BassFishingMachine

Okay, well I'm really narrowing it down here, so I don't see this thread getting too many responses, but I'm sure some people will learn "something" so all is well ;D. I believe narrowing it down is the best bet to find responses which relate to the fishing scenarios I am faced with. Heres the deal... in my opinion big lake fishing (aka boat fishing) is a whole different ball game then fishing small ponds/lakes from the shore, lakes where boats aren't allowed. This being said I am looking for responses ONLY from people who are fishing from shore in small ponds/lakes. I am also located in NJ, that being said I figured I'd narrow it down to people fishing only in NJ/PA seeing as how I figure these two states have such similiar conditions, so again, I'd only like responses from people fishing NJ/PA waters. Now that you have an idea on who I am looking for responses from, here is the question, and it is a simple one. What are a few of your primary tactics for Fall fishing (Sept - mid Nov) for your small ponds. Basiclly, is there any prime structure you target..such as Lillys, stickpiles, all of the above? Is there any specific water depths you prefer to target? And is there any specific baits you find key in the fall? Now I know this is alot of questions, and many people don't like answering many questions in a single thread, so to persuade you to do so, and show you that I am not looking to be spoon fed info...atleast not completely, I will share tactics I find to work best during the Fall period on my small ponds/lakes I bank fish. Now here we go on what works for me in the Fall period. During September/October I find shallow cranks to work particularly well. Now theres alot you can do with a crankbait from what I understand, though I have yet to learn all the little tricks with them seeing as I have only started using them just last year. But regardless, a simple slow/steady retrieve works for me very nicely in the Fall, I also have success holding my rod high, casting horizontally to the shoreline and letting them swim on the top around the edge of the lake (1-3feet off the bank). Another bait which works well for me in the start of the fall is a softplastic frog/hollow frog. Both frogs work well, and despite how similiar they may appear I fish them completely differently then one another. With the soft plastic frog I like to target scattered lillys, and scattered weeds (not the thick weed mats so much, but scattered and seperated), I primarily fish the soft plastic frog with a dead slow retrieve on the top, but every now and again I try the faster then usual retrieve to change things up. Though I prefer fishing the scattered weeds with this sort of frog, I won't not cast to a thick weed mat, but all in all I find the hollow body frog works better on the thicker weeds. Dusk seems to be the best time to throw the soft plastic frog, and I always give it a shot at this time of the day. As for the hollow frog, I will work through thick/scattered lillypads as slowly as I can with it, slowly crawling it on top of a lilly, making the lilly move to show the bass there is something alive moving around, and then letting it fall off the lilly, this strategy works wonders for me. I will also slowly twitch it ontop of the thick weed mats, and I find the slower I twitch it the better I do, long pauses are common... I find frogs catch real quality fish in my waters. Though I will only use them until about mid October depending on how hot the weather is, once the weather cools down come about late october early november, I don't give the frogs nearly as much time as I do in september/early october, there just seems to be better options IMO. Another tactic I find true year after year is back rivers (aka feeder creeks). Well I don't know, I've always called them "back rivers", I guess its just my name for them. To me a "back river" is where a pond narrows down at an end and turns into a "river-like" area that is typically fairly deep (3-7feet deep... is deep for a small pond in my neck of the woods). These back rivers often lead into other bodies of water, they may travel awhile, but I guess they called them "feeder creeks" because they feed the lake. Anyway, for what ever reason I find these back rivers to really hold alot of fish come the Fall, particularly October, but during September and November they also produce good for me. From what I have read, these "back rivers" are a good place to look for bass in the Fall because the shad are located at the mouth of them, or atleast thats what I think I've heard. But I don't think this is true for smaller ponds, as I don't even think we have any "shad" around here, its more small baitfish such as golden shiners/small bluegills. Back to the main point... I like to fish these "back rivers" with shallow cranks, jigs, senkos and creature baits. I am not a big fan of the senko, primarily because I see them soooo much around where I fish that I am sick and tired of seeing them, but despite my dislike for them I will often bring them out when fishing the back rivers, as they seem to be a key producer in this sort of scenario. Okay, I have shared some of my tactics on bank fishing small ponds/lakes in the Fall, now I want to hear yours!! I also hope I have not offended anyone by singling them out if they are boat/bank fishermen who fish big lakes. Its just that I have come to the conclusion that big lake fishing is a entirely different sort of fishing then your small lake fishing. I find the fish in these bigger lakes act different seeing as how they have much deeper water available, and the baitfish seem to be completely different for the most part. And thanks for any and all responses, always greatly appreciated .

