Pat Brown

Well in the end, it was the old 12" powerworm that won the day in July, but we will take it eh? 😂

Well they'll be even more 'roamy' on a cloudy day but still be on those flats, mostly because it's good hard edges to push bait into, and they'll still be there with the first light maybe more active even and less target oriented......I go white on the topwaters when it's cloudy and I tend to work my baits a hair faster. 😎

I think it really depends but it's gonna be hard to beat a live crawdad if you're after a big one. Live bait from the water you're fishing would also be hard to beat if you have a cast net or know how to catch panfish.

As the water cools, I like to find water that is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the water. Usually that's the bank that's sitting in the sun. This time of year there doesn't even need to be much cover for them and the shallower the better. Also slightly dirtier water will often hold heat a little better than cleaner water. I like in flow/out flow points and the channel swing banks and points associated with the mouths. Of course heavy wood cover holds heat and food for large bass. They seem to get on wood in the fall, especially sun baked semi submerged wood. In the dark I'd fish a spinnerbait or a worm around the grass edges and then when the sun comes up I'd be buzz baiting those flats like it's going out of style. ESPECIALLY the very first ones hit by the sun and especially that first hour when it comes up and truly bakes that bottom. I'd really just follow that sun all day.

Weightless Fluke, Buzzbait, Spinnerbait, Lipless Crankbait, Squarebill, Jerkbait, Chatterbait, Underspin, Swimbaits, jigs, T rigs. Mostly go smaller but don't be afraid to try bigger. This time of year I like to target shallow flats with hard bottom and clearer water. Starting to get to where the bite really gets going when the sun is up and warming things and dying down when the sun is gone which is typically a winter thing but you'll just have to feel out where your fish are on your water. Good luck!

Same colors I use in not fall. Color is about clarity and conditions more than anything else IMHO. White, black, green. Mix in some flake if it's murky or the fish are really biting. Dial back the flake if it's clearer or the fish are pressured. Rate of fall/ size/profile/action matter a lot more 'seasonally' to me. Right now you're gonna want to go small profile and slow fall for the most part with minimal action in the appendages but that's not a hard fast rule every day. You gotta fish the conditions. Later on in the winter I'll probably switch up to a much bigger profile and even less action for when the water is colder and generally muddier with less daylight/active feeding windows up shallower in cover. I like white when they're keyed on baitfish of any sort regardless of clarity. I like black variations in super bright sky conditions regardless of clarity. I use watermelon more in the super clear water and in darker conditions and with super pressured fish when I'm gonna be dragging the bait or working it very slowly. Basically watermelon if they will get a good look at it and usually white or black variations when fishing faster/more for reaction bites. Again none of this is set in stone just guidelines. You really gotta put time in and figure out what YOUR fish like this time of year!

Phil, as a younger man in the prime of my bass fishing journey, I am filled with deep gratitude by what you share here. I'm filled with gratitude for the fish, the time left available to me to chase them, the close proximity to multiple wonderful fisheries that I take for granted so often, and the places and relationships like this that fishing has opened up. I'm thankful for the close connection to nature and the seasons and maybe after reading your post, I will toss my favorite bait instead of the right bait....maybe a couple more casts just for the sheer joy that doing it MY WAY brings! Thanks for this post. -Pat

I've come to understand pre spawn as more of a modus operandi that dictates large female bass behavior sometimes and more or less if they not on bed or nearby recovering, they are pre spawn. Sometimes a big female is pre spawn and post spawn multiple times in a year across multiple seasons right? Not all fish do the same thing at the same time at the same place so it's not really hard-line attached to summer or spring or fall or winter. Isn't pre-spawn just what happens when water temps drop too low for big females to want to do the egg laying and bass stop thinking about reproducing until that first warm front, whenever it may be? To me pre-spawn starts as soon as water temps start to drop below 50 and lasts til the peak low temps are affected by the first couple warm fronts in the spring and then you're more or less beginning to get into spawn territory depending on surface temps and how they generally affect your local bass populations. I caught fish on bed in 48° water during warm fronts in early February/late January and nobody was out fishing for spawning bass and to me it's more dictated by photo period and sunlight angles so long as you get some accompanying warmish fronts/sunny days and some decent water clarity during the late winter. I might be overthinking this but I tend to think it's different for every fish every year. Sorry to derail your thread @LrgmouthShad 😂 I really do think they're good all year long when bass are on a jig bite. There's almost always a jig bite happening somewhere on every lake! The thing about jigs you have to remember is that some days you're going to skunk with a jig locked in your hand. I also tend to find that when they aren't biting at all on anything that usually catches numbers, a jig is the best lure to throw. Kind of like when you get one bite all day on a buzz bait in the fall during a cold front and it's a 6 lber. It can be both skunkbeater and giant slayer at the same time on really odd days weather wise.

