Late Summer/Early Fall Transition Period
Written By: Rick McFerrin
www.tennesseebassguides.com
This
isn’t intended to be an exhaustive article but rather
one that will hopefully give you something to think about as we head
into the early fall transition period. I don’t know how the
weather has been in your part of the world this summer, but here
in Middle Tennessee it has been Hot! Like I tell everyone, I’m
57 years old I sure don’t want to wish any days away, but I
must admit I’m looking forward to some cooler temperatures
and the fall fishing season.
One of
these days soon the leaves will turn brown, red and yellow and
will begin to fall. Those incredibly crisp mornings will creep
up on us. You know the ones where jeans and a sweatshirt will replace
shorts a thin t-shirt. Man that’s going to great. But if you’re
a bass fisherman other than a change in your physical comfort what
will that mean to you? How does this time of the year differ? Or
how is this time of the year similar to other seasonal changes? I
hope that some of the information below will help you to be successful
in this time of the year.
What Is Going On This Time Of The Year Anyway?
I guess
when you use the term seasonal, most people will automatically
think Spring-Summer-Fall and winter. In allot of respects they
would
be correct. But to us bass fishermen we know that it go’s much
deeper than that. Spring has to broken down into three segments or
patterns (1) Pre-Spawn (2) Spawn (3) Post Spawn. And the truth is
in most larger lakes each of these three patterns can overlap somewhere
all at the same time. For example. One of the lakes I guide full
time here in Tennessee is Old Hickory. It is a very large river lake
that stretches well over 60 miles. During the spring you can actually
fish each one of these patterns somewhere in that 60 mile stretch
as I said, all at the same time. It’s not unusual to have spawning
fish in the upper end and pre-spawn fish in the middle and lower
sections of the lake. Then post spawn fish in the upper end and spawning
fish in the middle, see where I’m going? The same is true with
late summer early fall patterns. These developing patterns may not
be as radical because we normally won’t have the huge swings
in air and water temperatures in the fall as we do in the spring.
But there are a lot of similarities. Let’s take a look at a
few of these.
Late Summer/Early Fall Water Temperatures
On Old
Hickory I always find the earliest fall pattern bass in the same
place I found the first spring spawning bass. Where? The
upper end of the lake. Those upper end creeks and pockets that offer
allot of cover and fresh water in running into the creek. And just
like in the spring, when I find these fall pattern bass in the upper
end I can find a different pattern (late summer pattern) bass in
the mid and lower sections of the lake. Through the years of fishing
Old Hickory and keeping records of each trip I have compiled what
I feel is some interesting data. Now, before you saw the limb out
from under me, please read this ENTIRE paragraph. OK here we go,
let me jump right in. I have noticed that water temperature change
most definitely triggers these seasonal pattern changes. I can hear
someone right now…”Well Whoop-T-Do- big deal that’s
not new news Rick” As I said easy with the saw there buddy.
Read on.
Have
you ever heard the term “Myth”? Back in the mid
1960’s when I first started to seriously bass fish the hard
fast rule was that bass wouldn’t spawn unless the water temperatures
hit 65 degrees and they wouldn’t move into their fall patterns
until the water temperatures fell back to 70 degrees or less. You
see this premise is based on specific temperatures. And I would almost
bet that there are many bass fishermen today that still live by that
same premise. But through these 40 plus years I have found out that
this just isn’t true. You see as well intentioned as it was,
this was a myth, information that has been passed down through the
years that isn’t always accurate or even sometimes true. A
recent example (that can be duplicated every year) is this past spring
when I saw huge female bass on the nest when the water temperature
was still in the mid to upper 50’s. Like wise my records show
that on Old Hickory the key for early fall patterns isn’t 70
degrees but rather an 8-10 degree drop in water temperature. Right
now we are running in the mid to high 80’s in much of our water
on Old Hickory. So instead of a fall pattern kicking in at 70 degrees
they actually can happen in the mid to upper 70’s. And once
again this water temperature drop will always occur in the upper
end of the lake first verses areas closer to the dam. I really believe
that many bass fishermen are missing an early jump on fall bass by
not realizing this fact about water temperatures.
Another
ingredient that normally will help push bass into a fall pattern
is late summer/early fall rains. I’m not talking about
a nice shower, but rather a good hard rain. In recent years this
heavy down pours have drawn the shad population up river into secondary
ditches and creeks. I’m not sure what will happen this year
because we have the largest shad population in Old Hickory from one
end of the lake to the other that I have seen for a long time. What
we need on Old Hickory this winter is a good shad kill, but that
is a whole different article.
Conclusion
As we
move into this late summer/early fall transition period I can’t
emphasize enough the importance of watching you water temperatures
in the upper regions of your lakes not for a specific
temperature but rather those 8 to 10 degree drops that will happen
it seems in a blink of an eye. Also watch for those heavy rains and
bait fish movement. In my opinion fall offers some of the absolute
best bass fishing that most people can enjoy.
