Old saying around here, after first major cool front in fall, head up the creeks.

Normally Oct 5th at around 7:00am its on.

Yep, using a gill net in the shallows will fill a freezer quick.

Is that exactly 7:00 or could it happen a little earlier? Maybe 6:58 or 6:59?

^^^^^ ha ha ^^^^^^

They never left shallow water.
I have been catching them shallow ...... 15ft to the bank ..... all summer.
Not a deep water fisherman,,,,,,,

The few times I have been out this year, all fish were in 15ft or less, catching them good enough to where I never had to leave the shallows.

They will be in the fall pattern by early October, full tilt usually by mid October on into early November or until we start seeing sub 40 degree temps at night. I used to save vacation just for this. If it hasn't turned off cold yet by opening week of gun season for deer; while everyone else was sitting in a deer stand opening morning, I was standing on the deck of my rig having a record catch day and pretty much had what ever body of water I was on to myself. It's absolutely my favorite time of year to fish..........

As soon as the Texas vs OU game is over! Which will be boring as hell this year I'm sure!

This is good to know since I HATE fishing deep. Mostly because I'm not good at finding them and maintaining boat position with my little mod-v is difficult at best on open water.
I did fish Conroe last weekend just north of Caney creek and boated 5, all caught in shallow water 5 ft. or less, but they were all dinks.

What is a fall pattern down here? Normally I would TRig a plastic or use a jig up north as we don't have the baitfish thats down here.

After a really long totally unproductive number of trips...today I finally got to enjoy a pretty decent fishing trip. I'd found these fish in about 1 to 8' ... the 1' water is the top of the creek and the 8' is the deepest water. There is a line of tree/bush tops on the ledge. I caught 4 fish in the 3-5# range in about 20 minutes. The next 5 fish were unders... then finally another good fish on but wrapped me and broke off. All the fish came on worms.

Nice thing about the shallow fish in summer and winter is most choose to fish deeper so they get less pressure. In my experience shallow fish are usually more atively feeding as well and can often be easier to get a bite on.

A lot of the bigger fish , like linkers 12+ usually stay out deeper unless it's the spawn, even some big lunkers will spawn deep 8-10ft range, winter and fall big lunkers will stay out deep. Imho

I know from looking back I caught one over 11lbs from a shallow dock(4') in July a couple of years ago. Had a 10lber on a frog last summer in August in about 2' of water on Fork.
Had a 10lber on a squarebill on RC in 2' of water in late August one year, also had a 10lber on a jig in less than 4' of water from a small east Texas lake.
I agree a lot of big fish are out deep in col/hot months but I have caught enough 5lb plus fish shallow to make me stick with it. I can and do fish deep but I prefer a shallow bite any day. I think its like most things we all have our oreferences and most are based on individual experience. No wrong or right approach really.