Fall Largemouth Bass: Where to Find Them and What to Throw
When the leaves start changing and the water begins to cool, it can be tempting to think the best bass fishing is behind you. It isn’t.
Fall can produce some excellent largemouth fishing, but the pattern changes. Vegetation starts dying back, forage moves around, and bass adjust with it. Some fish will stay surprisingly shallow while others move toward deeper weed edges and transition areas.
Instead of deciding beforehand that you need to fish shallow or deep, find the food and the healthy cover. The bass usually won't be far away.
Finding Fall Largemouth
Start With the Green Weeds
One of the first things we look for in the fall is healthy vegetation.
As weeds begin to die back, large areas that held fish during the summer may become far less productive. Instead of working your way through acres of deteriorating vegetation, look for the green stuff that's still standing.
Healthy patches of milfoil, cabbage and other vegetation provide cover for bluegill, perch and baitfish. They also give largemouth excellent places to ambush them.
Pay attention to irregularities. A point extending from a weed bed, an inside turn, an isolated clump or a sharp outside edge can be much more productive than a long, featureless stretch of weeds.
Don't Ignore Hard Bottom
Rock, gravel and sand mixed with vegetation are worth investigating.
A small rocky patch surrounded by weeds might not look like much, but it gives bass several things they need in one place: cover, access to forage and a good ambush point.
Transitions are particularly important.
Weeds meeting rock. Sand meeting rock. A weed edge suddenly breaking into open water.
Those little changes are exactly the type of places where we'd make a few extra casts before moving on.
Fish the Isolated Cover
As vegetation thins out, individual pieces of cover become easier to identify—and potentially more important.
A lone stump, submerged log, laydown or dock can give a largemouth an ideal place to sit and wait for its next meal.
Don't overlook something simply because it's small. If it's the only good piece of cover along a stretch of shoreline, fish it.
How to Fish Your Jigs in the Fall
Finding the right water is only part of it. How you work your lure can make a big difference.
Make Contact
A bladed jig doesn't always need to come straight back to the boat.
When you're fishing healthy vegetation, let the lure tick the tops and edges of the weeds. If it catches some grass, give the rod a quick snap and rip it free.
That sudden burst of speed and vibration can be exactly what turns a following fish into a striking fish.
The same principle applies around harder cover. Occasional contact followed by a deflection, pause or change in speed makes the lure behave differently than something simply swimming past.
You're not trying to bury the jig in every piece of cover you see. You're trying to make controlled contact and keep the lure working.
Let the Fish Tell You How Fast
You'll hear plenty of rules about exactly when you should slow down based on water temperature.
We'd rather let the fish decide.
If they're aggressively chasing a bladed jig, there's no reason to crawl it along the bottom just because the calendar says it's fall.
As the water gets colder and the fish become less willing to chase, start slowing things down.
A heavier bladed jig can be slow-rolled along a deeper weed edge or kept close to the bottom while still producing plenty of vibration.
Change your retrieve. Add a pause. Speed it up for a few turns of the reel and then slow it back down.
Pay attention to what you were doing when the fish hit.
That's often more useful than any predetermined rule about how you're supposed to fish.
Choosing Fall Jig Colours
Choosing a fall jig colour doesn’t need to be complicated. Start with the water clarity and what the bass are feeding on, then choose a pattern that fits the conditions.
Start with the water clarity and what the bass are eating.
Clear Water and Baitfish
White • Silver • Translucent Patterns
If bass are feeding on minnows or other baitfish in clear water, keep things relatively natural.
White, silver and translucent patterns with some flash are excellent starting points. You're trying to give the fish the general appearance of the forage without making the presentation unnecessarily complicated.
Stained Water
Chartreuse • White • Higher-Contrast Patterns
Fall wind can turn clear water stained surprisingly quickly.
When visibility drops, adding some chartreuse or additional contrast can help your lure stand out.
Chartreuse and white is a proven combination for a reason, particularly when you're covering water with a bladed jig.
Bluegill and Perch
Green Pumpkin • Purple • Orange • Gold • Perch Patterns
Don't assume every fall largemouth is chasing silver baitfish.
Bluegill, pumpkinseed and perch can all be important forage, particularly around vegetation.
That's where green pumpkin and darker natural patterns come into their own. Purple, orange and gold accents can also help imitate some of the colours found in the panfish bass are feeding on.
And don't be afraid to experiment.
Sometimes changing one skirt colour or adding a little contrast is enough to turn a few follows into bites.
Don't Give Up on Shallow Water
One of the easiest mistakes to make in the fall is assuming cooling water automatically means you have to head deep.
You don't.
There will certainly be largemouth moving toward deeper weed edges and transition areas as autumn progresses. But if you've still got healthy vegetation, suitable cover and plenty of forage in shallower water, there can still be good fish there.
Rather than fishing a predetermined depth, look for combinations.
Green weeds + forage.
Rock + weeds.
Wood + healthy vegetation.
A weed point + nearby deeper water.
The more good features you can put together in one area, the more time it's probably worth spending there.
Built to Catch
Fall bass fishing doesn't have to be complicated.
Find healthy cover. Find the food. Experiment with your retrieve. And choose a jig colour that makes sense for the water you're fishing.
At Grandpa's Tackle Box, we handcraft our jigs in Kingston, Ontario, with the same approach we take onto the water: give anglers a quality lure, plenty of options, and let the fish tell you the rest.
Whether you're ripping a Bladed Jig through remaining vegetation, swimming a Swim Jig along an edge, or putting a Flipping Jig into isolated cover, fall is no time to put the tackle box away.
Canadian Veteran-Owned🎣
Handcrafted in Kingston, Ontario
Built to catch.
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