All the fall fishing articles Ive been reading are all about Southern states. Mostly Texas. What about us northeners? I fish quarry lakes outside Philadelphia. Theyre deep, clear water lakes with the forage being bluegill, white perch and yellow perch. Theres no shad in the lake. Im going out tomorrow morning around 5. Got a ribbon tail worm, spinnerbait, Hula Popper and a black and blue jig tied on ready to go. Ant tips on fall fishing up north? Remember this is a very deep clear water quarry lake. Its only a couple acres big and Im on the bank.

I've fished a lot of strip pits and a few quaries in my day and one thing is common among them all; they're clear and deep.

Fall fishing, although the waters are vastly different, is the same in the north as in the south and the common factor is the bass will follow the baitfish. Where I am, that's bluegill and fry sized bass. The minnow population has been fairly well depleted to wintering size and the bass know (don't ask me how) that bluegill are rich in nutrients.

You will be tempted to fish deep, but don't unless you know for sure that the gill are there. If you know the depth of the water, concentrate your early efforts on the upper 1/4 of the water column. If not, start shallow and work your way down. Once you've covered that part of thw water column with fast moving baits like cranks and spinners, go back over it with something slower like a stick worm rigged weghtless or a jerk bait. Small, natural colored baits will get you the most bites,but if you're after that elusive fall hog, a single bladed (big blade) spinnerbait can cover the whole water column.

If you know of a section that the bass use for spawning in the spring, Check it out in the fall as it is attractive to smaller fish, and that's what the bass are looking for. You can get into some real numbers this time of the year in a quary as the bass in these waters are rarely loners. Once you find the activity level, stick with it until it stops producing and have some fun.

Right now the bluegills in my home lake are all suspended 10 foot down over 26-30 FOW. Why? Because things with teeth have moved up on the flats and in the weeds and are eating. Lot's of bass follow them out. I don't fish for those fish, it'not my gig, and very frustrating. I still fish the weeds, and put up with a 5:1 pike to bass ratio, but the bass I catch tend to be good ones. Or I hit the bank, there are always good fish shallow, but with the low water levels, some of the best stuff is high and dry, and the spots don't reload as fast or often in the fall. On tree might only be good for one decent fish all day. The shallow stuff with deep water close by is better. They don't get way in the backs of creeks here this time of year..........IDK why. Probably cause the food doesn't go up there.

Try a hard jerkbait like a 100 or 128 LC Pointer. Long pauses between jerks. Hang on tight!

Right now the bluegills in my home lake are all suspended 10 foot down over 26-30 FOW. Why? Because things with teeth have moved up on the flats and in the weeds and are eating. Lot's of bass follow them out. I don't fish for those fish, it'not my gig, and very frustrating. I still fish the weeds, and put up with a 5:1 pike to bass ratio, but the bass I catch tend to be good ones. Or I hit the bank, there are always good fish shallow, but with the low water levels, some of the best stuff is high and dry, and the spots don't reload as fast or often in the fall. On tree might only be good for one decent fish all day. The shallow stuff with deep water close by is better. They don't get way in the backs of creeks here this time of year..........IDK why. Probably cause the food doesn't go up there.

#2 ~

This is describes my area almost perfectly.

I am going to Have to Learn to encourage suspended fish to cooperate.

Either that or I'm dipping into the TNT stash.

A-Jay

I fish a few quarries in south jersey, i always start topwater, then jerkbaits, then cranks, and if i dont get a bite i go to the drop shot which seems to always work.

Did ok the other day. Caught 4 fish in 4 hours. Bluegills are all over the bank, everywhere you look theres gills everywhere. The bass are a little bit off the bank in about 10-15 feet of water pushing gills towards the bank feeding on them. Caught 2 fish on a bluegill colored shallow diving square bill crankbait. One on a white and black spinnerbait and one on a ribbontail worm. Biggest fish was 3.2 pounds. The thing about the quarry is that theres not much shallow water on the bank. Goes out about 10 feet then just drops off into darkness. So its kind of sweet because the bass like to hang in shallow cover near deep water and thats all the quarry is, shallow cover near deep water. LAst year we built some cover from tree stumps and logs and its starting to pay off. Fish all over the cover.