More Fall Smallmouth Bass Fishing Tips
Are you looking for more fall smallmouth bass fishing tips?
Everyone always talks about smallmouth bass putting on their feed bag in the fall and catching larger bass in the fall. Do you have trouble finding them? Keep in mind that smallmouth bass are going to be moving away from areas that you found them all summer and are going to be chasing food.
More Fall Smallmouth Bass Fishing Tips
If you know where the baitfish or other forage went, you can find the bronzebacks. In this excellent article, you’re sure to find the tips you need to put you on smallies in the fall.
It brought to mind an interesting fall fact I’ve always found intriguing. Something, I think, many bass anglers overlook. That is that autumn is not a single season but rather three sub-seasons. I like to break it down into the early fall period, the mid-Indian summer phase and the late cold-water stage that we’re entering right now.
Diminishing daylight and falling water temperatures prompt smallmouth bass to binge feed in order to survive the upcoming winter starvation period. So you’d think the fishing would get better and better and better. But, it is not always the case. Or, at least, not in the way you might think.
Bass that were scooting 20-feet to smack a lure floating well above their heads two weeks ago, now weren’t moving more than a couple of feet to eat a jig dangling in front of their noses.
The other thing that was very noticeable was that the smallmouth had moved deeper along with their food. It is nearly always true, that when you find the food you find the fish, but it is especially the case in the fall when smallmouth and their prey both move ever deeper seeking stable water conditions.
Earlier, when Doug was up filming with me, we found the smallmouth marauding schools of shiners, smelts and ciscoes in 8- to 15-feet of water. Yesterday, those same fish and their forage were 20-, 25- even 30-feet deep.
It is a classic late fall scenario and is why we rarely fish a spot unless we first spot bait on our sonar screens.
Something else that is worth keeping in mind. When you’re fishing for open water, structure-oriented smallmouth in the late fall, let the wind guide you to the fish. Yesterday, for example, it was breezy, so we drifted across prime rocky deep structures dragging drop-shot rigs, jigs and other near bottom presentations. Source
When the temperature drops in that third autumn phase, fish slower and use baits that are geared for slower fishing such as jigs, jerk baits and drop shots.
Get out there and use these fall smallmouth bass fishing tips before you miss the fall bite and are working hair jigs in the winter or sitting at home watching fishing shows by the fire!
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