Fall Transition

[Mottfia]

Hey Guys,

  The Fall transition is coming up and I wanted to know how everyone goes about getting ready and finding fish during this part of the year.

Mottfia

[cart7t]

Coming up? I ran into a classic fall setup in Illinois a couple weeks ago.

I fished a tournament at Rend Lake in Illinois. Water temps mid 80's, air temps 90. The fish were in the very back ends of the coves that had feeder creeks hanging on laydowns or weedbeds in 1-2 feet of water waiting to ambush shad schools that were already moving back into that shallow of water. I, along with a whole lot of others had spent pre-fishing time trying to catch fish off more traditional late summer haunts like main lake points and larger secondary points within the larger coves.

I didn't find the pattern till it was too late.

Weird summer we're having this year.

I've got a T on another lake tomorrow.  I'm more familiar with this lake than I was with Rend.  No pre fishing time for this one but I'm going to keep an open mind.  Look for the shad.  They seem to be thinking more fall right now than the fishermen.  

[Catt]

Pretty much what I do in the springfollow the bait fish & water temperatures

[Paul Roberts]

Coming up? I ran into a classic fall setup in Illinois a couple weeks ago.

I fished a tournament at Rend Lake in Illinois. Water temps mid 80's, air temps 90. The fish were in the very back ends of the coves that had feeder creeks hanging on laydowns or weedbeds in 1-2 feet of water waiting to ambush shad schools that were already moving back into that shallow of water. I, along with a whole lot of others had spent pre-fishing time trying to catch fish off more traditional late summer haunts like main lake points and larger secondary points within the larger coves.

I didn't find the pattern till it was too late.

Weird summer we're having this year.

I've got a T on another lake tomorrow. I'm more familiar with this lake than I was with Rend. No pre fishing time for this one but I'm going to keep an open mind. Look for the shad. They seem to be thinking more fall right now than the fishermen.

cart7t, what were the dates of that tournament?

[cart7t]

It was the Kyle Price memorial tournament on Aug 16th.

There was a Bass World Sport tournament the day before.  

[KingBass]

I stock up on big worms! Rage tail anaconda and gander mt. 1o" worms! I also break out the big spinnerbait and crankbaits!

Edit

I don't really have to deal with following the bait as much as you guys.I fish mostly man mad ponds, so the bait could pretty much be anywhere!  

[Paul Roberts]

Coming up? I ran into a classic fall setup in Illinois a couple weeks ago.

I fished a tournament at Rend Lake in Illinois. Water temps mid 80's, air temps 90. The fish were in the very back ends of the coves that had feeder creeks hanging on laydowns or weedbeds in 1-2 feet of water waiting to ambush shad schools that were already moving back into that shallow of water. I, along with a whole lot of others had spent pre-fishing time trying to catch fish off more traditional late summer haunts like main lake points and larger secondary points within the larger coves.

I didn't find the pattern till it was too late.

Weird summer we're having this year.

I've got a T on another lake tomorrow. I'm more familiar with this lake than I was with Rend. No pre fishing time for this one but I'm going to keep an open mind. Look for the shad. They seem to be thinking more fall right now than the fishermen.

Curious. What in particular do you believe is weird about this year?

[cart7t]

After talking to some of the guys after the tournament,  the fish at Rend have never taken to the late summer patterns like previous years.  I've experienced that at a couple other lakes I fish.  They're much shallower than normal and more reactive to reaction baits vs normal where we'd be dragging some sort of soft plastic deep or fishing very heavy cover, flippin, hoping for a bite or two.  

[Raul]

Fall ?

Who 's falling ?  :-?

[Paul Roberts]

After talking to some of the guys after the tournament, the fish at Rend have never taken to the late summer patterns like previous years. I've experienced that at a couple other lakes I fish. They're much shallower than normal and more reactive to reaction baits vs normal where we'd be dragging some sort of soft plastic deep or fishing very heavy cover, flippin, hoping for a bite or two.

Thanks, cart! You guys are not alone in seeing this.

[WRB]

Out my way the fall transition doesn't start until the surface drops below 70 degrees or so, until than it's still a summer pattern.

Bait fish don't usually move out of the weeds until the weeds start to die back, then things start to change quickly to the fall pattern of bait fish and crawdad migrations.

If the weeds continue to stay green and produce DO, the water temps are good, the bait or bass don't have a reason to move.

WRB

[Clark Stewart]

Coming up? I ran into a classic fall setup in Illinois a couple weeks ago.

I fished a tournament at Rend Lake in Illinois. Water temps mid 80's, air temps 90. The fish were in the very back ends of the coves that had feeder creeks hanging on laydowns or weedbeds in 1-2 feet of water waiting to ambush shad schools that were already moving back into that shallow of water. I, along with a whole lot of others had spent pre-fishing time trying to catch fish off more traditional late summer haunts like main lake points and larger secondary points within the larger coves.

I didn't find the pattern till it was too late.

