Best Bass Baits & Lures for the Fall Transition

As summer begins its slow transition into fall, bass begin to change their behavior and foraging to match. There are a few key factors to pay attention to, as well as a few key baits to tie on. Follow these tips to increase your odds this fall!

Keep an eye out for schools of baitfish! This time of year, bass demonstrate opportunistic traits that drive them to hunt and stalk schools of baitfish to build energy stores. So keep your eyes peeled for schools around structure and transition points, but also on your graphs. You may even see bass busting baitfish schools on the surface.

Because you’re chasing baitfish for your numbers game, you’ll want a good imitation to fool big bass. I like throwing a combination of baitfish imitators during this time.

Lipless Crankbait

As a shad imitator, a lipless is hard to beat during the fall. Lighter baits do well to stay high in the water column, while heavier lipless do well fishing lower parts of the water column. Choose a good lipless to rip around vegetation and a heavy enough line to work it with pops and pauses.

Jerkbaits are great in cold weather but can excel in the transitional fall season when fished differently. Instead of the typical cadence, try to keep the bait moving with fewer long pauses. You are looking to find aggressive bass hunting baitfish, so keep it moving.

Crankbait

Crankbaits are always king when you need to cover water, and find fish. Burn a squarebill in shallow water, making sure to hit every piece of structure imaginable to find traveling or hunting fish. You can’t go wrong with shad patterns and transition into craws as the season progresses.

Hopefully this helps demystify the transition into fall for many anglers. Don’t overthink your days out, and fish lots of water. Now, get out and hook a monster!