
(Editor's note: "Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks" airs five times per week on Sportsman Channel – 2 p.m. ET Sunday, 4:30 a.m. Monday, 6 a.m. Tuesday, 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and 5:30 a.m. Saturday. The six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier provides BassFans with additional insight about each episode in these submissions.)
I can vividly remember this period growing up in Raleigh, N.C. on Falls Lake. As a kid just before starting my professional fishing career, I simply could not catch fish consistently in the August/September timeframe. Yes I would occasionally get lucky and catch some nice fish, but hardly ever numbers of them.
I fished nearly every day from age 12 to 21 before turning pro. Once I turned pro, fishing the BP Top 150 as it was called back in those days, I fished less, actually – a lot less. Driving and multiple weeks or months on the road would wear on me a bit.
So when I finally made it back home, I was aware of the fact that August and September (at least in the South) are terrible months to fish overall. So when I got home, I’d spend my time preparing tackle or I would travel to Canada to fish for fun with my family. So I never really figured out the late summer/early fall period while I was young and certainly don’t claim to know it all now, but I know a lot more.
Really, late summer all depends on the body of water, but on a Southern reservoir, it is all about the shad, no matter where they are. Yes, you can shallow-crank the backs of creeks and occasionally scrape up some nice fish, but if you find the shad on a lake in which they're not everywhere, then it is a good chance you have found the bass. Often this can be in the backs of creeks as the first few cold rains have come and cooled the water, and also stirred up the plankton that shad feed on. But I stress, this is not always the case or even close to it.
If shad are in 6 inches of water, bass will be there. If they are suspended in 100 feet, bass will be there.
So now you know not to just beat the bank or fish ledges like you did in summer. You have to key on the shad.
This week's show was a case study in the summer-to-fall transition. I fished a variety of lures and had a lot of success with each, as long as I was near the shad. I have noticed smaller baits often work better. I fished a bladed jig with a Culprit Incredi-Slim, a 3/8-ounce Yo-Zuri Rattle N’ Vibe and a Hardcore MR crankbait to catch most of the fish.
Keep an open mind as to where to find fish. That day I caught them on flats, but I literally fished the same lake a week later and there were no fish and no bait on any of the areas I had caught all the fish on. They had moved deeper, about a mile away from the prime area. They are always on the move with the bait.