Weird summer we're having this year.

I've got a T on another lake tomorrow. I'm more familiar with this lake than I was with Rend. No pre fishing time for this one but I'm going to keep an open mind. Look for the shad. They seem to be thinking more fall right now than the fishermen.

Curious. What in particular do you believe is weird about this year?

I don't know about Colorado, but here in Alabama it's been the temps and rain. For the last 4 years or so we've been in a pretty severe drought. This is the first year that it has rained with any significance. What's weird is that the fish have not known where to be as in typical years. According to the weatherman this is actually a normal rain year for Alabama, but we've (and the fish apparently) have gotten so used to the drought that we think we're gonna drown! The fish seem lost and we're catching them in places we've seldom caught them this time of year. On top of that we had record high weather in July and record low weather in August. Go figure

[Koop]

After talking to some of the guys after the tournament, the fish at Rend have never taken to the late summer patterns like previous years. I've experienced that at a couple other lakes I fish. They're much shallower than normal and more reactive to reaction baits vs normal where we'd be dragging some sort of soft plastic deep or fishing very heavy cover, flippin, hoping for a bite or two.

Thanks, cart! You guys are not alone in seeing this.

I'm seeing this exact thing in the lakes here in WI.  We've had a stretch of low 70's and high 60's already and we aren't out of August yet.  I've already made the transition to the Fall pattern.  The Water temp is averaging 65-70 daily currently.  It is 54' here as I type this, and today didn't break 62'.  

This has been a very odd summer, we had an established thermocline for an extremely shortened period.

[5bass]

The summer bite has been different for me too. There has been lots more rain this year, the lakes are full, the water temps never got as high as they usually do and the fish have been a little hard to figure out at times. For most of the summer it was like they wanted to go deep but they were caught in between and just couldn't figure out what they wanted to do. I suspect that the lack of a solid thermocline has something to do with it.

Typically it's early topwater then move to deep water once the sun gets up....there's usually no 'in between'. It hasnt been that way this summer.....its been more like, early topwater and then gradually fish deeper until you find them. Sometimes it's 8', sometimes 12', sometimes 20'.  

In fact, I caught some schooling fish 3 weekends ago. I've never seen fish school that early in the year. It was a nice surprise. I'm going straight back there in the morning when we blast off. I still think it's a bit early for a full fledged move to fall but with the milder temps it should happen earlier than normal, so be ready.

[Mottfia]

I can say that the fishing is different this summer. Not so much to the point that I will say that the fish are setting up different or aren't sure about whats going on. In my case I have found them in the typical locations for summer. The only difference being that the bite was on for a longer period of time and a little shallower. I think the extra rain and cooler weather helped that.

  I'm hoping to get an idea of how yall think when it comes to fishing reserviors. Being a river rat I have spent the most of my times learning about river fish movements and I'm looking to see how they compare to reservior fishing.

Thank You,

Mottfia

[RoLo]

After talking to some of the guys after the tournament, the fish at Rend have never taken to the late summer patterns like previous years. I've experienced that at a couple other lakes I fish. They're much shallower than normal and more reactive to reaction baits vs normal where we'd be dragging some sort of soft plastic deep or fishing very heavy cover, flippin, hoping for a bite or two.

I find that intriguing!

Here in Florida I'm far removed from Missouri, yet our bass are also behaving as though we're in the fall period.

We were out just today, and you couldn't help but notice that the lake was alive with activity (both baitfish & bass).

In spite of the activity though, nothing was really working for us, and I told my wife that we should be doing much better.

She then tied on a spro aruku shad and quickly boated two bass. As soon as we gave up finesse fishing

the action went from boring to red hot, and I also noticed that every bass gave us a hard fight (much jumping).

This is not the rule in August, especially on this lake. I'm still mulling this one over, but I believe it's related

in some way to the inordinate rainfall of late, and pool levels higher than we've seen in years.

Roger

[DINK WHISPERER]

Don't even get me started on this summer! It has been the weirdest i have had on the water in a while! The fish did not display behaviors familiar to other years. We found them shallow when they should have been deep and vice versa. There were some really good fish taken this year though. Can't wait to see what the fall will be like!!!      

[Catt]

What changes in Fall?

Two things, the weather starts changing with the passing of fronts and lower air temperatures. But if Mother Nature is slow in signaling the start of fall through temperature changes and frontal conditions, the bass will still know fall is coming due to the amount of daylight.

As fall approaches, there is less daylight; less daylight means the water will start to cool on its own due to less heat for the sun and longer cooler nights which signals fall and winter are soon to follow.

We humans tend to watch clocks & calendarsthe bass don't

[senile1]

In my area we've had a cool August and in the last few days night time temperatures have been as low as 50.  This is abnormal as we are usually in the 90s during the day and 70s at night during this time of year.  I haven't fished in the last week but I expect an early fall transition if this continues.  

On a side note, I was looking forward to dove season starting September 1st, but with these night time temperatures, some of the doves will already have started to migrate south from Kansas City.

