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How to find bass in a lake at late fall?

Locating bass in a lake during the late fall season can be a rewarding challenge, and there are several strategies you can employ to increase your chances of success. Here are some tips based on the video context provided:

  1. Target Steeper Drops: As we approach the end of fall, bass tend to move to areas that offer quick access from shallow to deep water. Look for steep drop-offs near the main lake, as these are prime spots for bass. The closer the contour lines on your GPS map, the steeper the drop. If you're using a paper map, look for tightly packed contour lines indicating these drops.

  2. Follow the Baitfish: Baitfish are a key to finding bass in the fall. Bass will follow schools of baitfish as they move from deeper water to shallower areas and back again. Mimic the baitfish with your lure selection. Crankbaits are excellent for this purpose because they resemble baitfish in both appearance and movement.

  3. Use the Right Crankbaits: Utilize different types of crankbaits to match the conditions and bass behavior. A lipless crankbait can be particularly effective. In the early to mid-fall, when bass are shallow, retrieve it quickly over weed tops and around docks and pilings to trigger strikes from active fish.

  4. Consider the Forage: Understanding the type of baitfish in your lake is crucial. In the fall, bass are feeding heavily to prepare for winter, so they'll be where the baitfish are. In some lakes, shad move shallow as fall progresses, so bass will be nearby. Pay attention to areas with oxygen-rich water and cover, as these will attract both baitfish and bass.

  5. Look for Structure and Cover: Bass will relate to structure and cover near deep water. This could be a ledge, a hump, or submerged timber. Cover such as brush piles or rock piles on these structures can be hotspots for bass.

  6. Aquatic Vegetation and Current: Bodies of water with prevalent aquatic vegetation like hydrilla, coontail, and milfoil are magnets for bass. Also, areas with current can alter bass location, so be sure to investigate these anomalies.

  7. Use Electronics: If you have access to a fish finder or similar electronics, use them to identify potential hotspots. Look for areas where fish are suspending or holding close to the bottom, and pay attention to temperature changes that might concentrate fish.

Remember, during the late fall, bass metabolism slows down as water temperatures drop, so sometimes a slower, more methodical approach can be effective. Don't be afraid to slow down your presentation and thoroughly work an area once you've located fish. Good luck out there on the water!

