Fall 2025
®
Purple Laminate, Black w/ Blue Flake, or Mimizu offer better silhouette contrast.
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COVER SCAT - DEPS
Why: Perfect when the fall bass shift between aggressive and finicky moods due to temperature swings and baitfish movement. Its compact, heavy, no-action profile imitates injured prey and excels in pressured conditions where subtler presentations outproduce moving baits. It’s gliding fall and bottom-hugging posture trigger reaction strikes, especially when bass are keyed on gobies or bottom- dwelling forage.
Where: Ideal for hard-bottom fall transition areas like chunk rock, gravel points, bluff ends, and secondary points. Also effective in submerged wood, brush piles, and docks — anywhere largemouth set up to ambush during cooling water periods. Prime zones include depths between 5– to 15-feet, especially close to drop-offs or inside edges of grass lines where bass stage before moving deeper. Fall’s lower light levels also push fish tighter to structure, increasing this bait’s effectiveness.
How: Pitch and let it free-fall to the bottom. Let it sit motionless or use short drags and subtle rod twitches to imitate a feeding or dying baitfish. Slow hop-and-glide retrieves excel.
Rig It: Best fished weightless on a heavy-wire 4/0 to 5/0 EWG hook, Texas-rigged to remain weedless. Use 14– to 20-pound fluorocarbon or braid to leader when punching into moderate cover. The bait’s weight (~1 oz) provides the casting distance and fall rate without added weights — perfect for covering water and maintaining a bottom contact profile that mimics craws or bottom-dwelling baitfish.
Color Tip: Choose Green Pumpkin, or Scuppernong colors in clear water. In stained or muddy conditions, opt for June Bug or Falcon Lake Craw. In pressured lakes, Japanese- market color variants like Ayugiru or Akaebi can give you an
edge.
SCUM FROG PAINTED TROPHY SERIES POPPER - AMERICAN BAITWORKS
Why: As temperatures drop, shad and bluegill school tightly near the surface — especially in the warmest parts of the day. This frog’s popping action and detailed paint job offer visual realism and sound attraction that drive explosive topwater bites during these fall feeding windows, especially around thick vegetation.
Where: Fish it around matted grass, hydrilla, lily pads, and duckweed in shallow flats near deeper water (often 2– to 6-feet deep). Focus on isolated patches, edges of grass lines, or holes in vegetation where bass trap prey. Also deadly around laydowns, docks, and overhanging brush near coves and feeder creeks where bait migrates in fall. Early morning and late afternoon are key, but warmer mid-day windows can also trigger surface activity.
How: Work the popper slowly with pauses between pops, imitating a wounded frog or panicked baitfish. For more aggressive fish, a steady pop-pop-pop retrieve draws attention. Let the frog sit motionless occasionally to tempt pressured bass. The cupped mouth creates bubbles and noise even with slight rod twitches — ideal for enticing reactive strikes in thick cover.
Rig It: Use 50– to 65-pound braided line to stay above vegetation and haul fish out of cover.
Color Tip: Choose natural colors like Leopard, or Bullfrog, in clearer water. For stained or low-light conditions, go with New Moon to increase visibility and silhouette against the sky. Matching the hatch to local forage (frogs or baitfish) helps dial in bites during fickle fall windows.
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