I caught a lot of fish on a Jerkbait which prior to this year I had sort of neglected thinking water wasn't clear enough near me. It was my most productive lure during the spring and into the post spawn. Summer rolled around this year and I committed myself to the buzzbait during the second half when fall started to rear it's head a little faster than normal this year. The buzzbait has been my most productive late summer/fall technique. I know why I neglected this one. Figured with fishing pressure it was a waste of time based on throwing it a few times and not being able to fathom a bass commiting to something so obviously fake. Well, I'm here to tell ya that fishing pressure doesn't mean much for the ole buzzbait bite. When they're on it, they're on it. When they're not they're not. Like a jig. My goal was to catch a double digit bass this year and I got close in February with a 9.1 lber on a Bluegill Flash Siebert Swim jig with a Yum Scottsboro 4.5" shad pattern trailer during a warm rainy front in early February and then in mid July during a mayfly hatch on a main lake point I stuck an 11 lb 5 oz bass on a berkley power worm in motoroil red flake with a pegged 3/8 oz weight. Caught many 8 lb class fish in pursuit throughout the summer and spring. Got close to 9 on a red 6th sense lipless in late March also with an 8 lb 12 oz bass. Catching that 11 lber was one of the highlights of my life so far and put the fire for big fish into me even more. I've always enjoyed catching any fish that is willing to bite and pride myself on a dink from a pressured pond on a tough day.....but I know at heart I am after big ones when I get out there. Current goals: *Learn to winter fish more consistently this year with my 2d sonar and accumulated offshore wisdom from late spring/summer patterns. *Finesse techniques (I was under the impression that North Carolina was dirty water and it just so turns out that it's really not at all dirty) Especially where I fish and that dirty water to a human is often times very clean for bass and we have to learn to really be critical about how the water looks to us and how deceiving it can be to think 'its kinda hard to see my lure so it's dirty water'. There are a couple of lakes/ponds I fish that are more or less highland impoundments and it's pretty remarkable how pointless it is to power fish on those lakes most days. * I'd like to catch a really fat pre-spawn double digit this winter. Lofty goal I know. But it would be a lot of fun and make all that cold weather feel a lot nicer. * I'd like to catch a truly large glide bait fish and a truly large buzz bait fish and a truly large jerk bait fish this year in colder water just to prove to myself that it can be done. * This is a way outside goal that I'm working on right now. Maybe for the rest of my life but definitely for the unforeseeable future: really like to catch a lake record around here. Really really like to catch the state record someday. *30 + fish day *30 + lb 5 fish limit.

Daaaaaang that's a big ole pea. Glad you're having a good time!

I'm so amazed by all the big beautiful big bass you can get to bite and then get in your quiet canoe. Bass fishing at its finest. As always, honored to call you a friend and co conspirator in the hunt for the next lunker. Looking forward to ice melting off up North in the USA next year just a little more than normal and it might be just so I can see you get back to your bog beauties! I'm lucky to live in NC and be eagerly awaiting winter and the challenges/rewards/lessons it could hold.... hopeful you'll keep us up to date on your springtime schemes and tackle purchases during the interim? Congratulations on the best season ever! -Pat

The pre-spawn starts right now. 👍👍👍😉😉😉

Caught a 9 lbr on February 9th this year during a warm rainy front at the end of the winter and I caught most of my cold water bass on a jig last winter. It's quite good in cold water IMHO.

