September Tough

[GreenPig]

I just spent a bit of time looking through my pics of every LM & Spot I've caught in the last 7 years. I fish year round and September here in Georgia, year after year has been my least productive month for numbers and size. It's been almost impossible to figure out any consistent pattern and the fish seem to be spread all over the lake. How does everybody adjust for the late Summer to early Fall transition? 

[Kyle S]

September has been a hard month for me as well. Definitely didn't set the world on fire last year this time, however I went to the river yesterday and managed about 25 or so. I fished in a creek that the fish have been biting in all summer long. The grass has been up so high for the past month or so, however its starting to die off. All of the vegetation submerged and floating along the surface truly limits bait choices. Texas rigs of all flavors, jigs, senkos and my favorite the buzz bait. 22 of the 25 fish yesterday were all caught on a buzzbait in shallower water (1-5 feet.) Been wanting to try a johnson silver minnow with a trailer that many of you have mentioned working so well on the grass.

 

I certainly don't feel like I've 'figured them out' by any means.

Certainly curious about what some of the more experienced members have to say.

[scaleface]

Its tough on some lakes ang good on others . Here,  the thermocline starts dropping and at times schools can be found deep .

[T-Billy]

Always tough in Sept. in my neck of the woods. Tons of bait everywhere, vegetation is dying off and not holding fish. Lots of fish are suspended and hard to catch. Night time is still the right time along with the first hour of daylight. Main lake points and mouths of bays with rock and wood have been my best night/early morning spots. Dragging a T rigged beaver around. Bites have been VERY subtle.

Once the sun hits the water the only success I'm having is with a ned around the thermocline, or a T rig on shallow wood. That success is pretty limited. Temps are falling though. Bite should improve in just a few weeks. 

[TnRiver46]

Sept is easy in East TN but we’ve got shallow water smallies. We do the same thing you do, take pics of all fish then look back through them years later. We always have lots of nice 20”+ smallies with our TN football Orange gear in sept (because it’s early in football season and we aren’t ashamed to wear it yet). 
 

 

and the ones in the reservoirs bite too, they like to chase shad on top  late summer 

 

[GreenPig]

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sept is easy in East TN but we’ve got shallow water smallies. We do the same thing you do, take pics of all fish then look back through them years later. We always have lots of nice 20”+ smallies with our TN football Orange gear in sept (because it’s early in football season and we aren’t ashamed to wear it yet). 
 

 

and the ones in the reservoirs bite too, they like to chase shad on top  late summer 

 

Very nice. From my location to East Tennessee is 300 miles. Two trips a week for the month of September sounds like what I need to do. ? I do seriously need to catch my first Smallmouth.  

[TnRiver46]

6 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Very nice. From my location to East Tennessee is 300 miles. Two trips a week for the month of September sounds like what I need to do. ? I do seriously need to catch my first Smallmouth.  

Come on up!!! Back in the day you could even watch the dawgs play in Knoxville in sept but we have y’all scheduled for homecoming this year in November……….. not sure why they did that, I thought the home team was supposed to win the homecoming game hahaha

[padon]

september is tough here. fish are spread out moving alot. loys of bait around. only thing ive really been able to put together is you gotta be around bait. if you dont see bait with your eyes or on your sonar you gotta move.

[Bluebasser86]

September is the worse warm weather month of the year for me.

[TnRiver46]

24 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

September is the worse warm weather month of the year for me.

I’ve had some years where sept was bad but it’s typically excellent. Then again it’s usually 90 degrees here and no real transitions have started in earnest, basically just more summer with poplar and sycamore leaves laying around 

[DitchPanda]

I think your title was autocorrected..I'm positive it was meant to say September sucks!

[ironbjorn]

The first 10~ days of September are awesome for me and then success plummets at some point during the 2nd week and stays awful until the 2 or 3 good October days, and then it's over. 

[Bankbeater]

In September around here it may be bright and sunny one day, and cool and cloudy the next day.  The bass seem like they are more sensitive to the weather changes, and the bite can turn off at any second.

[Bluebasser86]

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’ve had some years where sept was bad but it’s typically excellent. Then again it’s usually 90 degrees here and no real transitions have started in earnest, basically just more summer with poplar and sycamore leaves laying around 

We get lots of temperature swings, usually rain, but mainly those first cooler nights (like the high 50s we're supposed to get this week), really scatters them out. The couple inches of rain last week didn't help. Will make my tournament this weekend interesting.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

We get lots of temperature swings, usually rain, but mainly those first cooler nights (like the high 50s we're supposed to get this week), really scatters them out. The couple inches of rain last week didn't help. Will make my tournament this weekend interesting.

Good luck!!! I predict you get 1st or 2nd 

[papajoe222]

I'm in the 'I like September' group. Once the night time temps. start dropping 15-20 degrees from the daytime highs, the fish start moving around more and the weeds continue to die concentrating baitfish and bass around the deeper green weeds.  I love fishing hard baits and come Sept. into the first couple of weeks of Oct., I break out the cranks, spinnerbaits and jointed swimbaits.