After The Fall Bite?

[rboat]

After the bass have gorged on shad and minnows in the shallows "fall bite", you know jumping and chasing baitfish.  It normally ends with colder weather. The lake now seems almost dead. Where do the bass go at this time? Do they go deep to avoid the cooler temps or are they still shallow but full of food. This is always a challenging time to still catch fish. Anyone have any insight. Thanks.

[Catt]

Think post spawn!

The bass will follow breaklines back out to deeper water.

[Hyrule Bass]

After the bass have gorged on shad and minnows in the shallows "fall bite", you know jumping and chasing baitfish.  It normally ends with colder weather. The lake now seems almost dead. Where do the bass go at this time? Do they go deep to avoid the cooler temps or are they still shallow but full of food. This is always a challenging time to still catch fish. Anyone have any insight. Thanks.

it would also help if you filled out your profile to include location and bodies of water you fish. then people can help you and give you better info based on what your locale is...

[Bluebasser86]

Around here they usually move to the deepest areas in the lake because our lakes are shallow. Typically, the closer to the shoreline the deep water is, the better.

[WolfyBrandon]

I've been wondering the same thing. All year long I've been catching a ton of Smallmouth Bass, and hardly any Largemouth. It wasn't until October 07, 2014 I finally hooked into a 3lb 3oz Largemouth. The following days I managed to catch a few more around the 2lb range, and on October 22, 2014 I caught a 4lb 03oz, and a 4lb 04oz Largemouth on the same day. The water temp around this time was in the 62F-56F range. All of the fish caught where in the same area, and I believe this was when they moved up for the fall bite because 1) I haven't caught any Largemouth out of that area all year long, and 2) I could see 3 other Largemouth follow in the first one I hooked to the dock, so they were in a school together. That was the last time I caught anything, and it is now November 08, 2014. I still have seen fish active in the shallows however, I could see one nip at my jerkbait softly but failed to get hooked, and another one was interested in it but wouldn't bite it because I believe he caught sight of me (my fault) and knew something was up. I was out yesterday (November 7th, 2014) but only managed to see two bass follow in my bait, both small (inches in size). The water temp is now in the 52F-50F range, around 7ft clarity, and ~3ft below normal summer level. I've tried fishing some deeper water with no results yet. I'm still at it though, if the weather stays nice I might get lucky, otherwise I'm going to try some different baits and see if that helps. If not, then they probably moved out of the location I can fish.

 

November 07, 2014

 

WolfyBrandon

[MO_LMB]

They are still probably following the shad, but they have just moved deeper. Find deep spots close to shallow areas. 

[Oregon Native]

When I lived in Oregon I caught smallies all winter long on the Willamette (conditions permitting) in water less than ten feet deep.  Now that I live in Tennessee it is still kind of the same.  Have caught smallies and largemouth all winter long in less than ten feet of water also.  Do catch fish deeper but have had some GREAT days when it was cold...water temps in 40's and catching fish shallow.

Good luck

[hatrix]

I have caught so many fish on that same color erratic shad is missing almost all it's paint. That's a great bait for me right now.