Fall fishing? 'S.O.S

[baitfish]

Where do the fish go? Where do I find bass and pike? What are they eating in october?

Fall baits/lures...?

[lape0019]

Depending on where you are fishing, the fish may be in different areas. I always look for green vegetation.

You'll still catch some big fish on jig and craw baits at this time of the year but the bites may be few and far between. As craw fish are hard to digest which means they take more energy from the fish while digesting, you will see a swing to where the fish look up for their food source instead of scouring the river bottom for their favorite snack.

With that in mind, I usually throw a crank or a jerkbait more often at this time of year. Cadence is important so vary it up a bit to see what they like. For jerkbaits, I usually start with a twitch, twitch, pause action with the pause sometimes being as long as ten seconds. It all depends on what they want.

For cranks, I just vary my retrieve speed until I find something they like.

If you are going for smallies, look for sand and rock piles. Both types of structure hold heat longer so in the afternoon, you'll probably see a few cruising around.

Also, if you are any good with your sonar, look for bait balls. If you find one, chances are there will be bass or pike around.

With all of that info, I'll still throw a drop shot and other baits but it doesn't happen as often.

Hope this helps and I also hope you get more answers as this is a great topic to discuss.

[baitfish]

Thanks for the response.....anyone else have some tips for the above questions?

[Alex]

New to this forum; I too usually struggle to catch anything in the fall on the Ottawa (lac Deschenes). I was out last week during the day trolling around for over three hours before I finally caught a reasonable small mouth near Aylmer island. I had tied a floating yellow jig head and worm to a foot of line and a sinker so it floats off the bottom and was drifting slowly with the wind in about 8 feet of water. This setup will usually produces something, often channel cats and small mouths.
I had tried different depths, weed lines, shoals and a variety of lures and trolling speeds with no luck before that. Hope this helps.

[Netman]

I generally just toss tubes or drag em for smallmouth during the fall but this year most of them are falling for a jig with twister tails reeled in slowly or a blue fox vibra max spinner with a silver blade. I've been having luck with chartreuse green on the St Lawrence. Don’t be afraid to try different colours

[nanookofnj]

We fished the St. Lawrence last Thursday 10/6 - Sunday 10/9 from the NY side. Lots of smallmouth daily with 90% brought on board in the 4- 6 lb class. All bass were caught either on tubes(3/8oz w/ some sort of brown), black or PB/Jelly Ned, drop shot, or live crab. Shoals off deep water/channel in 18-30 FOW was the ticket. Tight lines.

[Mick_C]

I hit the Rideau on Saturday morning in the rain, I found tons of smallies in the 8 to 12 foot depth range with no Veg, sand or pebble bottom. Xrap and senko's were the key.

[seahawk]

Mike,

Are you talking about the lake or just Rideau river and if it is river will you tell us which section(not asking specific spot)? Thanks.

[Mick_C]

I don't mind giving additional info at all. It was the river, I launched from Black rapids lock 13 in the Yak and caught 95% of the fish from the hunt club bridge down to the big bend in the river. I tried fishing the deep hole(30ish feet on the sounder) under the bridge with no luck on deep diving lures. But as that came up to the 12ish ft mark I started hitting them. This was my first time fishing this section so take that into account, just my findings on a cold, rain filled morning