"False Fall" and the Fall transition

[MassYak85]

So September here in the Northeast welcomed a pretty drastic shift from 85 degree weekends to suddenly waking up to 30's and 40's in the mornings. The cooler night temps have dropped water temps about 10 degrees in many places, even more in shallower bodies of water. The cold fronts have put a cap on recreation boating for most people (finally lol), but have made for some tough days of fishing for me and I know I'm not alone. We're about to have a pretty warm stretch again going through this weekend. How do you deal with these summer "restarts" that make it feel like the middle of August and make you forget October is right around the corner? I've always struggled this time of year, maybe I'm just trying to force that Fall bite too early. During the transition period how does your fishing change between cold fronts and shifts back to warmer weather? Is it just a matter of continuing to check to see if the fish are pushing up shallow yet and then falling back if that fails or do you employ a different strategy? 

[NHBull]

For me, the length of day matters more than the occasional warmup. The drought has also effected things too.  While some are moving up, I think 15-20 feet is still where it is at.  This weekend, I will go shallow early but will abandon it quickly no luck.  On deck to start.....DS, JB, Popmax, NEKO.

[Bruce424]

im struggling too. tried frosty morning buzzbait but... nothing. seems like they wont commit to my normal baits. buzzbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, and squarebills. hindsight was instead of buzzbait i should have used a popper i think. then maybe let the jig sit for a while longer... i dont kno. this weekend might be a different story.

[MassYak85]

3 minutes ago, Bruce424 said:

im struggling too. tried frosty morning buzzbait but... nothing. seems like they wont commit to my normal baits. buzzbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, and squarebills. hindsight was instead of buzzbait i should have used a popper i think. then maybe let the jig sit for a while longer... i dont kno. this weekend might be a different story.

That's pretty much been where I'm at. Started with a buzzbait or moving topwater with no luck, then had some very half hearted strikes on spinnerbaits but couldn't find a "bite" really. My only consistently has been small profile baits on deeper drops with like a 3" easy shiner of tailspinner but even then it's been all small fish. 

 

My instinct says to continue starting shallow, and then moving out deeper but I keep feeling like every time I spend the whole day "falling back" to deeper or more finesse and never really find them you know? 

[NHBull]

20 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

That's pretty much been where I'm at. Started with a buzzbait or moving topwater with no luck, then had some very half hearted strikes on spinnerbaits but couldn't find a "bite" really. My only consistently has been small profile baits on deeper drops with like a 3" easy shiner of tailspinner but even then it's been all small fish. 

 

My instinct says to continue starting shallow, and then moving out deeper but I keep feeling like every time I spend the whole day "falling back" to deeper or more finesse and never really find them you know? 

For me, my deep spots that were working last month are not now.

spending time looking for bait in similar spots back towards the coves have been more productive 

[A-Jay]

While targeting the bigger local brown bass population during late summer and into the fall,  I look for bait.  When there's an abundance of especially 4 to 5 inch yellow perch wondering around a flat of half dying weeds, I lose sleep.  Past two seasons it was on like donkey kong by mid August. This year, Just not happening.  I am so stubborn and just refuse to good deep, choosing instead to beat the areas I expect the bait to show up in to a froth; despite the lack of bait.  Yesterday it was sunsise to sunset.  Brutal. Because I am the very definition of insane, I struggle.

A-Jay 

[MassYak85]

30 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

While targeting the bigger local brown bass population during late summer and into the fall,  I look for bait.  When there's an abundance of especially 4 to 5 inch yellow perch wondering around a flat of half dying weeds, I lose sleep.  Past two seasons it was on like donkey kong by mid August. This year, Just not happening.  I am so stubborn and just refuse to good deep, choosing instead to beat the areas I expect the bait to show up in to a froth; despite the lack of bait.  Yesterday it was sunsise to sunset.  Brutal. Because I am the very definition of insane, I struggle.

A-Jay 

I'm also faced with a duality where most of the lakes I fish are pretty small compared to the rest of the country. It's easy to feel like you've covered almost the entire lake in a single outing, which is nice cause you can feel confident that the fish must have been somewhere you were, but you just missed on a detail. But at the same time it drives me nuts looking for that little detail, and I never want to accept that the detail night have just been "right place wrong time" but I feel like sometimes that's just the way it goes. 

 

I often find myself in a pattern of starting shallow, having little luck and moving deep and then when I can't put anything together deep I move back shallow to grind it out with confidence baits. Which usually produces something, but rarely do I ever feel like I was really on them that way. 

