By Capt. James McManus
Weather… As I sit to write this report they are forecasting the arrival of Florence on our coast in a couple of days. We pray it won’t be as bad as they are reporting but it got me to thinking about the difference in fall weather versus other times of the year. We all know winter is going to be cold, spring is going to be fickle and teasing, and summer is just going to be hot. Other seasons have mostly subtle changes or daily differences that start over and recede or intensify the next day. A few warm days in January can turn on the fish and a stable couple of warming days in spring can do likewise. Summer is mainly about daily shifts from cool-ish productive mornings to steamy or stormy afternoons better spent in air-conditioned comfort. Fall though, seems to bring about wholesale change in attitude, availability, size and numbers when talking about our fishy friends.
When lining up trips in the fall, I always add the caveat; you don’t want to try it if the lake is turning over. That is really my first consideration in judging conditions. If you aren’t familiar with turnover, it’s when the first few really cool, or cold, nights chill the upper few feet of a reservoir and this newly chilled water sinks below the warmer lake water and basically turns over the top to bottom stratification that has developed over the summer. It is marked by stained, smelly, even dead looking water complete with foam, leaf debris and nonexistent fish. Still not sure where the fish go or what they do during this period, but they mainly disappear. On a large reservoir, you can find areas where it hasn’t started, or is not as bad, and these should be where you concentrate your efforts. The next best thing is to watch a little football, put up deer stands or even mow the grass…No, strike that; that should never be an option. Once this turnover has finished, we get some of the best fishing of the year right up until and just after Christmas.
Fall fishing is marked by schooling fish, with smallies and spots gathering around schools of bait that have started to move back up into river mouths or are gathering on the surface. The baseball pennant runs mark one of my favorite times to fish, you can sometimes mark your watches with afternoon white bass schooling, fish busting bait in every direction. Try the upper Nanty, Little Tennessee or Tuck from T2 on up. Not sure what the bluebacks are going to do to change the usual pattern but I know the threadfins will still move up and we are already seeing masses on the surface later in the day. This move to shallower water means better bank fishing during the day for all species.
The biggest change after the turnover is the influence of extreme weather fronts. The aforementioned hurricane, swift moving cold fronts, and Indian summer are all parts of the fall weather scene. Big rain events, like big cold fronts, may put the fish down, but I have found even if they go back to deep water haunts, they still bite like they know the cold weather is still coming. Use whatever it takes to get the depth needed to put bait in front of them. Spoons, jigs and ice jigs work well in these instances. You will still find them in the general vicinity of the bait, just deeper. Most days though you can get back to jerkbaits like the Rapalas or crankbaits like Flicker shad and my fave, Zoom flukes on a jig head. When targeting whites on top, nothing beats a small white spinnerbait or Rooster Tail. There isn’t much that beats throwing into a school of whites knowing if you miss a hit, it’s brother is going to pick up the slack and the fight is on. Well, take a little time out from football and deer hunting and enjoy some of the best fishing of the year. Be safe, thank the Lord for his gift of fishing and will see you out there.
Later, Capt. James
Capt. James McManus is the Owner of 153 Charters. Give him a call for a great day of boat fishing!