I do not claim to be an expert but since I have fished since I was in kindergarten, grew up fishing with my dad and all up until now, I thought I might help some less experienced with some insight that might help you on your next time out. If you want to add your's or add to mine please do so. emoAngel
I think there is really three main ways to fish this time of year that can and will be successful. All three center around one thing, the food source. The bait, the minnows, the bream, the shad...whatever the food source is, that is where the bass will be. The three ways include the deeper ledge/hump bite, the grass bite and the jumps bite. All three have to have the food source near or right there to be good. If you do not see or confirm the bait food source I would move on until you can confirm it and find that key element to have a good day.
First and the easiest to get on is the jumps. No rocket science here. Early in the mornings and late in the evenings this is usually the best. Drive around and look for schooling bass that are hitting schools of shad and fish them. Top water and cranks are usually the ticket. Match the hatch is usually the best to be successful. One thing here a lot of folks overlook is the fact that when they go back down they usually don't go all that far. Work the area and try to find the hold up and where they went to wait for the next school of shad to come through. Often you can run the river slowly and just look for jumping bass along the grass and pull over with a small crank and work them. I usually use a TN shad bomber in the 6A or 7A size if there is a little depth but if there is not use a trap or a small bill crank.
Second and a close pattern behind the jumps is deeper water humps and drops. This usually involves your depth finders or screens where you try and locate deeper bass along drops in the river where the bass will hold up to wait for deeper schools of shad to come through. This one will often have a direct relationship with current. Usually the more current the better the bite. Once you locate fish holding deeper then you have the task of trying to figure out if it is bass or something else. It seems to me that if you can get one or two to hit other bass there will get excited and start to hit. It is like you have to activate the school. The current will condense the bass school into tighter areas and get them more concentrated in that area. Without the current they will often spread out making it harder to find them. Swim baits, c-rigs, t-rigs, deep cranks, TN rigs, pig and jigs all can work in this type of pattern. It seems that in this case your bait needs to be somewhat different then what the bass are feeding on. Maybe in color, size or speed. You have to remember that you are competing with thousands of live shad to get the bass to hit your presentation.
On this Hump/drop pattern you also have to keep in mind that it does not have to be deep. A hump could be only a few feet deep surround by sightly deeper water. Say a hump or drop where the top is only 5/6 feet and the sides are only 8/10 feet. That may be all it takes to have a group of bass hold up there and feed. Usually along the river you can find them deeper but not always a hump, it could be a point or out cropping along the old river channel that they have grouped up on. An old creek bed out on the old river channel where the creek use to intersect the old river is a great spot to try.
The third pattern and most popular is the grass pattern. You can win or die by this pattern. It is my strong belief that the bass have moved in to the grass by now and it is a matter of getting them to bite. On good high pressure days where feeding bass are under the grass and along the edges it is easy to find them and get them to hit. Frogs, the Mouse, sluggo baits, lightly weighted swims will all work. If the grass is not topped out you can use Spooks, Sammie and other top water plugs to get them to come up top to strike. This type of fishing is one of my favorites. I just love to watch a big bass explode on the top water bite and get to see the hits. You had better come prepared or you will have some heartaches to deal with. Heavy braided lines from 50 lbs and up would be my recommendation. They hit hard and then bury up. You sometimes have to horse them out with 20 lbs of grass along with the bass. Too light of line and you will break off. I use 65 lb braid. On top of the grass will only get better until the water drops too low and the bass move out. Often the grass will lay over, it thickens on top due to it laying over, then the grass under this canopy does not get sun light and the lower water grass will begin to die. Once this happens the lower water grass will thin out and the bass will be more free to move around under the grass canopy. That is when it really turns on. emoDance
When I say you can die by this pattern you only have to look to the last CFF event to see that. The bass had moved up and were hitting great in the top water grass the weekend before our tournament. Then two days of +90 degrees caused the water to heat up on top sending the bass deeper and killing our top water bite. emoBawl Those who choose to stay in the grass mostly had to go to a deep grass presentation. Those that did not died trying to force feed bass on top that did not want to come up. It was best to go down to them. I like to use a 1/2 to 1 oz weight pegged. It is best to flip or pitch this offering since you are just dropping it down into the grass and trying to get it to go all the way down through the grass to where the bass are holding. Keep in mind there is opening under all that grass, find the openings and you will find the bass. Use braid again cause you have to get any bass you are lucky enough to hook back up and out of all that grass. The list of baits are to many to list but plastics are king in this pattern. Tubes, big worms, hogs, creatures and the list goes on and on.
