4 Bass Fishing Lures For The Late Late Fall

The same productive lures you threw throughout early fall and mid-autumn will continue to trigger bites by late fall as long as you slow down your presentation.

As the water temperature continues to drop by late fall, baitfish start moving out of the shallows to deeper water, and bass start losing some of their aggressiveness. While just about any lure in your tackle box caught active bass earlier in the fall, now the fish have become a little moodier with the colder water and weather conditions.

Bass still favor lures that best imitate baitfish, but which lure they prefer each day depends on the weather. Here are four lures to try in various water and weather conditions to catch late fall bass.

Flat Sided Square Bill Crankbaits

The Googan Squad Flat Banger in Shotgun Shad

The flat-sided crankbait can be thrown in any weather conditions for late fall bass in stained water. The water is still warm enough to trigger reaction strikes from bass when the crankbait deflects off of stumps, logs, and rocks less than 5 feet deep. You can still run the lure at a moderate pace and then pause the crankbait after it bangs into something to trigger a strike.

Spinnerbaits

A Dobyn's Spinnerbait pinned in the mouth of a hyper-aggressive 14-inch bass that bull-rushed my bait as I popped it off the end of a stick.

A 1/2-ounce chartreuse-and-white spinnerbait with tandem willow-leaf blades is great for sunny or cloudy days when the wind is blowing. Try slow-rolling the blade bait in stained water in the backs of pockets around docks, logs and laydowns about 7 to 10 feet deep.

Suspending Jerkbaits

A freshly chewed jerkbait in a sexy shad pattern.

Typical jerkbait fishing consists of long casts followed by repeated ripping and twitching of the rod tip to get the lure to dart and dash through the water. Between twitches, the angler pauses the bait giving onlooking fish the chance to take a swipe. The same method should be applied in the late fall, but you'll want to slow leave even longer pauses between those double twitches of the rod tip. Fish are more lethargic and may prefer a little more hangtime from your suspending jerkbait than the warmer months.

Finesse Jigs

A TightRope finesse jig designed by the Chicago fishing legend Ryan Whitacre in collaboration with Catch Co.

It’s hard to beat a jig for any weather or water condition in late fall, but the optimal time to throw the lure is during post-frontal conditions. The great thing about a jig is the lure produces using a variety of retrieves such as crawling, hopping or swimming it. Slowly crawling the jig along wood cover or docks works best after a cold front hits and calm, bluebird skies prevail. Match a 3/8-ounce jig with a magnum-sized plastic chunk to create a slow-falling bait to trick inactive bass into biting.