 

Maybe I gotta grind it out deep on those days but it's definitely my area of weakness. And I feel like whenever I do find them deep with finesse stuff it's small fish, I feel like i can never find quality bites when i go that route.

[A-Jay]

9 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

I'm also faced with a duality where most of the lakes I fish are pretty small compared to the rest of the country. It's easy to feel like you've covered almost the entire lake in a single outing, which is nice cause you can feel confident that the fish must have been somewhere you were, but you just missed on a detail. But at the same time it drives me nuts looking for that little detail, and I never want to accept that the detail night have just been "right place wrong time" but I feel like sometimes that's just the way it goes. 

 

I often find myself in a pattern of starting shallow, having little luck and moving deep and then when I can't put anything together deep I move back shallow to grind it out with confidence baits. Which usually produces something, but rarely do I ever feel like I was really on them that way. 

 

Maybe I gotta grind it out deep on those days but it's definitely my area of weakness. And I feel like whenever I do find them deep with finesse stuff it's small fish, I feel like i can never find quality bites when i go that route.

My best big brown bass lakes are sizable. 

A-Jay 

[GReb]

Bait has certainly started schooling in shallower water here. They are starting to move back in coves. My best fish of the weekend came on a spook in narrow channel off the main river that had current running through it. A natural bottleneck. Also caught quite a few off a point that had pads on it but had current coming from 3 different directions. The end of the point was basically a pool for baitfish to flow into. Kind of like a water park that has 3 water slides dumping kids in the same small pool lol. Picked these off with a chrome lucky craft 1.5

[Bird]

John Denver - some days are diamonds and somedays are stone. 

 

Jerkbaits have been my go to after early morning ploppers but nothing to write home about. 

 

[BassinCNY]

I guess misery does love company because I am sort of happy to hear that everyone is having the same troubles that I am.

[padon]

bait. like ajay and some others have said. for our lakes it seems fish are very scattered.some guys are catching them on topwater ,others catching them around 20 feet. to me I feel like I need to fish quickly cover water until I either catch fish or see large schools of bait. if I see the bait and cant get bit on moving baits ill slow down and drop shot or finesse worm. now Saturday is supposed to be cloudy with spitting rain im looking forward to that.

[Fin S]

Fall fishing transition is, almost by definition, like trying to hit a moving target. There's just a lot of trial and error.

[gim]

We've had a similar weather pattern here too.  We went from mid 80's to 50's to several mornings of 40 degrees in a row.  Then it got warm again, today it is supposed to be 83 and next week its back into the 50's and 60's, which is more seasonal.  I went yesterday for about 5 hours and caught them on a summer pattern: dock skip fishing with a weightless stick bait.  The water temp went from 74 to 64 in a week and now its slowly crept back up to 67.  These wild fluctuations are seemingly playing games, both with the fish and the angler.  Its been VERY dry here too and water levels are definitely lower than normal.

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, padon said:

bait. like ajay and some others have said. for our lakes it seems fish are very scattered.some guys are catching them on topwater ,others catching them around 20 feet. to me I feel like I need to fish quickly cover water until I either catch fish or see large schools of bait. if I see the bait and cant get bit on moving baits ill slow down and drop shot or finesse worm. now Saturday is supposed to be cloudy with spitting rain im looking forward to that.

This has been the only consistent thing for me is downsizing to match these schools of baitfish. But it almost always means I'm catching smaller bass when I do so. How do you upside your bite? When I go to bigger baits like a 5 inch keitech on a  bigger underspin it seems like they don't wanna commit. Are the bigger fish usually in those same areas just not as aggressive?

[lo n slo]

3 hours ago, Fin S said:

Fall fishing transition is, almost by definition, like trying to hit a moving target. There's just a lot of trial and error.

great call

[GReb]

2 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

This has been the only consistent thing for me is downsizing to match these schools of baitfish. But it almost always means I'm catching smaller bass when I do so. How do you upside your bite? When I go to bigger baits like a 5 inch keitech on a  bigger underspin it seems like they don't wanna commit. Are the bigger fish usually in those same areas just not as aggressive?

I have a theory that I cannot confirm but my gut says the bigger bass are focusing more on bluegill than shad. 

[padon]

3 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

This has been the only consistent thing for me is downsizing to match these schools of baitfish. But it almost always means I'm catching smaller bass when I do so. How do you upside your bite? When I go to bigger baits like a 5 inch keitech on a  bigger underspin it seems like they don't wanna commit. Are the bigger fish usually in those same areas just not as aggressive?

you got me on that one. I wish I could tell you but I don't know.