I hope this may help some to improve your success on your next outing. emoGeezer If you would like to add your success story or suggestions to this post on how you go after Fall bass please do so. emoGrouphug Would love to see a good ol' time conversation on this topic get going.
emoAngler Jmax
I think there is really three main ways to fish this time of year that can and will be successful. All three center around one thing, the food source. The bait, the minnows, the bream, the shad...whatever the food source is, that is where the bass will be. The three ways include the deeper ledge/hump bite, the grass bite and the jumps bite. All three have to have the food source near or right there to be good. If you do not see or confirm the bait food source I would move on until you can confirm it and find that key element to have a good day.
First and the easiest to get on is the jumps. No rocket science here. Early in the mornings and late in the evenings this is usually the best. Drive around and look for schooling bass that are hitting schools of shad and fish them. Top water and cranks are usually the ticket. Match the hatch is usually the best to be successful. One thing here a lot of folks overlook is the fact that when they go back down they usually don't go all that far. Work the area and try to find the hold up and where they went to wait for the next school of shad to come through. Often you can run the river slowly and just look for jumping bass along the grass and pull over with a small crank and work them. I usually use a TN shad bomber in the 6A or 7A size if there is a little depth but if there is not use a trap or a small bill crank.
Second and a close pattern behind the jumps is deeper water humps and drops. This usually involves your depth finders or screens where you try and locate deeper bass along drops in the river where the bass will hold up to wait for deeper schools of shad to come through. This one will often have a direct relationship with current. Usually the more current the better the bite. Once you locate fish holding deeper then you have the task of trying to figure out if it is bass or something else. It seems to me that if you can get one or two to hit other bass there will get excited and start to hit. It is like you have to activate the school. The current will condense the bass school into tighter areas and get them more concentrated in that area. Without the current they will often spread out making it harder to find them. Swim baits, c-rigs, t-rigs, deep cranks, TN rigs, pig and jigs all can work in this type of pattern. It seems that in this case your bait needs to be somewhat different then what the bass are feeding on. Maybe in color, size or speed. You have to remember that you are competing with thousands of live shad to get the bass to hit your presentation.
On this Hump/drop pattern you also have to keep in mind that it does not have to be deep. A hump could be only a few feet deep surround by sightly deeper water. Say a hump or drop where the top is only 5/6 feet and the sides are only 8/10 feet. That may be all it takes to have a group of bass hold up there and feed. Usually along the river you can find them deeper but not always a hump, it could be a point or out cropping along the old river channel that they have grouped up on. An old creek bed out on the old river channel where the creek use to intersect the old river is a great spot to try.
The third pattern and most popular is the grass pattern. You can win or die by this pattern. It is my strong belief that the bass have moved in to the grass by now and it is a matter of getting them to bite. On good high pressure days where feeding bass are under the grass and along the edges it is easy to find them and get them to hit. Frogs, the Mouse, sluggo baits, lightly weighted swims will all work. If the grass is not topped out you can use Spooks, Sammie and other top water plugs to get them to come up top to strike. This type of fishing is one of my favorites. I just love to watch a big bass explode on the top water bite and get to see the hits. You had better come prepared or you will have some heartaches to deal with. Heavy braided lines from 50 lbs and up would be my recommendation. They hit hard and then bury up. You sometimes have to horse them out with 20 lbs of grass along with the bass. Too light of line and you will break off. I use 65 lb braid. On top of the grass will only get better until the water drops too low and the bass move out. Often the grass will lay over, it thickens on top due to it laying over, then the grass under this canopy does not get sun light and the lower water grass will begin to die. Once this happens the lower water grass will thin out and the bass will be more free to move around under the grass canopy. That is when it really turns on. emoDance
When I say you can die by this pattern you only have to look to the last CFF event to see that. The bass had moved up and were hitting great in the top water grass the weekend before our tournament. Then two days of +90 degrees caused the water to heat up on top sending the bass deeper and killing our top water bite. emoBawl Those who choose to stay in the grass mostly had to go to a deep grass presentation. Those that did not died trying to force feed bass on top that did not want to come up. It was best to go down to them. I like to use a 1/2 to 1 oz weight pegged. It is best to flip or pitch this offering since you are just dropping it down into the grass and trying to get it to go all the way down through the grass to where the bass are holding. Keep in mind there is opening under all that grass, find the openings and you will find the bass. Use braid again cause you have to get any bass you are lucky enough to hook back up and out of all that grass. The list of baits are to many to list but plastics are king in this pattern. Tubes, big worms, hogs, creatures and the list goes on and on.
I hope this may help some to improve your success on your next outing. emoGeezer If you would like to add your success story or suggestions to this post on how you go after Fall bass please do so. emoGrouphug Would love to see a good ol' time conversation on this topic get going.
emoAngler Jmax
