Kevin Van Dam Forums

the leaves on the trees are falling and the weeds in the lake are dying, i guess its time to put away the summer fishing knowledge and concentrate on the conditions. i have never really been bass fishing in the fall to early winter because i usually spend fall salmon fishing, so i dont know much about what they are doing now. my question is what kind of baits should i use now and what areas should i concentrate on. my gut tells me to try to imitate bait-fish because you would think they would be feeding for the long winter ahead. any help would be appreciated

lipless cranks, shad color cranks (shallow and med.) and work cover with soft plastics and jigs and tubes.  Work the mouth of coves and work back into them where creeks end, if you find the bait fish, you can find fish.  you should find balls of them near the surface too.  a buzzbait would be good in the morning too.

Look for seagulls diving into the water and cast a lippless crank over to that area and just try to follow them all day.

I’ve been doing well catching nice fish on the remaining grass (which is starting to recede fast) in coves near the mouths of creeks as of very late.

Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and lipless crankbaits fished fast over large flats with remaining weeds.  Find the last remaining pad fields and pitch jigs or soft plastics to the heart of the pads.  Hard cover like docks and laydowns use jigs, soft plastics and square bill crankbaits.  Fall is a great time for some big bass and they should be bunched up so when you find them fish them hard and you should catch a few from one spot.