Fall Patterns for Shorebound Anglers

[kayl.]

Anyone have any good fall patterns for shorebound anglers?  I've been trying buzzbaits and cranks over different dropoffs and 6'-8' bays, but have only got swiped at by some pike.  Any tips?

[Davis]

Anyone have any good fall patterns for shorebound anglers? I've been trying buzzbaits and cranks over different dropoffs and 6'-8' bays, but have only got swiped at by some pike. Any tips?

Fat Ikas in natural colors on those drop offs have produced some nice bass for me.

Sometimes even in only a couple feet of water.

[Crestliner2008]

Yeah.....6" Senkos Tx rigged on a 5/0 EWG red hook.  Try watermelon or smoke w/black flake. Dynomite!

[bass109]

fat ikas work great

[Avalonjohn44]

Zoom flukes have worked well for me in the past, but right now I'm doing really good on the Gambler Big Stick with only a tiny bit of weight (half of a lead nail weight) and a Bagley B2 Square lip.

[dman]

today i found em suspended about 6 feet of the bottom in 12' of water...they started wacking a spinnerbait.

[Bass_Akwards]

Don't forget fellas, lot's of people over use the term "pattern" A "pattern" isn't just, throwing a bait out, and if it works, you suddenly have a "pattern" Just because you throw a jig and it catches a lot of bass in the fall, doesn't mean the jig is a "pattern. That's more of a "technique", than a pattern.

I was taught that a pattern is when you catch bass using a specific lure/bait, at a specific depth in the water, around a specific kind of structure or cover, and to be able to duplicate it in different lakes or different areas of the lake you're fishing and still catch bass every time.

For example, let's say you're fishing a big old hump or point or whatever, with a giant rock in it. You throw a spinner bait out there and retrieve it at about 12 feet under the surface next to the rock and catch bass doing that. You just STARTED a possible pattern. to COMPLETE the "pattern" you must be able to do this over and over at different places on a lake or pond, or many different ponds and lakes..

Once you start catching bass using this same lure, in the same type of structure and cover, at the same depth, in different ereas of a lake or lakes BANG, you have a pattern.

[Kozak]

Spinnerbaits, Fluke-type baits (zoom, bassassin, mann's hardnose all work great), senkos (wacky or texas) and buzzbaits

[David P]

THROW JIGS!

Jigs are very easy to throw from shore, in fact, I find it easier to fish a jig from shore then from a boat.

Ikas, Senkos, Super flukes, Rip baits, drop shots, all work well too and produce good fish in fall.

goodluck.

[granadethrow]

pike usually will gobble all your lures before the bass will, so  catch all the pike, walk ten feet downshore, let them go, and eventually you will start getting bass.

OR,

Try a different spot, there may be too many pike and hardly any bass at this spot.

[Crestliner2008]

Bass_Akwards - No question you are correct. But you cannot "pattern" bass when limited by shore fishing access only! At best, fishing from shore, you pick a likely structure and then beat the heck out of it with everything you have. You are just not mobile enough to develope patterns in this situation. I could be wrong though, so please, if anyone has a better approach, let us all know  

[Davis]

If you can walk around the entire place that you fish than you may be able to get a pattern going.

Obviously if the fish are shallow.

I come across this with my dads pond. I can fish it deep from the shore because it's not that big or I can obviously fish it shallow. Like last week for instance fish were hitting all the way around the sucker on the drop offs where there were still some clumps of grass. I would say thats a pattern.

Threw the same green pumpkin black flake Fat Ika at them the whole time.

sidenote: The Ika is a lot more durable than a senko. Not by much but I still got four more fish than I would have with a senko.

[roadwarrior]

There is no pattern on a pond. Bass MUST patrol the entire area searching for prey. That's not to say that certain spots aren't more productive than others, but the biggest fish in the water can be anywhere at anytime.

[bass109]

roadwarrior pond bass suspend if there is little cover,if your pond is a bowl shape. Go for the deepest part of the pond.

[roadwarrior]

I'm sure some of the bass are suspending at times, others following schools of baitfish all over the pond, but most of the "catchable" bass cruise around the perimeter. The bigger bass can sometimes be found at what might be considered traditional ambush points, but the vast majority of the bigger bass I catch are simply cruising a ledge which extends the entire length of the pond.