Hey fellas! 

I was out fishing yesterday (in the rain) and I noticed that the water temps had finally started to dip below the 70 degree mark. While this could be in part due to the overcast, wet, chilly weather - the night time temps are dropping and the times they are a changin'. 

 

Here in Illinois, leaves are just starting to turn. Weeds are just starting to brown a bit. 

 

I fish a lot of gin-clear pits with a max depth of around 35 - 45 feet. What would be some of the things that you would look for, or key spots that you would target largemouth (and smallmouth, they're in there too) as the weather changes? 

 

A while back, a member of this forum was generous to offer that he considered fall when the water hit 65 degrees, but I'm not sure why that was relevant or how / why bass will move around this time of the year. 

 

Any help would be appreciated - thanks! 

Hi, AJ. Like you, I don't know much about fall fishing, but the videos I've been watching all told me to downsize my latest and that worked Monday morning with more 19-inchers than normal.

I think “fall” is about 6 months long where I live so it may not pertain …………

 

 

But, deep clear strip pit, I would be using a sparkly finesse worm weightless to start. Small 1/0 or 2/0 light wire hook, the slow fall is tantalizing. I’m guessing they mainly eat bluegills in such a body of water so a swimbait might be fun too. I only fish one rock quarry near home but I always have success fishing the old roads they used to drive the heavy equip down into them on 

23 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Hi, AJ. Like you, I don't know much about fall fishing, but the videos I've been watching all told me to downsize my latest and that worked Monday morning with more 19-inchers than normal.

 

I like it - that's a start, and congrats on the fish! Hopefully some kind folks will chime in on forage / location changes this time of year

One of Glenn's videos said that fall is like spring, that they'll go shallow to gorge for winter, but might pull back to points and transition areas if triggered by weather.

Also, they might be chasing bait on the surface and if they do, then chase them.

Thanks guys - I'm wondering what they do when the water drops below 70 degrees - it seems to pop up again and again as some kind of indicator. I've read that shad / baitfish move up shallow in the fall and bass will follow - why do the baitfish do this, and roughly when?

 

I'm just looking for a ballpark. Hoping to get a few things to look for that I've never noticed in the past, to improve before winter hits. 

 

Thanks all, talk soon! 

personally, I tend to pick fingers off the main lake that have promising points and also promising features up/in the finger. I'll work from the back of the finger out towards the main lake (fishing into the wind, whichever side this takes me). Typically I'll hit a spot where youll find balls of shad or start hitting bass. The further up they are the closer into fall pattern they are for me. Pretty big over generalization but this at least starts giving me clues of where to start targeting. 

 

Temps are dependent on where you live. Typical summer temps for us are mid 80s a lot of times so dipping into mid 70 to lower 70s is fall temps for us down through the 60s. Temps in the upper 40s to lower 50s is winter. 

I think it's all about the bait. If you have shad, you can probably see them on the surface. Just follow them. I'm seeing the bass push the shad into shallow areas already in my area, I think water temps may be around 80 but didn't check them last time out so I may be off. I think it varies a little between fisheries so wouldn't commit to a hard rule, except that we know they gotta eat so find what they eat and imitate it. 

You can Google search my”Cosmic Clock and Bass Calendar”.

I published this information in 1974 so it’s and more appropriate to man made impoundments Highland category.

Bass behavior doesn’t change much in all ecosystems.

I considered the Fall period as a transitional season from warm water Summer Period to Cold water Winter period.

Water temps between 68 to 58 degrees at the depth the bass are located and migration starting to move vertically in lieu of horizontal.

Aquatic vegetation changing from green to brown signals the critters living in the cover it’s time to move, the bass always follow their prey source.

Small Pit lake are deep steep walled and the bass really don’t have anywhere to go. You don’t have creek arms so they don’t apply. You do have prey sources so they do apply.

Tom

 

I, too, live on Illinois and fished the stripmine pits for years. What I found out early was the bass there really dont have a fall migration, but will move up in the water column in Late September and October. They won’t move deep until after turnover. 
topwater fished over the first dropoff from shore will call them up and out. My favorite is a Spook. 

On 9/24/2023 at 11:22 AM, papajoe222 said:

They won’t move deep until after turnover.

 

Roughly what time of year or water temp did you see when you experienced turnover?

 

Thanks so much for the tip as well! Farmers by me just started to harvest the last few days, so the water is going to be cloudy in some of the pits which will make the bite tough I think. 

 

We will see. 

 

@WRB thank you for the reply - I will look up the Cosmic Clock you mentioned - and then the prey leaving the weeds turning brown... they must just go... deeper? Or maybe towards shoreline(s) with more rock and less mud?