By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan
As one year draws to a close and another’s beginning looms on the horizon, John Garrett’s fishing game hits a real low point. Don’t worry, the Bassmaster Elite Series competitor from northwestern Tennessee is just fine – he knows where to focus his autumn efforts.
As Garrett explains, fall brings a time of great opportunity and, potentially, great confusion. From reservoir drawdowns to seasonal water declines, fall relocates fish and that can send anglers into a tailspin.
Understandable, Garrett said, but completely unnecessary. You just have to know how to manage the highs and the “lows.”
“The first thing that pops into my mind are depressions, or low spots in flats,” Garrett said. “As you have the fall drawdown, fish tend to want to be shallow. A lot of these flats and points are shallow enough for the fish to feed on, but they don’t necessarily want to live on them.
“One of the most overlooked things in the fall is fish living in the depressions and low spots on flats in really skinny water. They sporadically feed on the shallow spots, but they’ll sit in the depressions. If you have a 1-foot flat, it might be 2 feet deep.”
Garrett knows this is hardly the only game in town, but amid the common game plan of running and gunning and looking for the bait schools, he suggests including a more focused approach.
“Everybody thinks of fall time as the fish are chasing baitfish around and busting on them, but those fish live somewhere; they don’t roam 24/7,” he said. “When I think of a fall drawdown, my first thought is a depression.”
How He Tempts ‘Em
Garrett knows fall fish will eat a variety of baits, but he plays the percentages.
“In the fall, their eyes tend to go up instead of bottom feeding, so I’m using a lot of topwaters,” Garrett said. “Fifty percent of my days in the fall, I’m throwing a walking bait.”
Bassmaster Elite Series angler John Garrett catches some big fish in the fall from depressions that are no more than 2 feet deep.
Garrett also gives his spinnerbaits and Strike King Redeye Shad lipless baits plenty of playing time, as fall is heavily premised on reaction-style fishing. That being said, he’s convinced he can count on that topwater temptation to bring those fall fish blasting up from the depression in which they’re hiding.
“The key in the drawdown period is long casts and a lot of speed,” Garrett said. “Even though these lakes are dropping, for some reason lakes and rivers tend to get very, very clear.
“When you’re in clean water, especially fishing very shallow, long distances and very fast retrieves will trigger reaction bites. Also, you’re able to cover a lot of water.”
As Garrett points out, that latter point proves incredibly important in the fall because fish are not “everywhere,” like he might find in spring or summer. However, once he finds the fish, he often finds good numbers.
Mind the Conditions
Often complicating the fall drawdown period, cold fronts can significantly impact the bass. The fish typically feed like crazy with the fluctuating barometric pressure on the leading edge, but once a front passes, the intense sunlight and high pressure of those dreaded “bluebird” days sets in and the bass – especially Florida’s large-growing sissies – go on a major pout.
Of course, we know that cold fronts are the predictable whip-cracker that hastens seasonal progression. However, Garrett’s keenly aware of how fish react to change – on the macro and micro levels.
“The first few cold fronts that we get in the fall are good to drop that water temperature, but it’s also a shock to those fish,” Garrett said. “They’ve been seeing those (warm days) over and over and over again, so those first few cold front days usually don’t turn out that good.
“Most of the time, especially if I’m fun-fishing, I’m not going out on those first few cold front days. It’s going to take some time for the fish to move out of deep water and into shallow water and a lot of times, they don’t feed right off the bat.”
Topwater walking baits are Garrett's primary offering to fall bass.
In his region, experience has told Garrett that he needs the water to fall below 75 degrees. Once area waters hit that mark and gradually begin sliding, he expects major fish movements and that’s when he’ll start prospecting those depressions.
“The fish don’t want to over-commit with the water dropping and the temperature dropping,” Garrett said. “They’ll need some time to get comfortable before coming up from deep water to stay stationary up there.”
A Larger Option
Now, it might seem like a fair assumption to break out the finesse stuff during cold-front conditions, and Garrett’s not knocking that. Time and place for everything, but he follows a more aggressive strategy that complements the depression deal.
“I know a lot of times, everybody gets keyed in on fish feeding on really small bait, but I’ve found success at the complete opposite end of the spectrum,” Garrett said. “In my eyes, they’re feeding up during fall to get prepared for winter and I find a lot of big fish feeding on big bait in the main river channel and I tend to go bigger. I tend to up the size of my topwaters, my swimbait, all my moving baits.”
Garrett clarifies that, once he starts getting into the colder times, when fish have already been shallow long enough to recognize winter’s proximity, then he’ll shift gears to flipping a small creature bait around shallow wood.
Whatever the case, Garrett puts most of his fall effort into pulling big fish out of meager depths.
