Fishing with Hank Parker: Fall Fishing is for the Birds

Bass may not be more predictable - or as easy to catch - than they are from fall until December.

Once temperatures begin to drop in October, the fish school and follow the bait to the backs of creeks. All you have to do is find the creeks with the most bait and you will find the ones with the biggest schools of bass.

The birds can give you your biggest clue as to which creeks have the most bait. That's why I often refer to this season as "Fishing For Birds," or the "Blue Heron Pattern." If you see a creek with a lot of fish-eating birds like kingfishers, seagulls or blue herons, you've found bass.

Bass roam around a lot in fall, and so must you. And, you're better off using fast lures like crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters because you can cover a lot of water in a short time.

One of the first things I do in fall is go for a boat ride, checking large creek arms and pockets for birds and baitfish. Big pockets are the most reliable because the fish stay there all fall. The smaller pockets can provide dynamite fishing one day and nothing the next, but they're always worth checking.

If the birds are there, idle around the pocket and look for shad flitting near the surface, or watch your electronics for big balls of bait suspended off the bottom. That's always a good place to begin casting.

When fish first begin to school in the creeks they hang close to drop-offs in depth from 10 to 15 feet, so I head to the back of the creek and follow it out until I find the first, well-defined drop-off. I prefer to sit on one side of the drop-off and work the crankbait with the natural current flow.

Early fall is my favorite season to fish crankbaits because they can be fished quickly through multiple depths. Hank's Crank, a Mann's crankbait with a tight wiggle and a running depth to 12 feet, works well for me. I'll switch to a deep runner, though, if I need to. I always use shad-colored lures since that is what the fish are keying on.

As light intensity decreases, plankton moves closer to the surface, and baitfish move up there, too. When that happens, you'll see bass chasing the bait right in the middle of the day and the shallow water activity picks up.

Cooler water pushes them onto the flats, too. Then, I switch to a shallow-running crankbait or spinnerbait. Buzzbaits also are good choices when bass are shallow and aggressive.

BASSIN' Magazine Fall 2001