Fall Bass Patterns

Went out on Ten Mile Lake by Hackensack yesterday. 45 degrees and 20-25 mph winds. My buddy fished in the Forrest Wood Cup a few years ago. Hadn’t fished with him in awhile. He has live scope which I haven’t used before. We didn’t have a huge numbers day, but he was a magician with the jerk bait. We caught smallies, largemouth, pike, and a few big walleyes. Fun to fish with a guy who is really skilled. If had been out there by myself I would’ve bumped into a few I’m sure. Felt good to sit in a warm car on the drive home. This cold snap is frustrating. Last Fall was perfect. Good luck.

ssaamm wrote:

Last Fall was perfect

The epic fall bite last year never materialized for me, presumably because it was so warm. I’ve been on the fall bite that often occurs the past 3 weeks or so. The last 2 outings I have not even seen another boat out there fishing either. Everyone must be duck, grouse, or archery hunting. I think I’m going to hang it up for the season now in terms of bass fishing but I might go muskie fishing once more.

My last fishing, and even catching, was Nov 4th. It will be along shot this year I’d think, but you never know. Blade bait time.

ssaamm wrote:

My last fishing, and even catching, was Nov 4th. It will be along shot this year I’d think, but you never know.

Nov 6, 2021… it was a nice, long Fall for once. Can it happen again?!?

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Absolutely!

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ssaamm wrote:</div>
Last Fall was perfect

The epic fall bite last year never materialized for me, presumably because it was so warm. I’ve been on the fall bite that often occurs the past 3 weeks or so. The last 2 outings I have not even seen another boat out there fishing either. Everyone must be duck, grouse, or archery hunting. I think I’m going to hang it up for the season now in terms of bass fishing but I might go muskie fishing once more.

Mid 60’s next weekend. Definitely not putting the boat away.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Mid 60’s next weekend. Definitely not putting the boat away.

I think you’ll have the lake to yourself, mostly. I think there will be a lot of people hunting the early antlerless and youth deer season.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Mid 60’s next weekend. Definitely not putting the boat away.

I think you’ll have the lake to yourself, mostly. I think there will be a lot of people hunting the early antlerless and youth deer season.

Still plenty of time to fish after killing a deer

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Mid 60’s next weekend. Definitely not putting the boat away.

I think you’ll have the lake to yourself, mostly. I think there will be a lot of people hunting the early antlerless and youth deer season.

Let’s hope so. That is the plan.
Hoping like most years it’s the biggest fish I will catch all year.

FryDog62 wrote:

That’s a slammer of a day!

I had been on a good spinnerbait bite for a couple weeks now and that’s what I started with. I had 5 fish swipe and miss or get unhooked in the first 20 minutes, so I switched over to a slower-moving chatterbait instead. They were engulfing that. I only missed 2 fish the rest of the time. The water dropped from 57 to 51 in a week so I presume that’s the reason they were missing the faster-moving spinnerbait and they were able to slam the slower chatter.

In this one particular area, I noticed a lot of bait fish on the sonar and observed a couple of fish surfacing around me. That is where I caught several large fish in a few minutes, including the 20 incher.

The strange thing is that lately I couldn’t keep the pike off. I only caught one of those slime darts on Saturday in four hours. I had every intention of taking a few of those slimy devils home for some pickling too. Then they never showed up lol

I’m gonna take one last trip on White Bear in the morning. I’ve not had great luck the last couple times out so I’ll tie on the bladed jig and see if I can tap into your good fortune!

I went out to the lake I did really well in during my last tournament but it was so low I couldn’t get to the shoreline cover that I did so well on. Sad. It was such a fun lake. Will have to stash it for spring I guess.

Any current water temps in the Cities?

brandmoney wrote:

Any current water temps in the Cities?

It was 51 where I was in the north metro on Saturday afternoon.

brandmoney wrote:

Any current water temps in the Cities?

On Saturday I had 51-52 on the main lake, saw as low as 47 on a large wind swept back bay maxing at 7′.

