Early fall creek tips?

[TriStateBassin106]

Here in NJ the fall is right around the corner and some of the creeks around here are soon gonna be stocked with trout but before that stocking begins late next month I really want to get after some creek smallmouth during this time, what lures would you guys recommed throwing for them? The creek I'm fishing has a lot of dink sized smallmouth but holds a few good ones, what parts of the creek should I focus on and what should I know about how smallmouth act this time of year in creeks? Do they feed heavily in the fall like largemouths do? 

[Brian Martalus]

My bro had some pretty crazy action on creek smallmouth near Clinton last weekend. Some were dinks but some were up to 18 inches-he was using live herring, not lures though. He said fish were jumping for the bait as soon as it hit the water. 

[gall]

So the  past few days I've been out and the bite has heated up big time. Lately I've been throwing a 4-5 inch stick bait on a light wacky head letting it drift. Modt of them would hit it within 5 seconds of hitting water. Also throwing fluke tubes top water. Prety much everything is working

I'm over in Central PA so similar condition s 

[Manly Studson]

Poppers, wacky rigged Senkos, jigs, and insect lures have worked for me in early fall. Grasshoppers abound until November. SMB will eat them.

[PaulVE64]

Black maribou jigs with the stump of a trick worm  through any rocky bottom with ledges.

Green pumpkin senko Texas rigged in weeds and wood

Flukes or a 2" tube or a small crankbait in pools (depending on current)

Swamp crawler or a baby brush hog and my own bucktail skirt in olive and fluorocent orange on a 3/16 oz shakey head jig

 

 

Good luck, tight lines

[Ian Collins]

Really anything works right now including stickbaits, topwater, flukes, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, ned rigs, squarebills, wakebaits, etc. I typically focus on any current break or deeper pocket, but don't be too quick to overlook shallow areas with shade. I cant tell you how many fish I have pulled out of shaded pockets right on the bank in lass than a foot of water with no real cover around.

[NYWayfarer]

On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 10:33 PM, Manly Studson said:

Poppers, wacky rigged Senkos, jigs, and insect lures have worked for me in early fall. Grasshoppers abound until November. SMB will eat them.

All of the above.

 

The Rebel Crickhopper is a favorite of mine. When I notice them slurping it up when it his the water I change over to a Rebel Pop-R. I change the hooks out on the Rebel lures for better ones.

 

Drifting a stick bait and small jigs are great options for Smallmouth Bass

[Talio]

Are your creeks locked or do they have access to larger bodies of water?  If they're locked, I've found two keys to finding them and having quick access to deep or sheltered water is key to both.  I've found that the fish that took residents in the faster, tumbly water will still be there.  I think some of them may never move and working this water with a dead drift presentation is great.  I like to use hiviz braid to a fluoro leader and chuck them directly upstream from me into faster water.  You leave it drift and fall on a semi slack line.  If the line tightens, it's either bottom or a fish, so set the hook every time.  The second key is finding the changes in the sun.  Certain areas of my creek are killer from around mid June to sometime in September, but shut down the rest of the year because the change in the suns position with the season has that water lit up most of the day.  Finding where the water has changed from being super sunny during the summer to dark during the fall has been a pretty good pattern for me.  I use weightless plastics in the fast stuff cause it's normally not that deep and maybe add a split shot for depth.  In general I like to use finesse techniques for this type of water because it's normally super clear and any spot with a good casting position from the bank has normally been beat to death by now.  Other than that, shallow water next to deep water like always seems to be a good presentation.  They're hunting to get fat for the winter, but so are the birds.  So looking for a good place for a bass to hide from a bird, but still has access to shallow hunting grounds seems to be a decent pattern.

 

If it's an open creak...I dunno.  Not enough experience in that yet.

[Manly Studson]

10 hours ago, NYWayfarer said:

I change the hooks out on the Rebel lures for better ones.

I like the Rebel Crickhopper and Bumblebug, but the hooks do seem really small and weak. Do you put larger treble hooks on Rebel lures? If so, what size?

[NYWayfarer]

29 minutes ago, Manly Studson said:

I like the Rebel Crickhopper and Bumblebug, but the hooks do seem really small and weak. Do you put larger treble hooks on Rebel lures? If so, what size?

I change the stock hooks with Berkley Fusion trebles of the same size.

 

I don’t like to go bigger for fear of messing up the lures action. I recently tried the Walmart version of the Crickhopper. They come with Eagle Claw Laser Sharp hooks. They work as well if not better than the Crickhopper and no need to change the hooks. Best part was they were $1.99 l lost one to a bad cast into a tree went back to get a replacement and they were sold out.

[king fisher]

#3 vibrax or Mepps inline spinner, and a floating rapala is all I need in creeks.  A jig works well if their are deeper pools and pockets.  Fish all current breaks, holes, tail outs, runs, riffles, undercut banks, and any current breaks such as rocks, logs, etc.  Fish in the faster water are positioned to feed and will bite anything presented properly.  Fish in slow deep holes, may be inactive and have to be finessed more.