Early fall is a great month for bass fishing in Kentucky

September 8, 2009 by admin

FI-Fish-0088-2002-LM Bass-FW-JB Frankfort, Ky. – September is some of the best sleeping weather of the year. Open the windows, turn the air conditioning off and wake up to crisp, gorgeous mornings.
This kind of weather gets many outdoors enthusiasts excited about doves and deer, but it can be a confusing time for bass anglers. Typically, rain falls the least in September and October, clearing the water in ponds and lakes – and making largemouth bass jumpy.
It seems this slight chill in the air would get bass in a feeding mode, but that doesn’t happen until the water cools considerably. September is a transitional time for bass fishing. This month, however, may yield some huge largemouth bass if you make the right adjustments.
“The fall changes may happen a little earlier this year because we’ve had such a cool summer,” said Jeff Ross, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The surface water and the shallows are cooling down already.”
Baitfish location and water depth dictates where bass stage in early fall. “I start looking for schools of shad,” said Frankfort bass tournament angler Dan Bruning. “The fish key on shad in fall. I’ll try a spinnerbait or a medium-running crankbait in shad colors when I find them.”
Bass don’t immediately shove their noses into the bank of a large lake or reservoir when the first few cool days hit in early fall. Many bass anglers make the mistake of pounding the bank when they should be searching for baitfish or fishing intermediate depths on sloping banks in early fall.
Largemouth bass don’t make a move for the shallows until the water temperatures drop into the high 60s. Fish from 8 to 20 feet of water, depending on the lake, in early fall.
A 3/16-ounce jig and trailer combination swum down sloping points is a deadly technique right now. A point that drops into an old channel is a plus. If the point is composed of shale, pea gravel or mud mixed with rock, then all the better.
“As the water clears in fall, I switch to greens and browns with my tubes or jigs,” Bruning said. “Black and blue is universal in summer, but I switch to those colors in fall.”
Browns and greens match crayfish colors. Crayfish move to pea gravel, shale or mud and rock banks in fall because they burrow into them to survive winter. A jig with trailer combination perfectly imitates crayfish.
“Some guys start keying on tree lines on Taylorsville Lake in fall,” Bruning explained. “They throw soft plastic stickbaits like a Senko weightless and let them slowly quiver down the trees.”
Bruning, who fishes Taylorsville, Guist Creek and other central Kentucky lakes weekly, will also search for bass with a buzzbait right now.
If you go to a major reservoir on a bright, shimmering September day and don’t get a strike, then try fishing the same lake at night. Bass anglers associate night fishing with summer, but early fall is a terrific time to fish after dark. Those banks that seem devoid of fish during the day in September often crawl with bass at night. This is best time of year for a shore-bound angler to night-fish.
Another option is to fish smaller bodies of water in early fall. Farm ponds and small lakes cool faster than large reservoirs. The fall bite begins a few weeks earlier than on a lake of several thousand acres.
It is hard to go wrong with a 5-inch soft plastic grub Texas-rigged with a 1/4-ounce weight on a farm pond or small lake. A junebug-colored grub fished along a weedline or probed in brush or a fallen treetop imitates small bluegill. A pumpkin, black or watermelon-colored grub worked slowly on the bottom looks like an unaware crayfish. Largemouth bass in these bodies of water scarf small bluegill and crayfish.
Downsizing your line produces more strikes in fall. Smaller lines give off fewer negative clues to bass in the clearer water of September and October. If you are fishing a bait caster with 12- to 17-pound line and getting no strikes, switch to a spinning outfit spooled with 8-pound line. You may break off a few more fish, but that beats getting no bites at all.
September and early October may perplex bass anglers, but a few changes should get your rod bent over and your drag singing.

Author and photographer Lee McClellan is an award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

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