Got out for just under an hour and a half on Wed. night. The highest water temp was 41. I didn’t get any bass, not a surprise, but I didn’t get skunked either. I got two hammer handles and a 30-inch pike on a black single Indiana blade spinnerbait with fire craw Z-Man Goat trailer. With the way the big pike hit and fought at first, I thought maybe I had a big bass on for about 15 seconds. I set the hook, and it was just solid, and then it slowly bulldogged me. With the amount of pressure I was putting on the fish, I knew it was good, whatever it was. I also threw a big Blade Chatterbait, Dark Swimmer, and suspending jerk bait. I think I might have gotten a hit on the jerkbait, but I’m not totally sure as I was fishing where there is cabbage which I did get hung in on that cast. I didn’t throw any jigs other than the Sleeper, and that was on a point, not in the cabbage where the pike were. Hopefully, the warm-up will activate a few bass.

Bass Pundit wrote:

The highest water temp was 41.

Holy moly that is freaking cold already. I am seeing a weekend warm up followed by another cool down starting on Monday. Beyond that it looks like “winter” lol

Is this warm front going to wake up the bass? Or am I wasting my time heading out this weekend

brandmoney wrote:

Is this warm front going to wake up the bass? Or am I wasting my time heading out this weekend

I’m wondering the same myself. Glad I decided to try it last weekend when they were still very hungry. I’m afraid that may not be the case this weekend. I’m gonna try muskie fishing instead.

Sunday might be the better odds of success given that the warm up will be on starting Friday. They’re talking maybe 80 degrees in western MN on Sunday now and very windy.

Maybe a jerk bait with long pauses? I don’t know, I don’t usually target bass when the water is that cold lol

Now that I think of it, Seth Feider cracked 30 pounds of MN largemouth at the very end of October last year. If I remember right he was using a 3/4 Jackhammer and a DT8. Maybe I will go out this weekend

brandmoney wrote:

Now that I think of it, Seth Feider cracked 30 pounds of MN largemouth at the very end of October last year. If I remember right he was using a 3/4 Jackhammer and a DT8. Maybe I will go out this weekend

I’m sure the water temps were significantly warmer last year at this time considering last fall was the warmest on record.

A few big ones came out to play this past weekend up around St. Cloud. These three caught on different baits, spinner, frog, and swim jig. They were up on top of weed mats.

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This is PB breaking season. I wouldn’t hang it up just yet. You won’t get the numbers but the possibility of finding a true giant with a jig or big worm is legit. I wish I wasn’t going to be in Boston this weekend.

I’m hoping to get in on the late season jerk bait bite. Have hit it just days before freeze up only bait they would hit was a husky jerk slowly rising in the water column. Fun day when air temps barely hit above freezing.

41 was at Platte Lake, which doesn’t have all that much water over 10-feet deep. It warms up or cools down fast with a few days of consistent weather. I’m guessing most other lakes in the area are in the high 40s.

Can not speak for the Bass bite but I know the Big walleye bite is on in my area. My buddy was out for a few Hr’s yesteday evening and him and a partner got 11 Eyes. Only 1 was under 20″. Their biggest was 27″. He’s heading back out to a different place today ( I can’t join him ) I am planning on going out with him tomorrow evening. Hope the big eyes are still chomping. It would be nice to get a few eater fish as well. That’s been a problem for him the last 4-5 outings now. The area these eyes are coming from normally have some bass mixed in. He’s only got a few bass the last few outings.

I am fishing the Brainerd area over MEA. The water temperature this afternoon is 48 degrees. I caught a few bass this afternoon. I imagine with the temperatures climbing it will get better.

SW metro was 52 degree water temp 6 days ago, was 47/48 today. Still a decent bite on flats w/moving lures.

I think with the recent cold snap, shorter days and low water levels it’s crashing early this year… we’ll see.

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I’m going to keep trying. Winter is too long. Ice fishing doesn’t cut it for me. Might have to fish for walleyes. I don’t care for the quick, shock to the system cool down like we just had. Screws it all up. Launched my boat by myself the other day. The rope broke. Thankfully, the wind blew the boat into shore. Could’ve been worse. Time for a new rope. Good luck.

I found just 50-51 degrees this evening on a Brainerd area lake, which surprised me a little. Caught a good handful of smallmouth and couple really healthy walleyes on a jerkbait, in about 6-12ft. They were fairly aggressive on the bite too, didn’t really require long pauses.

I’m hoping to get out once or twice more next week on a lake I know has some bigs. Hopefully a couple will still be hungry. Then I have to put to boat to sleep.