Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Tuesday, 13 August 2024 09:11

Largemouth Fall Habits
by Mike Gerry

The biggest change in fall fishing occurs more in how the largemouth bass changes their habits, and why they relate to open flats more than any time of the year. Bass will more often follow the forage or bait fish more than any other time of year; this can make them harder to locate as most anglers are used to looking for structure to hold them.
The lakes are always full of bait fish in the fall and bass move to the bait fish for easy feeding and ignore their tendency to hang on structure. Point being is don’t ignore open water points or movement even though it appears to be removed from grass lines or structure that you are traditional use to fishing. This is one of the biggest reasons that crank baits running from 5 to 8 feet of water are so effective in the fall. You can be fishing hundreds of yards off structure and catching fish in the fall just because the bait have moved to the open waters. Long extended points where you’re removed from the traditional structure become great places to catch bass this time of year. Baits like rattle baits become once again effective, as open flats may not be covered in grass, and their tendency to chase becomes a pattern and the open flats become target areas.

Have you ever wondered why in the fall it seems that the bass turn on and off like a light switch? The reason is very simple the bass feed in large groups in the fall? They feed two maybe three times a day, the rest of the day they suspend and become very lethargic in the warm water.

Your fishing habits in the fall can many times be timed like clockwork as bass can be feeding one minute, your catching fish and then gone and not feeding the next. This is why I fish so many reaction type baits in the fall, rattle baits, jerk baits, pop-r’s are effective because outside the feeding times the bass can be very hard to catch and the only way is to trigger their instincts to react.
Don’t let the slow times of fall fishing discourage you, just look at some nontraditional areas away from structure, work reaction baits and you will find the bass.
Captain Mike