Late Fall Bass Fishing

December 10, 2023 by lbailey

Late Fall Bass Fishing during the transitional seasons of the year can sometimes seem challenging. With a few key late fall fishing tips, you can bump up your cool weather catch rates while using artificial baits and lures.

Late Fall Bass Fishing can be some fantastic bass catching action. The bass are feeding for the long winter. Shad and bait fish are slow and or dying making it easy for bass to feed. A passing front can trigger some of the best bass fishing action of the year. And a final bonus, there will not be many anglers on the water. Most are hunting, opening up the lake to anywhere you might want to try your hand at catching a bass of a lifetime.

Consider these Late Fall Bass Fishing pointers when heading out to your local spots:

Fishing Factors Late Fall Bass Fishing
  • Use search baits to cover more water. One of the most important fall fishing tips is to cover plenty of water versus spending too much time in one spot. Use search baits, like a crankbait, Binsky blade bait, swimbait or topwater, to quickly locate schools of bass that are chasing shad to fatten up for winter.
  • Fish the flats. Bass generally head into shallow water during the fall months. Check flats that are adjacent to grass beds, and try fishing in 3 to 6 feet of water with a few good fall fishing lures.
  • Note significant drops in water temperature. Another one of the best fall fishing tips is to consider the impact that a cold front will have on the activity level of bass during this time of year. As we transition into late fall fishing and see more significant drops in temperature. Shad will keep moving shallow and so will the big bass.

To sum up, these late fall fishing tips for big bass mean covering more water, fishing shallow flats near grass, downsizing after a temperature drop, and switching your lures if you’re not seeing enough action.

Now you can plan a day of fall fishing with your family,

Get ready for some late season fun on the water with Florida Bass Fishing Guide Lee Bailey Jr!

See You On The River

This CT River Fishing Guidebook is the most comprehensive compilation of maps, Lees Lures and river Fishing Factors I have ever put together.

See You On The River 2nd addition by Lee Bailey Jr.

Strategies For Bass

Strategies For Bass paperback has the most impressive collection of up-to-date information, anglers will learn everything they need to know to catch more bass.

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Lees Seasonal Approach

December 5, 2023 by lbailey

Lees Seasonal Approach Guide is a system I’ve adapted to help find bass on unfamiliar waters. As a retired touring pro, I fished all kinds of lakes and rivers in many regions throughout the year. Obviously, I didn’t have time to become intimately familiar with each of these venues prior to tournament competition. You only have three practice days to unlock the secrets of a large river system. You will need some guidance to help you quickly get on a viable fish catching pattern. Lees Seasonal Approach provides that information, regardless of where or when I’m fishing. It helps me make educated guesses about where bass are most likely to be. Along with knowing where bass are at any given time of the year. It’s a system that quickly eliminates unproductive water and helps me home in on areas holding the most bass.

“I actually begin fishing a fall pattern when the water has cooled 10 degrees. Once below its hottest point of the summer it really begins”.

Fishing Factors Lees Seasonal Approach

Lees Seasonal Approach for Fall: 75 to 55 degrees

The concept operates on the theory that at any given time bass in a given river current system will be on certain key types of structure. Of course, not all bass will adhere to this “rule.” I could probably catch some bass off flats or in shallow bays in winter. If I spent long enough trying. Yet in a tournament, I’m better off spending my limited fishing time in high percentage areas. The Seasonal Approach gives me the general direction I need to form a fish catching pattern quickly. How well I fine-tune this generalized pattern during competition determines how high I’ll finish in the standings.

I learned early in my fishing career that bass relate to the different seasons very predictably. Once you understand that the seasons are part of the foundation to a bass’s life. You too will be able to catch them more consistently.

A very important part to consistently catching bass. Understand what role the different seasons play in the lives of the elusive bass. Having a strategy to the seasonal developments will allow you to have an understanding of seasonal movements.

Lees Seasonal Approach Guide is a system

I actually begin fishing a fall pattern when the water has cooled 10 degrees. This can vary greatly from river to river. A rapid temperature drop is best. This can really put bass on the move from deep main river structure to shallow water. Bass react to cooling water by moving shallower to big flats, long points with a gradual taper, and tributary arms.

A rapid temperature drop is best. This can really put bass on the move from deep main river structure to shallow water.

As surely as the seasons change, the behavior and location of bass change. As summer passes into fall and fall into winter. Unfortunately, the exact changes the bass makes often seems as unpredictable as the fall weather.

From a fishing standpoint, “fall” starts when summer fishing patterns start to dissolve and ends when stable, winter patterns begin. It’s a period of constant adjustment, basically because it’s a period of nearly constant change.

I actually begin fishing a fall pattern when the water has cooled 10 degrees


Simply, river systems offer the most predictable option. The key to staying in contact with bass. Knowing they move through the fall cycles is having some idea where the bass are coming from. As Well as knowing where they are headed.

Bass are more baitfish – oriented now than in any other season. Look for large schools of shad, alewives, etc., on your graph. In most river reservoirs, cooling water causes vast numbers of shad to migrate. Their first stop is to move into tributary arms, and bass are close behind. Follow this migration by fishing the first third of creek arms in early fall. Then gradually pressing farther back into the tributary as the surface temperature drops. I’ll often idle my boat up a creek arm. Closely watch your graph for suspended shad schools or looking for bait flipping on the surface. Isolated wood cover or boat docks in the backs of creek arms are dependable fall bass patterns. In lakes that don’t have shad, bass feed heavily on bluegill and shiners, both grass-oriented species, so target weedy areas.


Fishing a Fall Pattern

December 5, 2023 by lbailey

I actually begin fishing a fall pattern when the water has cooled 10 degrees below its hottest point of the summer. This can vary greatly from body of water to body of water. A rapid temperature drop is best, for this can really put bass on the move from deep main river structure to shallow water. Bass react to cooling water by moving shallower to big flats, long points with a gradual taper and tributary arms.

Fishing A Fall Pattern Lure Choices

As surely as the seasons change, the behavior and location of bass change as summer passes into fall and fall into winter. Unfortunately, the exact changes the bass makes often seems as unpredictable as the fall weather.

Fishing a fall pattern starts when you see first signs of the fall cooling trend

Bass are more baitfish oriented now than in any other season. Look for large schools of shad, alewives, etc., on your graph. In most reservoirs, fishing a fall pattern as cooling water causes vast numbers of shad to migrate into tributary arms, and bass are close behind. Follow this migration by fishing the first third of creek arms in early fall, then gradually pressing farther back into the tributary as the surface temperature drops. I’ll often idle my boat up a creek arm, watching my graph for suspended shad schools or looking for bait flipping on the surface. Isolated wood cover or boat docks in the backs of creek arms are dependable fall bass patterns. In lakes that don’t have shad, bass feed heavily on bluegill and shiners, both grass-oriented species, so target weedy areas that still have living green weeds.

A large number of the fish relate to backwaters as well as main lake areas during the summer. From the first signs of the fall cooling trend, main river fast water fish begin a gradual move toward areas with limited current.

Identifying these reduced current areas is usually pretty simple. Look for the bass to move to big cuts on the main river, cuts and coves in the bigger creeks, and slack water ponds off the main current area.

For the rest of the story and much more….. BUY NOW! Lee’s Strategies For Bass.


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