Top 5 September Bass Fishing Baits | Cliff Pirch’s Fall Transition Must-Haves

Hey guys, Cliff Pirch here for Bassresource.com.

I want to give you my five favorite September baits. Now September is a funny time—you’re coming off the summer and you're going into the fall. So different parts of the country are going to experience that transition just a little differently, but in general, September is a great time for topwater.

So I want to share a little bit about my topwaters. One of my favorites is a Real Rico. This is actually the new Rico. It's called the Loco Rico. We've taken and put the paint job on the bottom—you know, when a shad is dying, it's laying flat. Generally, you know, it might turn a little bit and lay flat. So we wanted that eyeball underneath. So the Loco Rico is a great way to catch those shallow bass in September.

I'm fishing shallow targets. That might be little points of grass—if you've got grass in your lake—holes in the grass, might be laydown trees, or might be, like if you're in a desert lake, just the center of a gut. You know, back of a little pocket, a boulder, a shade and a boulder. So it's a target fishing bait. I'm going to throw it out. Wherever it lands, I'm going to pause it for just a second. I'm going to give it probably two pops—chug, chug—and I want it to spray a little bit and then I’m going to kill it. I want it to sit there still. So I’m going to throw it out, snap twice, and kill it. And a lot of times, that's when you get that bite. You can get some great bites doing this in September.

Three of the US Opens that I've won were in that time frame of the year, and every one of them had just a little bit different things going on seasonally—but a topwater always played a role in those tournaments. So that's one of my favorites for September. Again, that's the new Loco Rico. It’s big like the Real Rico and you can cast it a long way. It's a great way to catch them.

Now, if I want to cover water in September, a lot of times a buzzbait is just one of the best ways to do it. This is the Big Bite Baits buzzbait. I've got the little Cane Toad on here, and that toad actually allows me to cast the bait a lot further. You know, for years we used a skirted buzzbait—and I still love a skirted buzzbait if I'm not trying to bomb this thing 100 miles—but with the toad, I can cast a little bit further. You can also skip—if you're around docks or underhangs, you know, limbs—that you can skip the bait. But a buzzbait allows me to cover a lot of water and it's really good at getting big bites.

It's really good at getting the best fish in the bay. I mean, it's going to get that bite. Sometimes you've got to stick with it a long time to really get a lot of bites to get the ones that you need, but it will get the big ones. So buzzbait is another great September tool. I'm looking to fish it on shallow flats, shallow points, transition areas, maybe rock to gravel or a channel swing bank. If you're on a lake that has real heavy channel swings—where it goes from chunk rock into the gravel pocket—some of those transitions are good. I'm generally fishing it shallow. I don't like it that much out over deep open water—I’d rather pick a different type of topwater for that. So this is what I want to use on shallow cover, shallow flats, shallow points, things like that.

Matter of fact, this past September I fished the Rico Tournament in Arizona. You can throw a buzzbait or the Rico, and we actually got the win. It's just all topwater fishing. So it’s kind of a no-brainer. You take out all the other little things that you think about doing—because you can do a lot of things in the fall.

The next thing I'm going to have—which this is almost no matter what season it is—I like to have a drop shot handy and available. Now this is a Cliffhanger. We've got the new 6.5 inch Cliffhanger. It's just a good drop shot worm, but this is a little longer one. A lot of folks like the six inch. We've always had the 4.5 or the 5 inch, and this is a little longer one because a lot of folks just like a little bit bigger, a little longer drop shot worm.

Now this one—again, every season and every month—I really have got a drop shot laying on my front deck. But in September, whenever I've got a fish that might miss that buzzbait, or you get a fish that blows up on your Rico, and you can watch them go back to the bottom on your sonar, I’m going to fire this drop shot out as a follow-up. It’s a great way to just drop down there. Fish is going back down, thinks he’s wounded something, and this thing falls right back into that strike zone. It’s a great way to get that follow-up bite.

Now, if you've got a September that has a few more deep fish—which there’s a lot of times—you know, as you get into the fall, there’s a wide range of depth ranges that hold fish. Those shad get all over the water column. So you might find patterns in backs, flats, guts. And you might also find them out on reefs and shoals and breaks and points. And the drop shot is always a good tool to have anytime you’re trying to fish a target on the bottom or fish that are near the bottom.

And it's a good follow-up bait, like I said. When you get that blow-up on your topwater, it’s a great way to catch those fish that missed your bait. I've got it on a Phenix medium-action. This is a 7’6” medium action. It’s the Ultra MBX. It's a long rod. I want a long rod because I want to be able to cast it way over there where I got that topwater bite. The length gives me that extra casting distance and I can also move a lot of line and set the hook. So it’s just the most comfortable rod for me. Been using that one for years. It’s the Phenix 7’6” medium Ultra MBX. So that’s my drop shot rod—one of my favorite rods of all time.