4 hours ago, Fin S said:

Fall fishing transition is, almost by definition, like trying to hit a moving target. There's just a lot of trial and error.

  that's  for sure.for me at least just because you caught them somewhere yesterday doesn't mean youll catch them there today. they just seem to follow the bait. that's why I like to keep moving until I catch some fish or see large concentrations of baitfish. ofcourse that's just my opinion what do I know , im working for a living not fishing foe one.

[Boomstick]

Today would have been one of those days to make me forget that winter is coming  as it hit 78 degrees, 76 most of the day and it's still 68 right now at 8:47pm. I had planned on taking the kayaks out but my foot blew up again with gout something awful on Thursday night and although better, I didn't want to risk hurting it and causing it to get worse.

[MassYak85]

On 9/24/2020 at 8:21 PM, A-Jay said:

While targeting the bigger local brown bass population during late summer and into the fall,  I look for bait.  When there's an abundance of especially 4 to 5 inch yellow perch wondering around a flat of half dying weeds, I lose sleep.  Past two seasons it was on like donkey kong by mid August. This year, Just not happening.  I am so stubborn and just refuse to good deep, choosing instead to beat the areas I expect the bait to show up in to a froth; despite the lack of bait.  Yesterday it was sunsise to sunset.  Brutal. Because I am the very definition of insane, I struggle.

A-Jay 

So question...when you find the perch, are you trying to imitate them with your presentations? Like today I found some perch in a weed bed near deep water, but the bass didn't seem to be interested in perch presentations (cranks, spinnerbait, drop shot in perch colors). I did manage to put a decent pattern together in an even shallower area on the other side of the lake with spinnerbaits but I wasn't really seeing any baitfish activity. I assumed they must be targeting bluegill in those areas. 

[A-Jay]

5 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

So question...when you find the perch, are you trying to imitate them with your presentations? Like today I found some perch in a weed bed near deep water, but the bass didn't seem to be interested in perch presentations (cranks, spinnerbait, drop shot in perch colors). I did manage to put a decent pattern together in an even shallower area on the other side of the lake with spinnerbaits but I wasn't really seeing any baitfish activity. I assumed they must be targeting bluegill in those areas. 

There's more to it for me.

While I do believe that bass are "opportunistic feeders" to an extent,

when there's plenty of food in an area, I am often hard pressed to get a 'reaction strike'.

I will almost always have better success fishing where & when the bass are actually feeding.

Eliminates my need to try and force feed them.

They are almost always far more willing to take a poke at a several different types of presentations for me when they are already in chase mode.  

The fall can be one of the times when the bass can & often will feed several times a day;

but I still will benefit by being there when they do. 

Presentations made close to or at the depth they are using can be helpful.

This is what drives my bait/presentation selection.

If I'm fishing an area with bait and not getting bites, I leave and come back when I think I'll be casting to fish that are  in an active or at least neutral and not negative mood.

 And if I can do it without detection, my chances will improve. 

A-Jay

 

 

[superkamikazee]

I've been struggling the last few weeks. I primarily fish larger ponds and smaller lakes, and it's been a grind. I've had the most luck pulling fish out of lay downs, and that's about it. The ponds I fish are heavily over grown, and come summer, it's almost strictly frogging. This year the frog bite has been terrible, where as last year I couldnt keep them off the frog. The bulk of the fish I've caught have been on the ned rig this year, that bait saved my year lol.

 

Been chasing this "fall transition", and the few fish I've caught didn't look to be fattening up yet. Also haven't seen any bait busting the surface like I usually do when they're getting chased around up shallow. Needless to say, I have no idea what I'm doing out there right now. Water temp was 64 F, air temp 80 F in Mass.....

[padon]

18 hours ago, A-Jay said:

There's more to it for me.

While I do believe that bass are "opportunistic feeders" to an extent,

when there's plenty of food in an area, I am often hard pressed to get a 'reaction strike'.

I will almost always have better success fishing where & when the bass are actually feeding.

Eliminates my need to try and force feed them.

They are almost always far more willing to take a poke at a several different types of presentations for me when they are already in chase mode.  

The fall can be one of the times when the bass can & often will feed several times a day;

but I still will benefit by being there when they do. 

Presentations made close to or at the depth they are using can be helpful.

This is what drives my bait/presentation selection.

