# Northeast Fall Bass Fishing



## onthewater102 (Nov 13, 2015)

Anyone out there finding a pattern to the fish during this prolonged fall weather that hasn't let the reservoirs or lakes in CT drop below the mid 50's even though it's the middle of November? Local club reports are scattered, no one seems to be identifying any real pattern, a few fish found on the deepwater side of off-shore weed beds, others are catching a few scattered on deep-water humps using blade baits and more winteresque approaches.

Thanks to fatherhood my fishing escapades are severely limited, and I'm trying to pick everyone's brain in the area in case anyone has managed to put anything together or discovered some southern winter technique that works well with our current conditions.

The one thing that baffles me no end with all of this is while extremely bizarre, the weather has been extraordinarily stable since mid/late September and that usually is a recipe for a strong pattern whatever it may be and yet all the tournament guys I know are still left scratching their heads. I refuse to believe that we've been stuck in a post-turnover funk for almost 8 weeks now.


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## onthewater102 (Nov 17, 2015)

no one?


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## Jim (Nov 18, 2015)

From the local to us forum, they are hammering them on swimbaits. Slow rolling sub surface swimbaits like Pats perch, ms-slammer type baits.


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## JL8Jeff (Nov 18, 2015)

I haven't been out in 2-3 weeks and my arm is messed up from rebuilding my shed so I can't even cast now. I'm most likely done for the season with the boat tucked in the garage now. I was still getting activity on topwater lures 3 weeks ago but I doubt they would work now.


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## onthewater102 (Nov 20, 2015)

Wow - we've got water in the low 50's, not quite down to the upper 40's yet, I would never have been targeting anything in the top 10' of the water column...interesting.

Dunno Jim if you've ever been to Colebrook River Lake - it crosses the CT/MA border south of Lee. That's where I was most recently, but it's a deep ravine flood control lake if you're not familiar with it, gets to be ~140' deep when full, right now it's about ~75' deep, so that's how drastically it fluctuates. Bottom line, there is absolutely no weed in it what so ever. Given how deep it is I never would have tried something up on the surface, but that's probably just naivety on my part.


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## Captain Ahab (Nov 20, 2015)

Jerk baits over dying weed beds and edges - Jerk and long pause Loooooooong pause 


Also, shakey head on hard bottom with crawfishy things


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## JL8Jeff (Nov 20, 2015)

Where I fish on the Delaware River it has been pretty clear most of the fall and most areas are under 6' deep so the topwater was still working (I even got a 17" striper on one of them). But last time I was out, the water was really cold so I'm sure the fish slowed down. Heck, I can't even remember the last time I fished a lake so I know I don't have the gear for it.


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## onthewater102 (Nov 23, 2015)

Hit Colebrook Sunday & couldn't spot anything but bluegills on the deep winter spots. Assuming they were bluegills, as that was all my partner caught at each location we tried - I got the skunk. Water was right around 50 degrees, which is bordering on hot for this time of year in Northwest CT/ Southwest MA - perhaps the shallow water bite is still happening somehow? Dunno. The lakes around me that I fish are some of the deepest river impound reservoirs in the state - 90' deep or deeper at the max with steep rocky shorelines. Any shallow areas that are flat are full of silt, most lakes had been dropped for maintenance which effectively kills all the shallow weeds for the year. I'm heading to a weedier lake on Friday - perhaps there is a strong inside edge in ~12FOW owing to the early November draw-down that has since been refilled...otherwise I'll be checking deep winter holes with my fingers crossed.


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## Johnny (Nov 25, 2015)

maybe you don't have enough sunshine on your line ?


This is from the ad for one of our local bass guides.


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## onthewater102 (Nov 30, 2015)

Headed back out Friday and found this at virtually every winter hidy-hole I looked into (granted it took a bit of buzzing around the area to find the schools)







But do you think I had anything to show for it? One 3# smallmouth was the only bite I had on the day...fish stacked everywhere they should be and nothing.


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## SMDave (Nov 30, 2015)

OTW, 

I know this comes some two weeks after your initial inquiry, but I've had the most success this fall with fishing square bill cranks on rip rap, rocks, etc. Granted, I haven't been out that much this autumn due to a myriad of personal reasons, but when I have been able to get my line wet, it seemed that the only approach that was producing consistently was square bill cranks fished at a moderate cadence (although some days they wanted it near-burned, other days I had to let it float to the surface in between reeling/rod swings). Like I said, deflecting them off of rock or wood was the ticket for me. Haven't been out recently though, so I can't speak on that technique's effectiveness as it pertains to fishing more recently like this past week/week-and-a-half or so. 

Half-ounce football jigs and suspending jerkbaits have been good to me too (especially with the air & water temps falling to where they SHOULD be at in late Nov/early Dec; it was 68°F this past Friday!) -- for both fall this year and years past. For jerkbaits, I prefer something that isn't too aggressive in its action (like a slashbait, e.g. Rapala's X-Rap) during autumn. Instead, I usually opt for something a little more muted with some subtlety to it. In particular, I've been really digging the Rapala Shadow Rap this past year, even though technically it is a slow-sinker as opposed to a true suspending jerkbait.

With all this said however, keep in mind that I'm a shore fisherman and as such, I tend to target smaller lakes that don't get too deep and which don't have too much water I can't cover. YMMV

Hope this helps!

-- SMDave


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## onthewater102 (Dec 1, 2015)

I think that shallow bite is mostly passed us here in CT. Water temps Sunday were 48-49 but it's been cold since then so they're only going to be falling now. Wintering spots were definitely loaded, I just didn't find them in a chewing mood. This time of year timing is everything - I've found they get frisky for 1/2 hour or so at any given spot, and then it's pretty much dead the rest of the day - crap shoot if you're going to find a spot hot or not, so you map a bunch & keep on rotating around quickly.

I was posting earlier inquiring for that transition time from when the water dropped below 65 but then really didn't decline very quickly from there leaving us in that turnover phase for the better part of 2 months. Now things are cooling and our winter bite is just about here so I'm stoked to be out there. No better time of year to find big smallies.


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