Another technique—whether it's shallow or deep—a crankbait really works that time of year. Typically I like a little bit of chop on the water. If you get a little breeze, if you get a little mud line or if you're fishing some deeper water where you find a school off the bank, a deep crankbait is good. I won a boat one time in September on Roosevelt deep cranking. But I’ve also won tournaments where I was fishing shallow with the topwater. So keep in mind that there’s a lot of opportunities as you get to that time of year to really look in different depth zones and ranges to catch fish.

Crankbaits are a really good way to cover that water. Now if I've got a good buzzbait deal going on or a Rico deal and this shallow flats—maybe around some shallow grass—a good way to come back through it is with a little square bill crankbait. That’s what I’ve got on here. It covers water fast. You wind it fast. But a shallow diving crankbait is another way to target them. Really good in the fall, especially if they’ve seen your buzzbait a lot, they’ve seen your Rico a lot. This is another way to go back through there and get some of those fish that you missed or wouldn’t bite the topwater.

It’s great for covering lots of water. Like I said, you can just go down the bank for miles and miles and put it in front of quite a few fish and it gets a good bite as well. So you really are likely to weigh some big fish. Whether you’re fishing a deep crank or a shallow crank, it’s just a really good way to target fish in the fall. And especially in September, I’m thinking of those shallow grass flats a lot of times—shallow rocks, shallow wood, little stumps—and so, you know, glancing that little square bill crankbait off of there, that’s a good way to catch them.

This one, I’ve got it on the X13 from Phenix. It’s a crank rod. It’s designed just for crankbaits. I really love throwing crankbaits on it. If you’re fishing close contact, close cover, you might go with a little shorter rod. I really like the 7’6” X13 because I can cast it a long ways and I’m so used to using the 7’6” that I’m real good at just making good close casts as well. So I like that length. You might go a little shorter if you really are trying to pinpoint cast and you’re used to a little shorter rod, but that’s the X13 from Phenix—special for cranking.

Last but not least, if we’re really around a bunch of vegetation, frogging is great in the fall—especially September. So I’ve got a little popping frog on here. I like to rig it. I’m going to throw it on straight braid. I want to make sure I get a strong hook set and it responds really well on braid. And I want that. Generally it floats. A lot of times you’re fishing it around grass. It’s a great way to fish heavy, heavy cover. If you’ve got flooded brush, it’s a great way to skip inside docks or floats or overhanging limbs.

Frog is a great way to catch them. Generally I try to go a black one. And if they’re not biting that one, I might go to a shad color or more of a light white/chartreuse—shad shades. But those would be my two favorite colors. Frog gets a big bite, guys. That’s another thing. And all these topwaters are great at getting big bites, especially in September. A frog is another one. You put that in the heart—you put that in the middle of that grass mat, the holes in the grass—this will get a big bite.

I’m using it on heavy gear. You know, frogging—I’m going to use it on heavy gear. Those are two big hooks. They might have a bunch of slop in their mouth. You’ve got heavy cover you’re bringing it out of. Again, I was talking about braided line. I’m going to be throwing this one. This is the Phenix 7’7” heavy action rod. It’s the MBX, and I’m going to be going with a heavy action. When I’m frogging, I’m using a heavy action. This one’s got a little bit of a tip where I can do a lot of skipping and really good cast angles. So it’s not too stiff for that, but it’s also strong enough to fish heavy mats.

So frog is going to be my other one, guys. That’s a great way to get a bait where you know your Rico can’t get there because you’re tangling up the hooks. Too much grass. Too many leaves. Too many trees, brush—whatever. You can’t get your buzzbait through it. It keeps getting tangled up. The frog, guys—the frog is the way to go.

So again, that’s another great September tool. And as I said before, September is a real transitional time, so don’t narrow yourself to these things. Keep an open mind because you’ve got deep schools of fish, you’ve got shallow fish. There’s lots of opportunities to catch them in September. Their metabolism’s high, the water’s warm, and they’re feeding a lot—they’re eating a lot of food. So generally they give you good evidence of what to do, and fishing can be really fun.

A lot of folks start hunting about that time—and I like to do both—but I sure don’t miss out on some good September topwater trips. So those are some of my options. Again, don’t overlook searching for other things. Anytime I’m fishing the US Open that time of year, it looks like a mess on the front deck of my boat. It’s junk fishing season. I’m going to have more than 5 rods—I’m going to have probably 10–13 rods out. So you want to keep an open mind, but that is always something that’s going on in that time of year.

So those would be my top five favorites, and I hope you can use those to win your local tournaments and just have great days fishing this fall.