[Paul Roberts]

After talking to some of the guys after the tournament, the fish at Rend have never taken to the late summer patterns like previous years. I've experienced that at a couple other lakes I fish. They're much shallower than normal and more reactive to reaction baits vs normal where we'd be dragging some sort of soft plastic deep or fishing very heavy cover, flippin, hoping for a bite or two.

I find that intriguing!

Here in Florida I'm far removed from Missouri, yet our bass are also behaving as though we're in the fall period.

We were out just today, and you couldn't help but notice that the lake was alive with activity (both baitfish & bass).

In spite of the activity though, nothing was really working for us, and I told my wife that we should be doing much better.

She then tied on a spro aruku shad and quickly boated two bass. As soon as we gave up finesse fishing

the action went from boring to red hot, and I also noticed that every bass gave us a hard fight (much jumping).

This is not the rule in August, especially on this lake. I'm still mulling this one over, but I believe it's related

in some way to the inordinate rainfall of late, and pool levels higher than we've seen in years.

Roger

Roger, what are your water temps now? Seems much of the south has been typically scorching from what I've assumed from some posts. The cool weather in the north. Is that so? Are you normal? Or Cooler? Lately?

[RoLo]

As fall approaches, there is less daylight; less daylight means the water will start to cool on its own due to less heat for the sun and longer cooler nights which signals fall and winter are soon to follow.

We humans tend to watch clocks & calendarsthe bass don't

Catt, I agree with your photoperiod theory, but photoperiod moves lockstep with our Gregorian calendar.

August on these waters is different from those in the past (I know this lake 'very' well).

Roger

[RoLo]

After talking to some of the guys after the tournament, the fish at Rend have never taken to the late summer patterns like previous years. I've experienced that at a couple other lakes I fish. They're much shallower than normal and more reactive to reaction baits vs normal where we'd be dragging some sort of soft plastic deep or fishing very heavy cover, flippin, hoping for a bite or two.

I find that intriguing!

Here in Florida I'm far removed from Missouri, yet our bass are also behaving as though we're in the fall period.

We were out just today, and you couldn't help but notice that the lake was alive with activity (both baitfish & bass).

In spite of the activity though, nothing was really working for us, and I told my wife that we should be doing much better.

She then tied on a spro aruku shad and quickly boated two bass. As soon as we gave up finesse fishing

the action went from boring to red hot, and I also noticed that every bass gave us a hard fight (much jumping).

This is not the rule in August, especially on this lake. I'm still mulling this one over, but I believe it's related

in some way to the inordinate rainfall of late, and pool levels higher than we've seen in years.

Roger

Roger, what are your water temps now? Seems much of the south has been typically scorching from what I've assumed from some posts. The cool weather in the north. Is that so? Are you normal? Or Cooler? Lately?

Good question.

Yesterday, water temps ranged between 78 and 83-deg F, which is somewhat south of normal on this waterbody.

We've been getting near daily rainfall, and the lake's temperature is apparently buffeted by tropospheric temps (rainfall).

As soon as I post this Paul, I'm on my way out on the same lake...hopefully I'll learn something.

Roger

[tnhiker44]

The surface temperatures in my neck of the woods have been hovering in the upper 80's and even reaching the low 90's in some areas. But it sure does seem as if the fish have been shallower this year (based on my catches and those I hear about). So, after a couple of big rainfalls late in the week I go out to a local lake yesterday and find the surface temperatures to be in the low 80's... the lowest I have seen since spring. The bite was way off, not only for me but for everyone I talked to. Here I have been waiting for the temperatures to drop to turn on the fish and just the opposite happens. Perhaps the 'off' bite was because of the radical change in surface temperatures and not a gradual one (like the change of seasons bring).

At any rate, I too have seen a difference in fish position/location and activity this year.

[roadwarrior]

The transition here is to brown fish.

WOO-HOO!

Prime time is just around the corner.

;D ;D ;D  

[WRB]

As fall approaches, there is less daylight; less daylight means the water will start to cool on its own due to less heat for the sun and longer cooler nights which signals fall and winter are soon to follow.

We humans tend to watch clocks & calendarsthe bass don't

Catt, I agree with your photoperiod theory, but photoperiod moves lockstep with our Gregorian calendar.

August on these waters is different from those in the past (I know this lake 'very' well).

Roger

The bass calendar that Catt refers to and I totally agree with is within the bass's genetic base; the cosmic clock. PM me with email address and I will send you a copy.

Every year differs to some degree due to changes in weather patterns, atmospheric changes, recruitment of prey and bass, etc. The cycles however repeat with each bass calendar period; winter, pre-spawn, spawn, post spawn, summer and fall. The Georgian calendar; January to December may at time coincide with the bass's calendar from time to time.

We like to say; the bass are bedding when the mustard or dogwood blossoms. The old observations are based seasonal changes not calendar months and were fairly accurate

WRB