Will it make good surface action like a ragetail shad...but less noisy I suppose?

The jig without a doubt. It is my favorite lure to fish #1....it has caught me 2 out of 3 of my largest bass #2....and around here everyone and their mother uses senkos, so I am tired of seeing them..no one uses jigs by me..#3...

Spinnerbait. If I am fishing a lake completely new to me, a bait that covers alot of water quickly is my choice (aka search bait). A spinnerbait works well, and does this job nicely. When I find the hotspots in the lake, I can come back later and work the spots with a slower presentation such as a jig or soft plastic. I am not too concerned about catching fish when I am covering the lake with my spinnerbait, I am more concerned about finding what spots are holding the fish, so I know where I should be spending most of my time with the slower presentations. Though at times, they go crazy for the spinnerbait/faster presentations, and the slower presentations just don't work as well. All in all, I'd searchbait the place out, and then come back and refish it with a jig or t-rigged plastic.

I can't hook up with nothing using a spro, and the things start taking in water like no tomorrow, I really don't know how you guys use them things. The scumfrogs work great for me, alot softer so I can get a better hookset, and my hookup ratio is alot higher with them. Plus they don't take on water nearly as quickly as the spros I've used have. Never had any good results with spros... who knows.

I don't know. With largemouth in my beliefs, action is waaay more important then scent. Put it to ya like this, I rather have a bait with no scent at all and plenty of action, then a bait with little action and packed with scent. The baits that rely on scent over action like Gulp and such just don't seem to be big producers for me when it comes to bass.... fluke are another story.. All in all, if they are indeed expensive, I'd stick with the known producers that don't have the "extreme scent" gimmick going on... like ragetail, paca, zoom, yum, gycb, berkley and such. All those heavily scent relying baits are never much of a fish catcher for my freshwater bassin :-/. You ever been out fished by a guy using a purple creme worm? That thing has no scent at all, and some guy schooled me with it one day. I have yet to be schooled by a overly scented bait, I just don't think bass are as dependent on scent as other fish, they tend to go more by sight and action then anything else from my point of view. The way I see it (just my opinion of course). The scent doesn't take place until the fish bites the bait. I believe the scent may make the fish hold the bait a little longer, but the action is what gets the fish to bite in the first place. Of course, this is just with largemouth bass. Fish like fluke seem to key in on scent, and this is what leads them to bite.

I woulda pitched a jig to it!

Wakebaits Spinnerbaits Lipless Cranks Sweet Beavers Jig w/paca or ragetail chunk Buzzbaits Ragetail Shads Jitterbugs Zoom Baby Brushhogs Zoom U-tail worm

Black Single Colorado Blade Spinnerbait Black/blue Chatterbait w/double tail grub trailer (or hulagrub as I prefer) Black Jitterbug Black Buzzbait Black curlytail worm (powerbait, zoom, culprit...w/e) Black/blue or Black jig w/trailer that gives off vibration like a ragetail chunk or paca chunk, I'd also consider using a jig with rattles. All in all I find dark colors, and vibration are key to night fishing for bass, but thats just me.. Good luck!

I have a few jigs/trailer combos that work very nicely for me, which one is the all time best I couldn't tell you, but typically I'm using one of these variations. 1. Black/blue 3/16 - 5/16 Booyah Baby Boo Jig w/ black/blue ragetail chunk. 2. Green Pumpkin 3/16 - 5/16 Booyah Baby Boo Jig w/ greenpumpkin ragetail chunk. 3. Black/blue 3/16 - 5/16 Booyah Baby Boo Jig w/ black/blue paca chunk (standard or senior size chunk). *this has caught me my pb* 4. Green Pumpkin 3/16 - 5/16 Booyah Baby Boo Jig w/greenpumpkin or watermelon red paca chunk (senior or standard size) All four should catch you fish, if the fish are extremely picky and you think less action is best, or if the water is pretty cold, go with a Yum Chunk instead.

