What are your fall and transition lures?

[thinkingredneck]

I live on a rez in MS. Just starting to have some cool days (highs in mid 70's to low nineties) and the LMB seem to be focused on shad.  My old standby trick worms aren't consistently producing.   I have caught a couple nice ones on white spinnerbaits.  They seem to be just under the edge of lillypads.  Any other recommendations?  A lot of the rez is fairly shallow with a lot of vegetation, stained with 2-3ft visibility.  Would a ragetail menace work on a swim jig or texas style, swum through? Fluke? Cranks? Jerk bait?

[scaleface]

In the fall I catch bass deep on points with crankbaits and worms.The same points and lures I use in summer . I also  catch bass in shallow cover in coves and creeks .The same places I catch them in summer and on the exact same lures .

[WRB]

When the Shad move out of the shore vegetation cover the bass will follow them, typical fall transition.

Faster moving lures with flash like crankbaits, tail spins, structure spoons come to mind.

Tom

[burrows]

A weightless rage tail menace works really good this time of year cast it as far as you can let it sink and pop your rod up and let it sink again work it back to you as fast as you can you’ll have to wait for it to sink also a fluke jerk jerk pause, a squarebill or a crankbait shadraps are good during this time chatterbaits work well also.

[ww2farmer]

For largemouth in the fall, I always start on the bank targeting the inside grass line...at least until the water gets down into the 40's.

 

If it's overcast and calm, topwater gets the nod. I will catch fish on frogs in water most people think to be "too cold" for that. If there's a breeze I will hit toss a swim jig, or shallow running crankbait, and if it's really windy, a bladed jig.

 

When the sun pops out,and with all the boat docks pulled, I focus on grass. The "edges" in the grass than docks made get targeted with wacky rigged stick baits, soft jerkbaits, t-rigged craws/creatures or jigs. If they have slid back out deeper into the grass, I use the same with a little more weight. If they are out side the grass on the deep edge or on rock,a football jig, swinging jig head, drop shot, or shaky head gets the call depending on how they are biting that day. 

 

For smallmouth I like football jigs, tubes, wobble head jigs, and dropshotting. they never seem to come shallower than the deep grass line in the fall. I break out the blade baits when the water gets into the low 50's.........or I should say, I start using them when the calender flips to "fall" but I don't seem to catch much on them until the water gets colder, but I give them a good try in usual smallmouth producing areas almost every trip from late Sept. on just to see if that bite is "on" yet.

 

Deep cranking for either can be really hit or miss in the fall for me. The fall jerkbait bite can be quite good, but is grass and water clarity dependent. In some years the grass stays too thick, or the water stays too murky for it to be a consideration. Same goes with lipless cranks. Often times ripping them out of grass like I would do in the spring is an exercise in frustration in the fall, as the grass has become fragile, and instead of getting clean "rips" out of it, it just pulls the grass...roots and all right back in a huge wad to the boat. Now, if I get grass/water conditions in the fall that allow for both, I use both.

[scaleface]

The main difference between summer and fall for me is I will fish the extreme shallow back ends  of creeks, coves and pockets , places I usually avoid in the summer. I still use the same  spinnerbaits  , buzzbaits , crankbaits , worms and jigs . I will try a point or two first and if the fish are not there then I go to the banks and cover water . 

[Spankey]

My baits are pretty much the same. I throw at times a larger bait. Slightly larger.  I have a few color changes that they seem to react better to. I fish more points and creek mouths. 

[bagofdonuts]

might try this 

[lo n slo]

typically i will find spotted bass schooled up in areas where the bait is. usually in coves, or off points, or other structure. when i see this on my sonar i start throwing, lure choice depends on weather conditions. most of the time this works really well in the fall. the other day it did not. after a few hours of dead fishing i tried some lay downs and boom. fishing is like that sometimes.

[tonka_blue]

If it's really early transition I would fish the outside weedline of points and then work my way in. They're still out on summer patterns at the early part. Try working jigs slow, drop shot and buzzing crankbaits over the tops of the grass. When the water starts to drop more then I'd move up to the inside turns looking bait. Docks can also be good 

[BassB8Caster]

For the last 2 weeks i have found the fish to be justoffshore 30 to 50 feet from vegetation. We have had really cool nights here in Maine for weeks now. The water is cooling. My thought has been that the fish should be in the vegetation that is still alive. But im finding that to not be the case. Now i fish relatively shallow (10 feet the deepest) 100 acre ponds. There is alot of vegetation on the bottom too. Only fish up in the shallows are pickerel.  I had good luck with square bills, keitech 5.8 and a couple on the spro rat. Silvery colors seemed yo be the ticket

[Attila]

I'd stick with a spinnerbait and perhaps even try a chatterbait or swim jig with a trailer.

[thinkingredneck]

Thanks, guys