Kevin Van Dam Forums

does a plastic worm work as well in the fall as in the spirng summer months?/?

you can always catch them with the worm. most of the time anyway.  my favorite baits for fall is jerkbaits, plastics, jigs, spinnerbaits, and pretty much imitating natural forage.  when all else fails, finesse with plastic worms.

oh yea just different speeds and sizes work for me.

What I have noticed the past few times I went out, is the jig and worm bite slowing down. The fish haven’t been holding as tight to the cover and seem to be suspended. Bass will bite a worm/jig year round if its fished right. But, IMO, other baits will out perform a worm during the Fall cool-off. Right now I am catching a lot more bass with top water baits, cranks, and spinnerbaits.

I think that as the water temps drop and the grass slowly dies off, they like to move off of “normal” fishy cover and they like to suspend.I like to use frogs, spooks, and small shalow or medium running cranks. Patterns can be very touchy IMO once the fronts start moving in.

the fish definatly start suspending if theres shad or other schools of baitfish in the lake and the bass just start relating to the bait rather than to the bottom and cover. Its not that worms wont work it just takes a little more concentration to keep it in the strike zone (if there relating to shad). I think lipless crankbaits and spoons and stuff seem to be the most productive way to score on this pattern but a worm may put some extra bass in your boat. so try it..

ya right now in my lake we are killing them with deep crankbaits.

A big worm like the 10 inch Berkley worm and the Zoom ol monster are great for the fall.  My favorite fall presentation is buzzbaits fished over big weed flats and shallow running crankbaits along weed edges.