By: Joey Randall
Denver Tackle Co., and Bizz Baits
In September, the biggest thing you’ve got to remember is this: transition. It’s when the lakes start to turnover, which is when the oxygen in the water stratifies. Instead of a deep thermocline, which is a dead layer at the bottom with no oxygen in it, it stratifies so that that layer completely just immerses itself throughout the whole lake. And from that, you get a period of transition where fish either start to move back towards the creek, or they’ll start to move shallow from their deeper summer homes.
Early in the month, bass are still in their deeper waters and eating at nights like they have been for the hotter weather we’ve just endured. You can find success using slower presentations, dragging plastics along the bottom or fishing finesse. That’s what seems to work best for those first two weeks of September. One of my absolute favorite baits is the Bizz Baits Dizzy Diamond. If you haven’t familiarized yourself with it, now’s as good a time as it gets.
Then we hit the second half of September. The transition begins. Bass begin moving out of the main channels into the creeks. They start biting shallower. They start biting topwater more often. They become more shad oriented. You know, your typical more “fall” stuff. In late September, I start making my transition from plastics to moving baits; spinnerbait type lures. A lot of topwater with buzzbaits. The color white is starting to become a common theme on all of your moving baits.
A point of emphasis when looking to achieve success fishing in the month of September is going to be to really bounce around. Try to locate one of these two things – A) fish themselves or B) which depth zone they’re in and want to be. There will be bass shallow and there will be bass deep, and there will be bass in between suspending. They’re going to be all over the place. The turnover this year isn’t going to be as severe, as we’ve had a lot of water moving through the system, but it’s still going to happen. It’s not difficult to run patterns in September, but it IS difficult to develop patterns. It’s important to have realistic expectations this month, don’t expect to get out there and just slay ‘em. The fish are scattered and if they’re not biting, it can be really, really tough. But, what’s sweeter than the payoff after a long day?
