Besides spring, the fall is when big fish really show themselves. Depending on the latitudes you fish, bass are gorging themselves for the long — or short — cold weather season ahead. It’s the time of year where a bass needs to pack on the calories. The water is cooling down and the bass are looking for a meal that’s going to add some weight.
There are an abundance of baits that work during this time of year. From the top of the water all the way to the bottom, fish can be caught just about anywhere in the fall. Within the realm of fall baits, some truly stand out from the crowd.
To Go Big Or Downsize?
Before we get into baits, we have to discuss the biggest dilemma: Are you going to go big or small during the fall?
Over the course of my fishing career, I’ve operated under the theory that in fall you downsize your baits. Mainly because the baitfish that were born in the springtime have now grown up, but are still on the smaller side. These smaller baitfish, whether it’s perch, herring, minnows or bluegills, are an easier snack than big baitfish. Smaller baitfish often school in large numbers making them easy pickings for bass. Downsizing your baits to match the hatch will ensure more bites on a consistent basis. I think it might be your best shot at catching a true giant.
Here’s an opposite perspective: Talking with Mark Zona, host of Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show, he had a much different approach to lure size in fall fishing.
“In the fall, some bass can be keyed in on the biggest forage of the year,” says Zona. While smaller baitfish may be easier to find and eat, bigger bait provides more caloric intake to fatten those green and brown bellies for the winter.
Zona also says “Until that water gets below 50 degrees, I upsize everything. Whether it’s a Strike King Z Too Soft Jerkbait, KVD Jerkbait 300, KVD Splash Topwater, or crankbait, everything gets upsized. This happens every single year in the fall.”
All of this depends on the body of water and size of the forage. Always have multiple sizes of baits to give targets a different offering. A fish’s mood can change from day to day, even hour to hour in the fall. So having multiple offerings to present to them can pay off with extra bites throughout the day.
Top Fall Bass Lures
Here are some off the top lures you should tie on in the fall. Whether you’re on either coast, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) impoundment, great lake, or your local neighborhood honey hole, these lures have proven to consistently catch big bass throughout the fall.
Umbrella Rigs
Since baitfish school up in large numbers in the fall, there is no better bait in my mind than an umbrella rig. Coming in many different arm styles, with or without blades, this rig can account for some incredible strikes. Even multiple fish at one time! Bladed rigs are extremely popular right now, and top brands produce reliable options such as the Jenko Fishing J-Pod Flash Umbrella Rig and Yum Yumbrella Flash Mob Junior with Willow Blades.
Before picking up an umbrella rig, please check with your local state environmental agencies to see the legality of how many baits or hook points can be fished at a given time. Some states have specific guidelines that need to be followed in order to fish an umbrella rig. Where I live and fish in New York, the umbrella rig in the fall is hard to beat. Especially when smallmouth bass fishing. There is no one that loves to throw it more than fishing guide Larry Mazur out of Buffalo. He has an umbrella rig tied on all year, but in the fall is when he will catch the most and biggest fish.
“Once the leaves start to change and water drops below 65 degrees, that Brown Dog Tackle Umbrella Rig is always tied on! Whether I’m in five feet or 45 feet, the rig flat out produces,” Mazur says.
He also says that you have to have one or more of your baits stand out, it’s something for the bass to key in on. On his A-Rig, Mazur keeps his middle bait and jighead either a chartreuse or white color, even in crystal clear water. “Even if the jighead is a bright or different color, smallmouth will especially hone in on this and others following will follow suit,” Mazur says.
We both love to throw Keitech Fat Swing Impact swimbaits on our rigs in 2.8- and 3.3-inch sizes, as that mimics the gobies and alewife bass are keyed in on our northeast lakes. But their are plenty of swimbaits on the market in varying sizes that work really well on umbrella rigs, including the Bass Pro Shops XPS Speed Shad, Strike King Rage Swimmer, Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ, Rapala Mayor and Biwaa Deus. It truly is angler preference, and you might have your own favorites for your home waters.
