These environmental factors are something that we should be watching for. These are factors that let the fish and us know its fall.
The biggest factor and probably the easiest to notice is the temperature. Another major factor to pay attention to during fall is lake turnover. (Don’t worry; it is not as scary as we are lead to believe). The signs are right in front of us.
INCREASED HUNGER
We will see the daylight hours become noticeably shorter. The air temperature will cool down both in the day and night on a consistent basis and this intern will the start a decrease (even if only a few degrees) in the water temperature.
The cooling water usually provides more dissolved oxygen. This gets bass to be more active, which also increases their metabolism. This means the bass want more food and they want it now!
FEEDING AREAS
Fish will start to move to staging areas, coming up from deeper water to find food. Bass, in particular,
FALL 2016
like the security and ambush opportunities that various forms of structure provide. Looking for bass in the areas you found them during the pre-spawn are usually good places to start.
In fall, depth seems to be an important feature to pay attention to. Bass haven’t fully committed to anything in the fall. Finding an area that has a shallow and a deep spot within the immediate area is key. Bass want to be able to run shallow for food and get to deeper, safer, water in a hurry should something trigger them to.
Targeting structure at many depth ranges is a good way to narrow in on where the bass are holding at that time. Not saying all bass are going to be holding and active in one specific depth; however, more of them or a bigger class of fish will most likely be favoring a similar depth range.
Just keep an eye on your depth as you are fishing, especially when you start catching the type of fish you are looking for. Once you have narrowed in on a good depth range, focus on the structure and contours in that range. This time of year bass like to school up; so don’t be afraid to continue fish a spot, even after you’ve caught one.
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