On natural lakes where do the big girls hide? Water temps 50 to ice.
Bass Fishing
Where do big bass go late fall?!
What happens is......
All the shallow water that was warm all summer and held lots of small bait fish/minnows/fatheads/small blue gills and such goes from the warmest water to the coolest water in the lake a fall sets in....
The warmer water is now in the lake basin.... So all those little fish... now vacate the shallow water for the warmer water. wich is now the deeper water 6-7 feet and deeper... The bass will follow the bait fish. This is not to say, thay the bait fish do not return to the shallow water... on a warm sunny fall day you can find bass tight to the north shoreline from time to time because the bait fish went back up there because it was warmer... But as a rule... fish with slower moving baits in deeper water or lipless cranks that dive deep and rattle... work them parrell to the weed edges. Some days in the fall... you may only score 3-4 fish. Other days in the fall... you may have fish hitting everything you throw every time you throw it... no kidding.
One other thing that happens at this time.... the big pike in a lake, which are primarily cold water fish.... are now patrolling the entire water column... And can, and will be anywhere. And, are now putting on a feed bag for the winter. So keep one heavy rod with a small muskie bait on it and pitch it about from time to time and watch for fish to follow... if you get a follow.... go back to that spot quietly a little while later... that big northern will still be there...
In late fall, bass end up in my hand....hehe.
This was 12 days ago on a finesse footballl jig.
Look for structure directly related to deep water, steep drops can be key but you dont necessarily need to fish all the way down at the deepest parts....this fish was in maybe 7 feet of water on a brush pile. Late weeds, rock and wood all still produce at times. But you have to know what you are fishing and fish it slowly and thoroughly as the window for bites can be pretty small.
Once you find fish, you can keep going back to those same areas until things ice up.