The fall transition bass fishing game is a fun one. The weeds start to die back, the night temperatures start to cool, and the bass start feeding up for winter.
Right now the transition is either starting or soon to start across America and it is a great time to get out and fish while others are busy hunting. The cool thing about it is that fish start chasing bait big time and reaction baits come into play a lot.
Fall Transition Bass Fishing – How To Find the Fish
There are a few ways to chase these guys as they move into this transition. It seems like they travel in reverse to the way they moved out for summer after post-spawn and you can target them in the little grass left, in pockets and creek channels, or on the hardcover when the grass dies back.
You can look for fallen timber and target those areas or other hardcover. It gets more visual and that is the way that I love to fish. You can also follow the baitfish into the coves and pockets and get on the bass that way. Either way, fall transition bass fishing can make for an exciting time of fast-moving baits and topwater explosions.
Fall Transition Bass Fishing – When Does it Start?
The reason the fall transition is on my mind is that not only are the nights cooling, but the weeds are dying back in my local lakes and the bass are keying in on chatterbaits, crankbaits, and one of my personal favorites the lipless crankbait.
Just last night my fishing buddy and I went out for an evening on the lake and I was catching them on wakebaits while he started wrecking them on a lipless crankbait. There are still weeds so the lighter weight Rattle Traps were killing it.
My buddy got a monster to the boat that was about 5-6 lbs, but it did a boat dive and pulled off. It was a heartbreaker, but at least we got to see the hog jump twice before tragedy struck.
I ended up catching them on wakebaits and chatterbaits, but he got big bass. I wish he would have landed it so that we could show it off, but I did get a small one on camera and showed the beautiful backdrop of the White Mountain lakes too.
In my experience, bass fishing in the fall transition can make for some fantastic days, but it can be frustrating too. Fish cover and work in reverse from the summer haunts to the shore following similar lines to the spawn. Follow the baitfish and the bass should be close at hand
Fall Transition Bass Fishing – What to Use
Early on I love burning a lipless crankbait or chatterbait, but as the water cools, sometimes I like yo-yoing the bait off the bottom with a lift and fall presentation.
Yesterday we were getting them on the outside weed edges with semi-deep water access. We started out with frogs but quickly moved to the moving baits like the wakebait and the lipless crank. The lipless crank was easier to rip out of the weeds than a traditional crankbait like a squarebill. As the water cools and the weeds die back more this could change.
My advice is to go out and hit your local lake and see what kind of magic can happen if you hit them right while fall transition bass fishing.
To your fishing success,
Jonathan Burke