Love it. NC fella too. Gonna have to add that to my note to Santa along with the Daiwa Tatula 7'1 MHXF. I want to get some nicer glide baits for the late winter early spring transition this year for sure.

For fans of 'bleeding shad' pattern baits: Thought this was super cool. PS Strike King: How about your whole line of lipless crankbaits but silent and with yellow eyes? 😉 Signed, a fisherman who knows this would sell and work really well to catch pressured fish who are over rattles and red eyes.

Bingo. Lot of really good perspectives being offered here but another thing worth mentioning that they discussed: A ban on live well technology in tournaments would actually make a lot more sense than banning FFS at this point. When you catch a big fish it should be catch, weigh, release. Get promo pics on the water and show catch recap clips on the big screen at weigh in for the top ten every day. Boom, way less dead fish.

I'm only taking very small profile baits. I would think a slower sink would be a lot better for larger glides. Just kinda makes sense to me. One is more of a reaction bait for bites and one is more for targeting a large fish. Truth be told I would think floating below the surface/suspending would be the most deadly to my intuition. Anyone fish hard swim baits like that with success?

I haven't fished many of the smaller profile glides but I'd bet $2.50 that a heavier/fast sink smaller profile glide is MUCH easier to impart lifelike action with. So that makes a lot of sense to me.

Maybe try to get some golden shiners. Much less likely to die during extremes and seem more conducive to stocking and managing small ponds. Big ones can get pretty darn big too so a good breeding stock can definitely develop and not necessarily be eaten by the bass. They eat rotting vegetation and stuff like that. Really interesting fish. I'm sure a few shad will escape and survive if you do a little drop every time you return from the lake! Also probably throw the dead ones in with the live ones. Might increase chances of a live one getting away and it feeds stuff in there even if bass don't eat the dead ones.

*Black Buzzbait - 1/2 oz or 1/8 oz depending on the mood of the fish. This is my go to and out produces everything else in the fall by a healthy margin. I let the fish tell me what color and size but usually start with black. It seems the most 'finesse' color. *transparent popper, I like the smaller sized ones in the fall. Target bait. I target grass lines and docks and shadelines. Can be great later in the day with a light breeze on the water out of the SW. *white or shad pattern frog. I usually keep going with the normal size ones but a smaller profile would probably get more bites right now. I use this a lot in lieu of walking topwaters which never seem to get bites for me. I fish frogs over rocky flats and wood cover in the fall. *Buzz toad - z man GOAT on a light wire EWG. Excellent for fish who have seen too many Buzzbaits. *Floating worm - z man bang sticks wacky rigged, lightly jiggled on the surface near visible shallow cover can be great. Edit: just realized thread said TOPWATER lures.

Yeah this was my favorite episode of the bilge to date. Josh Jones is super super cool. I also really like Chris Zaldain. I think JJ offers a lot of pragmatism in this rather hot topic.

I also have 0 fish on walking baits unless you count walking a frog or popper or chopping a glide bait. I keep trying them at times I think they should work and get nothing. Fast. Slow. Long pauses. Burning them. Burn + pause. Silent ones, rattly ones, knockers etc. Tie on a squarebill and let it float to the surface and sit there and it gets eaten. I don't get it. I had one blow up on a Berkley Cane walker back in early summer and I had one blow up on a super spook night fishing a year ago. Beyond that, I've never even seen a ripple behind one. I throw them at schooling fish and the schooling stops. I let it get worked back up on the surface and toss a buzzbait in there and it gets crushed. I don't know what it is. I think walking topwaters work better at herring lakes or something. Probably just need to do the ole 'tie on only walking topwaters for a month and see what happens ' game with it. Usually I figure it out when I do that.

Ran into a sizable specimen on a black 1/2 oz nichols buzz bait and got to see a beautiful sunrise.

Yeah I think if they're on a spinnerbait bite, color isn't gonna play too heavy but I go with the same colors that typically work best at the fishery in the daytime.

Yeah it's super super bad. Literally nothing was wrong with the way it was before. Oh well.