Late fall and early winter are one of our favorite times to fish, but you need to know where to look. Targeting bass near underwater rocks can lead to some epic cold water catches. Rocky banks provide cover for bass, and a place for them to ambush baitfish. The chunk rocks retain heat when the sun is shining, increasing the surrounding water temperature just enough to get the bass more active. Check out this video featuring some of SmallmouthCrush's go-to tricks and techniques, and you'll be fishing rocks like a champ in no time. 

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Video transcript:

SmallmouthCrush:
Yo, it's SmallmouthCrush on behalf of Monsterbass. I want to make a quick video about fishing in the fall and specifically targeting rock. So any type of bank or any type of underwater rock this time of year can be really special. I'm going to go over the reasons why, and hopefully catch a few fish. That's all coming up.

SmallmouthCrush:
Got him. [inaudible 00:00:32] Got the first fish of the day.

Speaker 2:
That's a good fish.

SmallmouthCrush:
I guess it's good for here.

Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:00:42].

SmallmouthCrush:
There we go. Caught this guy on the Beast Coast, Open Water Sniper jig. It's not bad. Right up on that rock.

Speaker 2:
That's a good fish for here [inaudible 00:01:00].

SmallmouthCrush:
Nice small mouth. I caught him off of this rock here. There's a deep ditch here, and this is all chunk rock through here. And that's what he was sitting on. Now, as the day goes on, the water warms up slightly, this is where they're going to really be positioned on this chunk rock. So it's really important in the fall to focus on any type of rock like this on the bank. So obviously the Rocky banks will provide cover in places to ambush bait fish and crayfish for the bass. But as you can see on days like this, when the sun beats down on it, it'll actually retain and hold heat a lot better. That water temp might be just a degree or two higher, and will oftentimes you'll find some more of the active fish will be relating to those rocks.

SmallmouthCrush:
Now fishing rocks, as you could see here, I had a little hang up with my bait. You're going to get snagged depending on the baits that your use, that just comes with fishing that type of rock. A lot of this rock in this particular river we were fishing was along the bank. But there was some underwater rock that also provided current breaks and places for these fish to set up and feed. Now, today was really one of the first colder days of the year and water temps are dropping. It wasn't the greatest fishing, although every fish we caught was relating to rocks somehow.

SmallmouthCrush:
Yep

Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:02:38] way off there.

SmallmouthCrush:
Yeah. There we go. Another one.

SmallmouthCrush:
Another one off this rocky bank, the rock actually extends a little bit out here and we're able to catch another decent small mouth [files 00:02:57]. These aren't going to be the giant small mouth of the Great Lakes. I mean, we're in a inland body of water fishing a river system. That's a decent small mouth for here.

SmallmouthCrush:
Here's another tip guys. When you're fishing any type of rock bank, you see this wood here that comes out, lay downs and with the rock and the wood meet, oftentimes that's where you'll find some of these fish as well. There we go. Oh, this feels like a good one here guys.

Speaker 2:
Good spot, man. [crosstalk 00:03:31]

SmallmouthCrush:
Ain't too bad, just strong. They fooled me. But again, the deal is off of this rock here.

SmallmouthCrush:
Now there's a variety of baits to fish areas that have this kind of rock, especially late in the year. Here, I'm rigging up just a three inch Hula Grub. It's just a twin tail grub with plastic skirt coming out of the head in a size 1/8 ounce jig head on that.

SmallmouthCrush:
It has been a little tough today, but all the fish we've been catching been relating to that, that rock. Not a lot of big fish. I mean we probably caught 15 or so today, but no real giants. A couple of key baits when you're fishing rock in the fall, a ned rig with any type of soft plastic that you have confidence in, go as light as possible. You want to be able to work it around that rock without getting hung up as much. You're still going to lose baits whenever you're fishing rock, you're going to get hung up.

SmallmouthCrush:
But I like to use a braid to a floral carbon leader with all my baits that are bottom contact baits. So ned rigs, a tube would work an exposed hook tube, or even a Texas rig tube. Any type of finesse worm, shaky heads, baits like that will do a lot of damage. Can also think outside the box a little bit. You can certainly throw a swim bait along rocks, especially in the fall. A lot of the bait's going to be utilizing that rock, just like the small mouth are to get out of the current or perhaps to feed. Spinner baits, jerk baits, crank baits it really depends on the day, the mood of the fish. Today, these fish are not chasing and they're barely biting our bottom bait.

Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:05:22] This one.

SmallmouthCrush:
We're going to continue to throw a ned rig and work a few more of these rocky shorelines see if we can locate a few more fish. The bite died later on in the afternoon here. But the next day I went out and fished some deeper rock, basically rock that was in 14 to 20 feet of water offshore. There was some big schools of small mouth that moved up on these rocks to actually feed. Here's some footage of that day, some true quality, small mouth,

Speaker 2:
Oh, they're fish.

Speaker 3:
What they look like. Travis.

Speaker 2:
Weigh that one.

SmallmouthCrush:
And they love that rock. Well, I hope you enjoyed this quick video. Don't forget to subscribe to the Monsterbass YouTube channel. [crosstalk 00:06:26] And if you want to see more of these types of videos, head on over to my channel [crosstalk 00:06:31] SmallmouthCrush, and we'll show you this magical 30 plus pound day of small mouth fishing we had recently. As always until next time, we'll see you guys on the water.