Best Baits to Throw During the Fall Transition

The Summer to Fall transition can be a really difficult time for anglers to locate bass. Their Summer patterns are fading and the Fall patterns haven't yet come on strong. However, while the bulk of anglers are struggling there are a handful that are capitalizing and turning the Fall into one of the most productive times of year to catch big bass. 

In this video Matt breaks down the best baits for Fall bass fishing. This video started out as a "Top 5" video but instead Matt pulled out his actual Fall transition baits box and shows you every bait in it. 

Below are the baits and colors shown...

-S-Waver 168 Swimbait in "Light Trout" color

-Whopper Plopper 130 in "Bluegill" or "Loon"
-Bully Wa 2 Frog in "Dirty White", Yellow/Black, or "Little Allen" (Little John)

LV-500 Lipless Crankbait (Ghost Minnow, Chartreuse Shad, American Shad)

-Lucky Craft RTO 4.0 Squarebill (Chartreuse Shad)
-Biggie Smalls Squarebill in T1000 or TS Minnow
-Jackall Aska 70 Squarebill in "Super Shad"

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-Staysee 90 Jerkbait (Ghost Minnow)
-Pointer 100 DD Jerkbait (Chartreuse Shad)
-Pointer 100 Jerkbait (Gun Metal Shad)

-Bling Spinnerbait 3/8 oz (Abalone Shad)

-3/8 oz Pitchin' Jig (Go To or Norcal Craw)
-3/4 oz Flippin' Jig (Molting Craw)
Sweat Beaver Trailer (Green Pumpkin Red Flake)

Matt Allen Swimbait Head
Blade Runner Spintrix
4.8 or 4.3 Keitech Fat Swing Impact

With this selection of baits you're able to cover every bass fishing scenario that fall fishing can throw your way. Whether the fish are up shallow in docks and timber or out in the scattered grass and tullies, you'll have lures to reach and trigger the bass into biting. 

Use the glidebait, swimbaits, and reaction baits to locate schooling fish but once you've found them slow down with the squarebill crankbait, jig, and lipless crankbait to capitalize on the schooling bass and catch as many as possible. Don't be afraid to camp out on a school of bass and attempt to catch every fish in the group, this is one of the best ways to get a BIG bass to bite. 

Best Baits to Target Bluegill Eaters

We focus a lot on trout and shad imitators out West but we all know that bass love to eat bluegill. When the water begins to warm the bluegill becomes a major forage base for bass and you shouldn't overlook them. This week Matt breaks down his Top 5 Baits to best imitate a bluegill so you can begin to catch those big summer bass. 

The key to successfully imitating bluegill is to find baits that not only get bites but are also slim enough to have a high hookup ratio. There's nothing worse than getting giant bites and not hooking the bass! Below you'll find a breakdown of Matt's favorite bluegill imitating baits and the reasons he chooses them. 

The first category is the Squarebill crankbait. Bluegill eaters spend most of their time shallow and around heavy cover so the squarebill is a great option to coax a bite. Matt's favorite all around bluegill imitating squarebill is the River2Sea biggie. You might remember our squarebill debate from THIS VIDEO. 

The second category is the swim jig. When imitating a bluegill I love to use a keitech fat swing impact as a trailer on my California Swim Jig. This combination creates a wide thumping action that imitates a bluegill's tail really well. Quick tip: a chartreuse/blue keitech paired with a very natural looking jig adds a little chartreuse flash and really looks nice in the water! ...see picture below.

The third category is the soft swimbait. The two most widely available baits that best fit this category are the Mattlures Bluegill and the All American Sunfish. Both baits have a very natural profile and are great around cover. Quick Tip: The All American Sunfish needs to be rigged on a swimbait hook of some kind. My preferred hook for this bait is the 5/0 trokar. 

The fourth category is topwater. My favorite large bluegill topwater is the MS Slammer. Its not perfect, but its good enough to get those monster bites and that's what counts! Another great option is the Jackall Gantarel. If smaller baits are your preference, you can't beat the popper. Personally, I'd throw the yellow magic though there are many other great options out on the market. 

The fifth and final category is the Senko. I hate to say it but the senko works incredibly well on bluegill eaters! They're ambush predators and the slow fall of the senko , especially when wacky rigged, really lures them out. Color comes down to personal preference but something with a bit of a chartreuse tail should get the job done. 

I hope you find these tips helpful! As always, we love hearing from you so feel free to leave a comment with your own experiences or even a topic idea for a video you'd like to see us do. Thank you for your continued support of tacticalbassin!