Throughout most of the year, bass follow fairly predictable patterns. A good angler can usually guess with reasonable accuracy which depths hold the majority of fish.
During spring for example, water temperatures and moon phases determine the stage of the spawn and hence the relative depth of the fish. Summer is a little more tricky, but most anglers know how to fish points, grassbeds and shallow cover. Fall, however, can be more vexing.
One angler who's made a solid living fishing the fall — a time when many regional circuits hold their end-of-year championships — is Arizona's John Murray. He's earned over $1 million fishing in the West and knows how to assemble a gameplan for these fall fish.
His strategy is simple: Fish the extremes.
Two Groups
"I think fall in general is a time of extremes," he said. "In the Southwest the extremes develop more toward November, but in other regions they start occurring in late September and October.
"The normal summertime pattern of point fishing, and finding schools of fish in 15 to 20 feet of water, suddenly disintegrates. What happens is, those mid-depth fish divide up and follow bait toward two very different areas. One group goes extremely shallow, and the other goes extremely deep."
According to Murray, too many anglers make the mistake of fishing where they caught fish yesterday. The movement happens quickly and those mid-depth zones that had been so productive for months suddenly become dead water.
"A lot of people don't follow this movement and wind up scratching their heads," he said. "So often, I've seen anglers come in from a tough day of fishing water between 10 and 20 feet deep. Well, the bass aren't there anymore."
Shallow First
It's a prime opportunity to outdo the competition, and given a choice, Murray opts to target the shallow fish first. Not only do these fish suit his fishing style, but they're the most overlooked. He starts by throwing topwaters in extremely shallow water.
"A prime shallow-water location is a dirty, dingy bay where shad collect near the back shore in 1 foot of water or less," he said. "Think about it. Those shallow bays have been worked over heavily through early fall, but once it turns colder, everyone leaves them alone.
"This is exactly the time when large fish begin moving into those areas and you can have these fish to yourself.
"Another interesting thing about shallow fish in fall is that unlike other times of the year, midday seems to produce the best topwater bite."
"If you catch a topwater fish during fall, it's usually a very good quality fish," he noted. "In fact, some of the biggest fish I've caught in fall were topwater fish. Buzzbaits and other topwaters like Ricos and Spooks are my best shallow-water lures during this time.
"Just make sure your bait is large enough to convince the bass that the strike is worth it. Other effective shallow-water lures include jerkbaits and Rat-L-Traps. If they won't commit to a topwater, a Rat-L-Trap can be deadly in 1 to 3 feet of water.
Then Deep
Should the shallow gameplan fail, he goes deep. "Remember, while some fish are moving extremely shallow, other fish are following main-lake shad schools out to very deep water. Look for those fish too," he said.
"The shad and bass could be as deep as 90 feet, but as a general rule, they'll be deeper than 30 feet. Of course, depth is relative to the lake you're fishing. Deep water in the South could mean 15 feet."
One approach to deep-water fish — and one few anglers are willing to divulge — is the importance of fishing from deep to shallow. An angler's comfort zone usually involves casting to the bank, or positioning in deep water and casting up to a point.
Murray, however, rarely hesitates to reverse direction. In fact, it's one of his main strategies.
"Years ago, someone in one of my classes wanted to fish over an upcoming weekend during fall," he said. "I told him to throw Yamamoto Hula Grubs out on points and he'd catch fish. Well, he went out, fished all weekend, came back to my class and cussed me out because he hadn't caught anything. He said he sat out in 30 feet of water and dragged jigs all day.
"I told him to go back the next weekend to the same spot, with the same bait, but instead of casting 30 feet shallower, cast 30 feet deeper and work the bait uphill. He came back and said he had a great trip. He'd caught all sorts of fish in the same areas. All it took was a change of direction."
Of course, electronics pay a critical role in finding deep fish. Specifically, he said you want to locate the depth with the most baitfish activity, then find structural elements — like points, creek channels and humps — that intersect the active depth.
"When I find that depth, I always start with a jigging spoon, like a 1-ounce Luhr Jensen Crippled Herring. It's great for locating deeper fish. My other top choice is a 1-ounce Hula Grub in smoke/sparkle or watermelon.
"If neither of these work, I turn to finesse techniques like Westy Worms or dropshotting.
"I approach these deep-water fish just like I do flip fish. If I'm flipping a big jig but not catching fish, I always move to a finesse bait like a tube and work it more slowly. Same thing down deep.
"If I start catching fish on a 1-ounce jigging spoon or Hula Grub, and they quit biting, the fish are probably still there — they're just wise to my bait. I move to a finesse technique, work it more slowly and can usually start catching fish again."
When Fall Is Gone
Eventually true winter arrives, these "extreme" patterns end and almost all the fish settle down even deeper. "They get down into the bottoms of creek channels and depressions," Murray said.
"If they were way out on a point, I've found they'll sort of swing around the sides of the point and hunker into the bottoms of bays. The shallow fish head deeper, too, but follow the creeks out from the bank."
