Story by Todd Goade | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Fall is in the air! Cooler temps, college football, shorter days, and fish are on the move. I love fall fishing and if I went back and looked at all of my tournament finishes over my career, I have probably won more money in the fall than any other season. This is the time of year where you can find bait migrating back in the creeks, and the bass are not far behind. This can also be a tough time of the year on certain lakes as the bait tends to be small and there’s usually lots of it.
There are a few trains of thought on how to catch these finicky bass, some being to throw the biggest baits at them … or to throw the smallest. While I do throw a big topwater bait and a buzzbait, I tend to stay on the small side. When the fishing is tough in the fall, I have three baits on the deck of my boat at all times. They get bites when fish are feeding on small bait and here are my setups for each one:
- 1/8 ounce Pulse Jig scrounger – I throw this little guy on a Pulse Fish Simply Shaky spinning rod paired with a Ark Gravity G5 spinning reel which has a 5.2:1 gear ratio which I believe is the best speed out there for this bait. I use K9 Fishing Products 9 strand braid to their 8-pound-test Pro 100 fluorocarbon. My favorite trailers for this bait are a Zoom Tiny Fluke, a Missile Baits 3-inch Spunk Shad and a 3-inch Damiki Armor Shad.
- 1/4-ounce Matt Arey Signature Spinnin’ PJ Underspin – I throw this bait on a Pulse Fish Ole One Caster casting rod and an Ark Fishing Gravity 8 casting reel with a 7:1/1 gear ratio with 10pound-test K9 Pro 100 Fluorocarbon. My favorite trailers for this bait are a 2.8 and 3.3 Keitech and a Zoom 2.75 Boot Tail Minnow. The flash of the blade mimics small baitfish perfectly.
- 1/4-ounce Matt Arey Signature Series Finesse Swimbait Head – Lastly, I like to throw this bait on a Matt Arey Do-All-Unit spinning rod with the Ark Gravity G5 spinning reel, same braid to fluorocarbon setup as the 1/8-ounce Pulse Jig. I also like the 2.8 and 3.3 Keitech and Zoom 2.75 Boot Tail Minnow for this bait as well.
As far as where to fish these baits, I’ll start back in a creek to see how far the bait has moved back, and a lot of times they’ll be all the way in the back on the flats. Also, a lot of times you’ll see fish schooling on these flats and these three baits cast really far on these setups which allow you to not spook the fish. I can’t tell you many times this scenario has happened and how many bigger fish I’ve caught on these baits. These fish are looking up when feeding and these baits when reeled fast stay up in the water column very well which I feel is what gets the bites.
Give these baits and setups a try the next time the fishing is tough, and you need a bite, You won’t be disappointed! See y’all on the water.
Todd Goade – Angler Profile
