basically they can sit around and wait for the food to come to them instead of having to fly around chasing bigger shad that are around in much smaller numbers.

 

This is just my theory that I've come up with and it's probably 100% wrong but it makes me feel better about my lack of productivity this fall

This really makes sense to me. Seems like the same issue I am having. It didn't really pick up for me until the first or second week of April this year. I did really well during the summer when it is usually tough. I don't think the water ever hit 80 degrese which is low for here. It usually gets to about 90 in July/August. Ever since September the fish here have just turned off. I am lucky to get one or two fish at best now. 

[erichthered]

I too, have had no luck at all this fall. My problem is that I haven't gotten out fishing enough.

[michael68w]

I noticed you said it looks like bass are holding tight to schools of baitfish? Have you considered using a jigging spoon? 

[bassguytom]

I noticed you said it looks like bass are holding tight to schools of baitfish? Have you considered using a jigging spoon?

This or a 1/4 oz. little Cleo. The blue and silver are working for me. With all the shad around I threw everything I had at them one day with no takers until I put this lure I never used on. I guess it is 50 + years old for a reason. They work.

[michael68w]

yeah i rarely use a spoon but those exact conditions have happened to me once before and its what worked well for me.

[Bluebasser86]

I noticed you said it looks like bass are holding tight to schools of baitfish? Have you considered using a jigging spoon? 

The fish I'm chasing are mostly shallow and so are the baitfish. Several times this year I've seen this scenario play out, most recently last Wednesday. There's massive schools of baitfish that have been pushed up onto a big flat by wipers, whites, largemouth, and saugeye. Fish are blasting shad and swirling everywhere. I threw; 3 different 1/4oz traps, 2 different 1/2oz traps, shallow X-rap shad, 78 pointer, 95 Gunfish, Super spook Jr, Zara puppy, Zell Pop, 3" grub in 2 different colors, keitech swing impact, 1/2oz war eagle jigging spoon, 1/4oz Little Cleo, and a 3/8oz chatterbait. The results; 2 small bass, 1 small wiper, and 3 saugeye on a 1/4oz xcaliber one knocker and 1 big white bass on the little Cleo in 3 hours of casting into actively chasing fish. The school of shad was thick enough to walk on and probably covered an area close to a football field and all the shad were 2" or smaller and the flat is no deeper than 6' deep. I really believe that there is just so much food for them right now that if a bait doesn't about run into their mouth then they aren't going to bother with it. 

[pbrussell]

The fish I'm chasing are mostly shallow and so are the baitfish. Several times this year I've seen this scenario play out, most recently last Wednesday. There's massive schools of baitfish that have been pushed up onto a big flat by wipers, whites, largemouth, and saugeye. Fish are blasting shad and swirling everywhere. I threw; 3 different 1/4oz traps, 2 different 1/2oz traps, shallow X-rap shad, 78 pointer, 95 Gunfish, Super spook Jr, Zara puppy, Zell Pop, 3" grub in 2 different colors, keitech swing impact, 1/2oz war eagle jigging spoon, 1/4oz Little Cleo, and a 3/8oz chatterbait. The results; 2 small bass, 1 small wiper, and 3 saugeye on a 1/4oz xcaliber one knocker and 1 big white bass on the little Cleo in 3 hours of casting into actively chasing fish. The school of shad was thick enough to walk on and probably covered an area close to a football field and all the shad were 2" or smaller and the flat is no deeper than 6' deep. I really believe that there is just so much food for them right now that if a bait doesn't about run into their mouth then they aren't going to bother with it. 

 

are you talking about la cygne up in the creek? Oh my goodness, you don't even want to know how thick the shad are there 

[pbrussell]

I don't want to talk any more about how bad my fall fishing has been this year in the KC area. I'm thinking of putting the boat up and hitting the ponds before they freeze over, haha!

[Bluebasser86]

are you talking about la cygne up in the creek? Oh my goodness, you don't even want to know how thick the shad are there 

I have no doubt they are extremely thick in that river right now. We had this happen to us really bad at Lake of the Ozarks way up the Osage River, then it's happened to me a few times on Olathe since then. It's extremely frustrating to literally see fish eating shad (not really chasing hard, just looking like they're opening their mouths and swimming through the schools of shad) and not being able to get bit. I had to leave them alone at Olathe and get away from the shad and schooling fish. I started catching fish when I did that at least.