If I'm fishing an area with bait and not getting bites, I leave and come back when I think I'll be casting to fish that are  in an active or at least neutral and not negative mood.

 And if I can do it without detection, my chances will improve. 

A-Jay

 

 

same here. fished Saturday.tons of baitfish on the finder. put swimbaits dropshots crankbaits etc down there. nothing finally caught some by fishing up higher on the grass using swimbaits lipless and topwater. my suspicion is that while there were plenty of bass around the bait fish on the deep weed edge they were just inactive. the fish I caught up shallower were simply the ones who decided to hunt and eat.

[TriStateBassin106]

Fall here in NJ has been weird so far. 3 weeks ago we were getting days were it barely reached 70 degrees and cooler nights, this brought down the water temps and enticed the big gals to feed, like this 3lber below, but since last week the temps shot back into the 80s and the bite totally shut off, got a couple after slowly fishing senkos but it took awhile. Temps are supposed to drop again into the mid 60s for the rest of the week and I'm hoping that the bite finally turns back on. 

[Paul Roberts]

We had an abrupt end of the summer too, with a front that dropped air temps 60F in 24hrs(!), and dumping 10" of snow. Ground is still warm so the snow didn't last. But my ponds had a lot of heat sucked out of them, dropping them into the 60's (core temps). Longer cooler nights are continuing their work so "Summer" won't be back, despite some day’s highs in the 80s. Tough to really mess with day length, sun angle, and water's ability to buffer heat gain and loss.

 

One thing I looked for following this early frigid front was within-day re-heating, as the sun is still high enough to offer some heating. This scenario is always stronger in the spring, but I watch for it in fall too. If I can find bass, prey, and good heating in a specific area, a “carnage zone” may erupt. And I did manage to find one this fall.

 

By mid-month the bass in my "Fall Transition Pond" for this year appear to be in binge mode already. Some years summer conditions can last into Sept. Not this one. But it appears we are only a week or a bit more ahead this year. The bass were just beginning to fatten up mid-month, being summer thin but with that little bulge in the mid-section that is a combo of developing gonads, mesenteric fat deposits, and food. This is not all that far off from "normal" years, I guess bc the mostly photoperiod-mediated endogenous rhythm kicks in at pretty much the same time every year. Most of my bass are pretty fat by early October. The fall feeding binge appears to me to be a combination of: heat loss (sun angle, day length), and dying vegetation that moves, exposes, and consolidates prey. In larger lakes, turnover may have a somewhat similar effect.

 

To find biters, I try to focus on prey types. The food my Sept bass have contained, or have been seen hunting, include gizzard shad, bluegills, and crayfish. One contained a partially digested mouse! No, I haven’t run out to buy any mouse lures.

 

My best catch rate in this fall’s pond, came by targeting crayfish-hunters, which isn’t easy bc of the amount of vegetation —little clean substrate. The rest of my fish have been… wherever I can find them. So I hear you on having to grind out a catch. Since I’m fishing small water there aren’t many places to run to, to either try to duplicate a “pattern” or find “fresh” fish. I was able to milk a few spots, but for only a fish at a time. My bass are happily feeding here, but as usual, lures are most often sorry replacement for “food”.

 

Presentations can be all over the place. I start with speed, usually in shallow cover, and then move out away-from-shore. I’ve found that sometimes speed is required in fall, and I mean burning. If the fish are so trigger-able, catches stack up fast. If this fails I slow down, but may re-try later in the day.

 

In many of my weedy ponds my focus tends to be the inside weedlines (shorelines), the outside weedlines (away-from-shore), and the flats in between. Sounds kind of obvious but each require different presentations. What matters is that the fish are there, and willing. One pattern that has held up over the... decades, is when weeds die back, turn brown and slimy, bass move to the outside edges of the beds or open pockets amongst, and respond best to a slower, often falling lure. My two favorites have been a swim-jig, fished in sweeps and falls, and a soft jerk on a lightly shank-weighted hook, that delivers a slow tantalizing fall that's a great trigger. This bait can actually do double duty, fished fast in darts or waking, or fished slow on the fall when paused.

 

The swim-jig also does double-duty by mimicing crayfish along the clean inside weed-edge, and then can be swum out onto the flat to mimic bluegills. Along the outer weedlines I also use a jig-worm or grub (Ned). I also like crankbaits here too, crawling them through cover edges like a jig.

 

Hope this helps. Don’t assume the worst. Still the same planet, for the time being anyway.