As far as rod, reel, and line setup, a 7-foot, 11-inch heavy, moderate-action rod works great to launch that bait out there, as well as absorb the shock from the bites and hookset. Treat an A-Rig as if it’s a big crankbait, you want a rod that will have some flex so you don’t rip the bait out of the fish’s mouth. Spool a 7:1 gear ratio reel up with 20- to 25-pound-test fluorocarbon and you’re good to go.
While you will catch fish on a straight retrieve, I get most of my bites while “flexing” the rig with my reel handle. Flexing means making the rig pop and flare out to look like a school of baitfish that are spooked. You do this by making one or two quick revolutions of the reel handle combined with your steady retrieve.
Crankbaits
Arguably one of the most popular baits to throw in the fall, a crankbait is the perfect lure to imitate a fleeing baitfish. The way a crankbait darts and deflects off cover is the most realistic way to imitate a baitfish that has escaped from the school. I absolutely love throwing crankbaits all year, but especially in the fall. Why? Because you can cover lots of water in a short time. Depending upon the bill size, different baits cover multiple depths within the same spot and trip. Manufacturers have cranks dialed in with deadly specifications; consider the Strike King Hardliner for a tight wobble presentation, the Duo Realis Mid Roller 40F for pressured waters, Berkley’s Frittside with its silent action for sluggish fish, and Spro’s Little John when fishing the shallow stuff.
During any given trip in the fall, I have at least two different crankbaits tied on. One rod with a shallow or a square-billed crankbait, and another with a mid-depth or deep diving crankbait. Just to have all those bases covered. I am a huge fan of the Rapala DT series of crankbaits as they come in a variety of colors and more importantly, bill sizes. On one rod I can have a Rapala DT-6 for covering shallow flats, and on another I can have a DT-10 or DT-14 to cover the mid-depth range into deeper water. Being a balsa wood bait, they have great buoyancy and float up extremely quickly on the pause.
I throw all three styles of crankbaits on 10-pound-test fluorocarbon with a slower 6.3:1 gear ratio reel to not overwork my bait. When it comes to rods, for shallower crankbaits I love using the Dobyns Fury 705CB crankbait rod. Even though it’s only seven feet in length, it absorbs the hookups extremely well on treble hooked baits. For deeper diving baits, I simply increase my length on the rod to 7 feet, 6 inches or even eight feet to increase my casting distance and get better hookups with those long lipped baits.
Spinnerbaits
During the fall turnover, the entire water column mixes creating the same water temperature throughout the entire waterbody. This allows bass to get back to exploring the shallows as the entire lake is the same water temperature. There is no better bait to fish shallow cover with than a spinnerbait. The blade resistance keeps the bait sitting higher in the water column, allowing the bait to be fished in and around cover very well.
Bass will get up tight to submerged overhanging trees, docks, lily pads and weed edges and a spinnerbait is a great bait to pull them out of the cover. This is not a bait you retrieve slowly either in the shallows. A lot of the time, bass up shallow are actively feeding fish and super aggressive. So burning the bait and keeping it moving is the retrieve you want.
There are a plethora of quality spinnerbaits on the market, including the Booyah Covert (with double willow blades), Strike King Tour Grade (double willows), Berkley Power Blade (Colorado and willow options), and the War Eagle (double willows). My favorite shallow water spinnerbait might be the Bassman TW Double Willow Spinnerbait. This bait has a portion of the weight on the shank of the hook, creating a smaller profile to imitate the smaller forage in the fall.
For gear, I use a rod less than seven feet in length. A 6-foot, 10-inch rod is perfect for this style of tight quarters combat fishing. This enables you to roll the spinnerbait right uptight to cover creating a very subtle surface disturbance. I pair this rod with a 7.0:1 Daiwa Fuego CT casting reel spooled with 20-pound Sunline FC Sniper Fluorocarbon. That faster gear ratio reel allows me to burn that bait out of the cover quickly, while the heavy fluorocarbon offers maximum abrasion resistance with the line rubbing up against all the cover.
Jerkbaits
Other than the spring, the fall is a time when the erratic twitching of a jerkbait can drive bass nuts. Unlike the spring, where you have long pauses in between the twitching of the jerkbait, your retrieve can be much faster in the fall to trigger strikes as fish are a lot more active. A jerkbait is perfect for weed edges and shallow flats, where bass are constantly on the hunt searching for their next meal. That fast, erratic action will call them out of their ambush spots and create the most-intense strikes!
