Pro-Fishing Tips - Fishing Articles for Pro-Fishing Success
Fall Bass
Finding Bass During The Weather Change
John Murray
John Murray finished 11th during the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Table Rock Lake last week (early September). John qualified for the Bassmaster Classic for 2007 by finishing in the 17th spot in the Angler of the Year points. John shared his process in locating and catching fish on Table Rock. These techniques will be successful on many of the Northern and Central California spotted bass lakes.
Last week at Table Rock the conditions went from summertime to fall really quick with rain and colder weather moving in and out throughout the week. The water temperature dropped very fast over the course of a week. This water temperature drop does a couple things to the fish, they either move shallow or extremely deep. Which leaves you to fish one of two ways, fish deep for spotted bass or fish shallow for largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Deep Water Spots
For the spotted bass, fishing deep (30-50 feet) was the predominant technique at Table Rock Lake. Even though these fish are over 30 feet deep they are still feeding upwards. They are focusing up to feed off of the schools of baitfish above them. This means that dragging baits along the bottom will not produce fish. On Table Rock, I used my Lowrance X-26 graph to visually locate the level of either the fish or the baitfish. Then I fished above that level to trigger the bites. If I got my bait below the level of the fish I had no success.
I focused on two presentations making sure to keep the bait above the fish. Drop Shotting was the first, using a Powell Rod 703, Sunline Sniper Flourocarbon line in 6 or 7 pound test and a heavy Kanji drop shot weight. A 3/8 or 1/2 ounce weight drops faster than smaller weights. This faster dropping of the bait is important in catching the actively feeding spots. My second technique was a one-ounce Luhr Jenson Crippled Herring spoon. I fished the spoon on a Powell 76 flipping stick with 16 pound Sunline Flourocarbon line.
With the deep spotted bass feeding on shad they will still relate to standard structure. Contour changes such as a flat to bluff or a swing in a deep channel can hold the largest spotted bass. Key in on these areas and watch for bait fish and keep your presentation above the fish.
Shallow Water Bass
In shallow water you’ll mostly find smallmouth and largemouth bass. Something to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as “too shallow” in the fall. Quality fish can be caught very shallow, in as little as six inches of water.
The best baits this past week on Table Rock were a Zara Spook, large Rico, or Vixen, something noisy to pull the fish up. The more water surface disturbance from wind and/or rain the shallower you can go to find the fish. The very back of coves with as little as 6 inches of water can be great spots to catch nice fish.
John Murray is sponsored by Powell Rods, Ranger, Mercury, Lobina Lures, Yamamoto and Lowrance.
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