Along with the falling leaves, so are the water temperatures. Everyone knows that once your favorite football team has their first few kickoffs, the end of Summer is here, and that means the bass fishing is about to get good. It also means that anglers are on the verge of being forced to transition into different fishing patterns. 

With the upcoming Fall weather, anglers will find themselves torn between the patterns of Summer and Winter. We all know that when it gets "long sleeve" weather during a night tournament, that Fall is here. Fall is a great time of change in the world of fishing. The nights get cooler, days get shorter and the water starts to cool off. This cool off period causes the cooler water on the surface to sink toward the bottom simply because cooler water is heavier than warmer water. This causes the bass to start to move up, following the more oxygenated of the two.

As the water starts to cool, those elusive bass start to imitate the same patterns that they followed back in the Spring. Bigger bass become habits of structure. These bass revert back to a structure pattern because most have been in deep water where it’s cooler, and some have stayed suspended in order to beat the shallow water heat. If you’ve paid attention to the size of fish that you’ve caught on structure this past Summer, you’ll probably find that the occasional two pounder has been replaced with that three or four pounder. Most of these bass will stay with this structure before they get ready for the transition back to deep water for the Winter.

Most anglers revert back to the same lures they caught fish on in the Spring for the Fall time fishing. Carolina Rigs with the ever popular lizard, in green pumpkin and smoke purple colors are just a couple of the favorites. Small crankbaits fished on the shallow points with structure seem to take lots of numbers during the Fall also. Anglers can’t forget that ’ol jig once the water starts its cooling trend though. A brown 1/4oz Killer Bee jig trailed with a Zoom green pumpkin chunk seems to take some bigger fish off of structure in the changing water.

Once you’ve found some shallow fish holding on structure, I’ve found that the bigger bass can’t resist a 5/8oz Yo-Yo’s, Colorado bladed spinnerbait in white and chartreuse trailed with a chartreuse split tail grub. This bait is great when they are feeding on an ambush pattern early in the morning on stumps and boathouses.

Once you’ve found a cool water pattern, you can just about be guaranteed that a good pattern will take you right on into Winter fishing. Only slight changes will have to be made, such as down sizing and slowing the presentation down a bit.

Keep in mind that just because your Summer pattern isn’t working, doesn’t mean that the bass aren’t biting. You just have to make a few subtle changes and move on to a Fall pattern. Don’t even be afraid to finesse those big ones just a little once they start to get finicky. You never know when one of those seven plus pounders just might take a bait.