New Yorker and Bassmaster Opens Pro Casey Smith is no stranger to throwing a jerkbait in the fall. “If I had to choose one bait to fish all fall, from October to ice up, it would be a jerkbait,” he says. “The way that it can call fish in is unlike any other bait in the fall. Its drawing power is unmatched.”
Now if you walk down the hard bait isle at Bass Pro Shops, you’ll see countless options for jerkbaits. The Bill Lewis Scope-Stik, Strike King KVD Deep Jerkbait, Rapala PXR Mavrik and others will likely catch your eye with today’s lifelike finishes. In fact, you are looking for a bait that is very loud and has an erratic action to it, so this is not the place for subtle baits. Smith’s go to jerkbait in the fall is a Berkley Stunna 112, which has loud tungsten balls in the bait as well as a very wide and erratic side to side action. This is also a slow sinking bait, allowing you to cover different depths and breaks in the cover with just one bait.
When throwing a jerkbait in the fall and constantly moving the bait, I tend to stay away from a baitcaster. I’ll always go with a spinning rod for two reasons — to make a longer cast and to save on wrist pain. A spinning rod will eliminate the wrist and lower arm pain.
Football Jigs
You can’t just fish horizontally all fall; not all bass will be shallow and willing to eat. You’ll have fish that are stubborn and stick to the bottom around cover. That’s where a football jig comes into play. A jig in general works well in the fall, but a football jig comes through rock much better and can be dragged better than any other jig style. This is also a bait that, depending on the trailer that it’s paired with, can actually imitate a baitfish more than a crayfish. Especially in smallmouth waters with gobies and perch as the main forage, a football jig paired with a slender style trailer or small swimbait shines over lots of other baits.
This is not your hop style of jig that you’re bouncing along the bottom or the cover. With a football jig, you make a long cast and drag the bait over the structure. Bass that are sitting on isolated patches of deeper cover, like rocks or sunken trees, will eat a football jig better than any other bait presented in front of them. Great football jig options are available from Bass Pro Shops and Strike King, but also don’t shy away from a dark-colored option like Buckeye Lures’ Football Mop Jig.
Blade Baits
This one is more for smallmouth fisherman in the north country or my Tennessee ledge fishermen. A vibrating blade bait has its time and place, especially in fall. Vibrating metal baits get absolutely crushed. But, it’s not just a smallmouth bait like everyone thinks — largemouth love it too.
“Once we are into a true fall bite, a Binsky Blade Bait is always tied on a rod on my deck,” says Destin DeMarion, owner of Big Fat Bass Guide Service out of the central basin of Lake Erie. “It’s a bait that you can vertically jig off the bottom, but you can also cast it horizontally and yo-yo it off the bottom. You can also straight retrieve it like a trap-style bait. The possibilities are endless with a vibrating piece of metal,” he says.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is vary your retrieve speeds. When the water is warmer — in the mid to low 60s — get aggressive with hopping that blade bait to trigger a reaction strike. As the water cools down, become more subtle with your hops or retrieve, and that’s when they will react to it.
Color can also be a big factor when choosing the right blade bait. Many anglers think that blade baits only come in two colors, silver and gold. But, many brands of blade baits come in a variety of colors to trigger more strikes. The SteelShad is available in at least 15 different colors. DeMarion is very partial to a sexy shad color on days when fish are more baitfish oriented. When I’m fishing goby infested waters, the goby color is what I pick. For largemouth, it’s hard to beat the red craw or black/blue patterns. Of course match the size weight for how deep you’ll be fishing.
Fishing in Fall is Hot
The fall is arguably one of the best times of year to be on the water not only to catch big bass, but have some of the best numbers too. More importantly, you have to be equipped with the right lures to put the big ones in the boat. These recommendations are not the only baits to catch bass in the fall, these are just some of the most-proven fish catching baits available. You likely have your own favorites too.
The most important part of fall fishing is understanding the conditions and applying these baits in the right scenarios. When done right, you’ll be leaving the ramp with a grin on your face ready to watch your favorite football team win their next game.