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Transcript
06:59
08:14
Video
Fall Fishing: How To Catch Bass (This Works!) | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource And then as you get towards the end of fall, you're looking for steeper drops. The closer the contour lines on your GPS map, the better. Or if you're looking at a paper graph, those steeper drops is what you want to look for towards the end of fall because they have a quick access from shallow to deep, and they're out there towards the main lake. So that's the areas that I like to target. You look for that structure and then that cover that I just talked about that's sitting on that structure and you've got yourself a sweet spot. So those are what you wanna look for. As for the baits to use during the fall, like I mentioned many times over, baitfish. So, you need to have the baits that mimic a baitfish. And there really is no other bait out there that does a better job of mimicking baitfish than a crankbait. So I essentially use three different types of crankbaits during the fall. One of them is a lipless crankbait. This I'll use throughout the fall but I use it a little bit differently. In the early part of the fall into the mid-fall when the fish are shallow I like to use them in two different ways. One, I will bring it back quickly, rapidly right over the tops of the weeds, and right along docks and pilings. And I wanna move in fast because the activity level is up. Their metabolism as a baitfish, they're moving quickly.
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00:00
01:14
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Fall Bass Fishing Tips and Techniques | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource Hey, folks, Glenn May here with BassResource.com. The air's starting to cool down a little bit after we've had the heat of the summer. The trees behind me are starting to change color. There's a little bit of crispness in the morning. Fall has arrived. I'm telling you what, it can be some of the best fishing that you have in the entire year if you hit it just right. The key is that you have to find the fish and follow 'em. Let me tell you a little bit about what I do throughout the fall to stay on top of the fish and how I catch 'em. Hopefully, you can incorporate that into your style of fishing. The first thing you need to pay attention to is, in the fall, generally what happens is the bait fish will move shallow, up until the peak of the fall, and then they'll start to move back out. Of course, the bass will follow them, too. During the early transition period, late summer early fall, what I like to target is the points that are near shallow water. That may be near the entrance to a creek. That may be the entrance to a shallow bay or just the shallowere water on the lake. This is true even if you're on the natural lakes that are up north where we don't have shad. I'm up north, too. We don't have too many shad. We do in the Columbia River, but pretty much nowhere else we don't have any.
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09:14
11:45
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90% of BASS FISHING in 15 Minutes by BassFishingHQ is really best to spend time figuring out what type of bait lives in your lake so that you can better understand the bass and their behavior bait is also the most important factor when it comes to finding bass in the fall as winter approaches bass are going to feed heavily in preparation for colder water temperatures fall can be a tricky time of the year because there is bait fish everywhere from the most recent bait fish spawns and bass can be found in super shallow water in very deep water and everywhere in between bass that are super spread out means that you typically have to cover a tremendous amount of water and you will catch one fish here and one fish there heading into winter bass are typically going to be found relating to some of the deepest water that is in your body of water structure and cover elements near deep water will be where the bass are it is important to know that deep is a relative term this could be eight feet of water in a pond or eighty feet of water in a reservoir with all that being said about batch location you should know that there are two very big outliers that will change the location of bass that is aquatic vegetation and current any body of water where aquatic vegetation like hydrilla coontail and milfoil is prevalent bass are going to be relating heavily to it for instance
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Fall Fishing: How To Catch Bass (This Works!) | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource Hey folks, Glenn May here at BassResource.com. And today, let's talk about fall fishing and how to be successful throughout the whole fall season. I know it can be a little bit challenging because the bass seem to be scattered and they're hard to find sometimes. But if you follow the tips I'm about to give you, it's gonna be a lot easier for you. So let's start off with the forage. Right now a bass, when they get into the fall season, they're getting…they're feeding up getting ready for the winter. So they're chasing down whatever available forage they have. And that could be for the most part is baitfish. Now, understanding the role of the baitfish, their behavior during the fall and what they do can really help you find the bass because wherever the baitfish are, that's where the bass are. So, take shad, for example. If you have shad in your lake or in your river, shad are pretty easy because they're very predictable. What they do is in the early…well, late summer, early fall, they're a little bit deeper out in the main lake, and as fall progresses, they move up shallow. They move into the back of base, back of coves, move up streams, tributaries, or if you're in a river system, they move upstream. What they're doing is they're looking for oxygen-rich water with a lot of cover available that they can hide in, where they can feed. And so the bass will follow them.
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14:10
16:54
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How To Find Fish On Any Lake! (Beginner to Advanced Maps and Electronics) by TacticalBassin we are trying to identify sweet spots where the bass are going to be so going into fall that's what matters right now we're down here in that lower section of the lake because it's the most interesting what we're looking for is the places where these fish will be in the fall tim already identified those areas for us in a recent video he told us that the bass are motivated by bait fish right now they want to feed on bait so they're going to either be shallow in the backs of pockets or they're going to be out deep on structure okay so we can find both of those very quickly now i want to take it a step further let me zoom out here looking back at this arm okay we've got this big main open area arm here that goes wow it goes way way back some lower arms here also going way way back what i want to identify is the sweet spot okay the place that is the most likely to hold fish because the sweet spot is where your odds are the highest so to me in the fall the offshore stuff is easy you're looking for the best places that come up shallow here's an example okay so we've got red on my graph i've got it set up where red is less than six feet then we go to white or lighter blue
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Best Fall Dropshot Tips for Bass Fishing (These Work!) | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource Again, the bite is off a little bit. This is a great time to bring it out. When the fish, you can nurse an area and you can catch a lot of fish. So, typically what that is, is there's two different ways I really do this is I split the fall into two different seasons. One is that early fall which is late summer until the water temperatures get into the 50s, mid 50s or so. And then from that point to early winter, where the water temperatures get into the low and mid 40s, that's the second part of the fall. And I fish in those two seasons, if you will, or two parts of the fall differently. So, in the first half, what I'm doing is I'm looking at the main lake points that are entrances to bays and coves that have freshwater flowing into them. The baitfish at this time of year are looking for freshwater, they're moving up shallow so the bass are gonna follow them. Now, if I come to a bay that doesn't have any freshwater then I'll just skip it. I'll go to the next one because the more freshwater that is in there, the more oxygen-rich water that's in the water or in the bays that is going to attract those fish. So, I wanna fish high percentage areas so that's where I'll go. So, I'll start on the outside of those areas and I'll take this dropshot and I'll pinpoint the key structure areas.

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