How To Fish Summer To Fall Transition

[cmoberly]

interested to hear some fall transition strategies for some largemouth

[Fishes in trees]

The fish are shallow . . . or deep . . . or somewhere in-between.  This is an old Buck Perry quote.

 

What it means to me, pertaining to the fall, is that I start looking where I found them last time, then find them or don't.  If I do, try to replicate the pattern on other areas of the lake.  If I don't, fish the next most logical place, and so forth  In the lakes I fish the most, there are almost always going to be fish 10 to 12 feet down, on shelves where the tree/brush line meets the grass line or bare bottom, depending on where in the lake.  Brush to grass transitions, seem to be more bait fish oriented feeders to me.   Brush to sparse bottom seem to be more crawdad feeders.

 

At some point in the fall the fish seem to move shallow in the fall, in lakes with shad, that's what they are doing, following shad.  In lakes without shad, maybe they are just hanging out in the slightly warmer water, chasing targets of opportunity, mostly various minnows & bait fish.  I don't know exactly, I know thats a few places where I seem to find them year in and year out.

 

I am also pretty sure that if you find a ledge 8 to 15 feet down that is home to crawdads, some fish are going to be hanging out there all the time, maybe not very active, but they are there.

 

Your favorite lake is Lake Quivera, that is a private lake I haven't had to opportunity to fish, and its in Kansas, so I haven't bothered to buy a non-resident license.   I have seen it a few times.  I'm not nearly as into trespassing on private subdivision lakes as I was in my youth.  My first guess is that every dock has brush planted around it somewhere, so find the brush.  There is probably both deep & shallow brush depending on which dock and where it is.  I might also look shallow and try to find a spinnerbait or maybe a buzz bait or chatter bait bite.  That should give you some places to start.

[Bluebasser86]

I've fished Lake Quivira many times, really fun lake to fish. I've never really tried to pattern it too much but the bass there will behave similarly to the bass in the surrounding lakes. They should be moving up into the pockets and under those docks in the shallower water. I've also caught a lot of bass in the canals out there this time of year, bladed jigs and traps will catch them well back there it seems when they start to push the shad up. The south end of the lake is where I'd start looking (like the boat ramp cove south). Last time I was out there they were eating a pumpkin brown and orange with few strands of chartreuse jig really well as well as a spinnerbait or bladed jig. The trick to both of those baits was to let it sink to the bottom and then reel it slowly along the edges of the weeds. If you started reeling before it hit bottom it seemed like they'd completely ignore it. 

 

If you're fishing lakes other than Quivira, find the shad, find the fish. They're moving up into pockets and on cover or structure that is near shallow flats and waiting for baitfish to come by and ambushing them. Moving baits tend to dominate this time of year for me, squarebills, traps, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, walking topwater baits, and flukes are all good options about now. I fished a topwater walking bait all day long last Sunday despite the calm weather and bright sun, and they were blowing up on it almost ever cast.