Jigs and Creaturebaits.

Your missin out man! Take the time to learn a jig, it was the best thing I've ever learned in bass fishing, and not only 2/3 of my pb bass were landed on it, but my main pb was on a jig as well.

So a culprit worm will catch suspended post frontal fish while hopping it on the bottom. : So whats all the hype? Any newbie,novice,child,dum@#s,or retard can catch fish with a senko type lure, thats why.Take someone who has never fished a day in thier life or cannot even cast a rod and they can catch fish on those things.Wacky rig it under a bobber and a 6 yr old can have a blast.Some tournament guys get easily offended when someone weighs in a huge sack caught using these things.At times it is almost like cheating since it takes very little if any skill at all to catch fish with them.No they won't always work but if there was a magic bait for bass fishing this would be the closest thing Exactly why I rarely use one, well that and the fact that everyone and their mother throws a senko where I'm fishing. Give me anything but a senko and I'm happy. I will admit that I will throw one once in a blue moon when I'm in the mood, or feel like it will get the job done in the scenario I'm in. But that chance is less than 5%. I will always give them to friends who are new to bass fishing, they are "training worms" to me .

I used to believe black was the only color to go with for night fishing, and then I started learning more about striper plugging, and reading on the striper forums. Turns out black is not the only good color to throw at night, white is up there with it. The striper guys use black on darker nights, and white on brighter then average nights, like a full moon, or 3/4 moon.

Why not buy the GYCB hulagrub instead? Its a twintail grub with a skirt connected to the back of it, its a nicer bait rigged on a jighead then a regular twintail grub if you ask me.

My all time favorite soft plastic frog. Fish them around lillys/weeds, or ontop of scattered weeds, they will produce. Great frog, don't give up on it just yet.

I'll be bank fishing, I dont have a boat, and the lakes I fish are small lakes where you may be able to have a canoe, but a boat is not allowed. (Does this change anything)?

How are you fishing these straight tail worms? Weightless? On a shakyhead? T-rigged w/bullet weight? All of the above?

Hey, just got another darn cold front, couldn't get a hit today (though I only fished for about 40mins). Definetly noticed a change in the water temp though when I felt it, dropped a few. Give me some of your cold front tactics, some of the baits you go to when the water drops temps, particularly this time of the year.

The 9inch ones work great for striper. Rig them with a 7/0 or 8/0 O'Shaugnessy hook, and a little bit of super glue to keep the hook from sliding out of the bait. Work that bad boy around the jetties/beaches! The 7.5inch ones also work well for striper, rig these on a wobble head, like a point jude wobblehead, and give them a steady retrieve. As for freshwater, never tryed em.

Well, I bought a pack of jigheads w/weed guards, and plan to try some soft plastics on them. Mostly plan to pitch/flip lillys, stickpiles, and such with them. So far I am thinking of trying Netbait Paca craws on em, GYCB Kreature rigged skirt first, maybe sweet beavers.. and maybe Yum Woolybrush hogs. Any of you guys fish soft plastic on jigheads w/weedguards? If so, which soft plastics produce best for you on these heads? Thanks!

But how do you attach them to the bait? Your suppose to literally push them inside the plastic?

How do you do this? I have some rattles which I collected from jigs, but how would I attach them to soft baits? Any tips?

Do lillypads count as heavy cover?

3/8oz Black Jitterbug, and 5/8oz Bluegill jitterbug. Both work very well for me. I fish the black one at night, dusk, and overcast. And the bluegill one when ever... If the fish are on bluegills (like around the spawn), I will fish the bluegill one. Though if its night, the black jitterbug is usually the right jitterbug.