Pickups in Stickups and Other Ways to Score on Transition Bass
 |
| Pickups in Stickups and Other Ways to Score on Transition Bass |
In autumn, anglers have a chance to catch their biggest
largemouth bass of the year, maybe a lifetime. Veteran bassers look
forward to this season, but many weekend anglers dread it because they
haven’t yet learned how to locate and catch bass that may be deep one
day and shallow the next.
If you’re in this latter group, the following facts could help alleviate autumn anxiety.
Things to Try as Autumn Begins
Changing weather conditions as autumn begins trigger good fall
fishing. You should especially watch for cold fronts that drive
temperatures in the shallows back down into the 70s. This “shakes up”
water conditions, and bass that refused to feed during the monotonously
hot weather of late summer may take on a much more positive attitude to
food and lures. Bass still stay close to deep summer haunts, but now,
with much better water conditions, they’ll begin making forays to the
shallows for at least a few hours each day.
Fish near dawn and dusk if you can, as action tends to be better then
during the early part of the season. Remain flexible in your tactics.
On a 100-acre lake, there could be 10 bass patterns going on at the same
time; in a large reservoir, even more. Keep moving, casting and
experimenting until you find at least one pattern that works for you.
One tactic that may help you pinpoint bass is fishing gradually
sloping, stickup-covered flats in 10-20 feet of water near channel
breaks. These areas provide largemouths the security of deep water
nearby, and when the fish want to hang around in mid-depths, as they
often do this time of year, they can still move vertically in the water
column while relating to the woody cover. On some days, they’ll suspend;
other times, they’ll be near the top of a stickup, or closer to its
bottom. One day they’ll be closer to the channel break; the next might
find them on the flat’s shallowest edge. Whatever the case, you’ve
narrowed the scope of your search somewhat, and by working various
portions of the flat using lures most suited to the depth you’re
searching at a given moment, you should eventually get some “pickups in
the stickups.”
Use sonar to pinpoint the outer channel first, then work stickups on
the edge by casting jigs or vibrating crankbaits and working them at
different depths with different retrieves. Next, move to mid-portions of
the flat and work the water column top to bottom with shallow-diving,
suspending and deep-diving crankbaits. Bass on the flat’s shallow side
often hit plastic worms/lizards crawled across the bottom, or
spinnerbaits allowed to “helicopter” down beside timber. Be patient, and
work the flat methodically, and you’ll eventually get “pickups in the
stickups” that make the effort worthwhile.
Tips for Turnover Time
Turnover time occurs in mid- to late fall, depending on the latitude,
when previously stratified water “mixes” and the temperature evens out
top to bottom. It’s caused in part by cooling winds that pound waves
against shorelines and chill surface waters to make them heavier. (Water
is heaviest at 39.2 degrees.) When surface waters heavy up, they sink
beneath the warmer, lighter waters below, which rise to the surface and
replace the entire upper realm. Thus the logical term “turnover.”
Big bass sense this oncoming annual period and instinctively respond.
Seasoned lunkers sense that food soon will be scarce, so they eat and
lay on extra fat to tide them over the period of lean rations ahead.
They also must conserve energy, however, so exertions are held to a
minimum.
Catching these bass requires the angler to develop two mind-sets.
First, imagine cruising bass looking for a school of oversize minnows or
shad. Then picture bass in seclusion after getting a belly full of
prey.
For cruising bass, think deep. Look for dark drop-offs around old
creek channels, bluffs, steep points, cliffs and bridge pilings. This
calls for lures designed to work at deepest depths. Probe dark shores
with deep-running crankbaits, covering a lot of territory to cross paths
with feasting hawgs. That failing, try weighted sinking lures such as
jigheads with various soft plastic or hair bodies. Walk them down steep
shorelines, nudging bottom all the way to your boat. Also, bring them in
at all levels to see if bass are hanging at certain depths for reasons
known only to them.
Look for secluded bass in dense weeds, lily pads, brush or other
heavy cover abutting dark water, and think “s-l-o-w.” This calls for
lures with “do-nothing” appeal because a bass with its belly full won’t
chase them. Try vertical jigging. Rig a soft-plastic crawfish body on a
1/2-ounce jighead. Move quietly along deep shoreline covers with a
vertical line suspending the lure. Lift and lower it gently,
s-l-o-w-l-y, temptingly, to trigger instinctive slurps from inactive
lunkers. Keep your eyes on the line where it kisses the surface, and at
the slightest change in tension, loose or taut, set the hook.
Late Fall
When water temperatures dip below 55 degrees, bass take to deep
water. You’ll notice them moving farther from shore with each degree
drop in water temperature. Fall’s frenzied feeding slows now, and the
fish’s instinctually move to deeper haunts where they’ll settle in for
the winter.
Your best bet now may be working the mid- to deep levels beside rocks
bluffs and steep points toward the lake’s deeper end. The points, in
particular, may offer one last chance to win the “lunker lottery.” Just
about the time everybody thinks the fishing has gone to pot, a school of
big bass often moves up for one more crack at food. Likely as not,
they’ll come up on a steep point directly adjacent to some of the
deepest water in the lake. They normally move up no deeper than the
middle depths, and your lure—a long-billed crankbait bounced across the
bottom, or perhaps a jig-and-pig or lipless vibrator like the Cordell
Spot—must be worked painfully slow to entice them.
Cold weather is the norm when late fall arrives, and it may take the
constitution of a polar bear to be out there when strikes are typically
few and far between. This is probably your best chance, however, to hang
a real trophy before next spring’s thaw