3 Top Search Baits To Catch More Fish This Fall

Fall fishing is all about covering water. The shad are grouped up into specific locations, and the more water your cover in the course of a day, the more likely you’re going to run into a school. To be effective and fish effectively, though, you need to choose presentations that are designed to fish fast.

Here are three top choices.

1. Lipless crankbaits

Lipless crankbaits are designed to cast a country mile and run true at any speed, from a slow wind to an all-out burn. They also produce a ton of noise and can be fished at any depth. For all those reasons, lipless cranks are one of the all-time best search baits. The best spots to toss lipless cranks in the fall are along flats and ditches in the backs of creeks, around dying grass, and on gently sloping secondary points.

2. Spinnerbaits

Before lipless cranks became popular, the spinnerbait was the king of covering water, and they haven’t fallen far from that perch. Like lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits are versatile enough to probe all depths, they produce tons of flash and vibration, and they run true at high speeds when set up properly. Stump flats, rip rap banks, and grass lines are excellent places to chuck and wind a spinnerbait.

3. Walk-the-dog topwaters

Sometimes you’ll hear anglers talk about bass that are “looking up,” meaning that they are feeding on shad, which are usually high in the water column. This occurs commonly in the fall, and when it happens; look out because the topwater bite is probably on fire.

Walk-the-dog stick baits perfectly emulate an escaping shad – and elicit some of the most violent topwater strikes in the business. Like other top search baits, walk-the-dog stick baits cast a mile, can be retrieved rapidly, and project sound and vibration a large distance. Try throwing them on timber lines, current breaks in river systems, and around grass and seawalls.