I haven't lived here to fish the season change of summer to fall yet so what are some pointers? Up north the water never gets this warm and cools even quicker when fall comes around. Do the fish stay pretty lethargic like they have been with all this heat and high water temps or do they become a little more active in that cooling water? I am in Houston if that helps.

Thanks!

Well, only this for bass and not so much about particular presentations to use but fish have a general calendar pattern to their eating habits. So, like humans, they are often lethargic in hot weather, then when the water begins to cool, it triggers them to feed up hard for a coming time when food will be more scarce (winter), then they begin eating hard again when the waters warm up a bit and various creatures start becoming active food sources, then they have to get ready for the spawn and feed up for that and move into place for it, too, then they have to literally recover from spawning. Then, it is summer again.

I suppose all animals not living on the equator follow this general pattern. I know cold climate raccoons can often double their bodyweight packing on stores of fat that they then burn off over the winter as a source of fuel and insulation.

Presentations that take advantage of this will work best.

Brad

They get more Active and go on a shad feast till winter.fall can be one of the best times to fish in TX.

i dont know what happens up north but here our lakes turn over at the begining of the fall. this is when the cool water and warm water swap. this pushes the shad shallow in the creeks and the bass follow. might want to do some research on the fall lake turnover.

Houston doesn't really get an autumn--just a wetter version of summer. Mid October to end of January is really nice.

Houston has some tidal bass fishing waters close by I wouldn't have the first clue on how to fish.
I don't think Houston waters hardly ever get cold enough for a shad die off, but they probably do still run up creeks as the water temps drop.

One pattern that works at time: find where a creek channel bends into a windblown point with drop offs on the side of the point. The bass that like to chase shad will use the drop offs to ambush the shad. If the top/flatter part of the point has grass/ timber/rocks, some of the bass will use that as cover to stalk the shad also.

On average when does this happen in the North Texas area?? Fall is such a come and go time here, just doesnt seem this is a defined time around here..

It takes numerous hours on the water to keep up with these seasonal patterns and routes that Bass take in the transition form Summer to Fall. Most weekend fisherman cannot establish these patterns and do not know the path to take. Catching becomes very difficult when you are simply going from deep water areas to the shallows and fish all those days waiting on the fish to show up.

The key is research first so you know what you are looking for in Summer time deep water adjacent to the creeks and flats. Then each day you locate those schools of fish and literally follow them into the Fall patterns and areas that they are headed for. Not every creek will hold great numbers of Bass to produce good fall stringers.

One of the techniques that has worked for me on lakes that I have not spent the time chasing them from deep to shallow is to drive the creek channels form out in the lake to the secondary points inside the creek watching for suspended Bass on the depth finder. This will help you to hone in on the creek that is producing the biggest schools of Bass following the bait fish into these areas. Your depth finder will be lite up with great numbers of suspend fish. The next creek may have nothing; so keep moving and looking until you find one that is loaded from outside the mouth to inside the mouth of the creek.

You can also determine the depth at which to fish because these suspended Bass will be at a certain depth on your sonar and will connect to every secondary point in that creek at that depth. If you are seeing great numbers of fish suspended going into a creek and showing 15 feet of water over the top of them then they will connect to the points in 15 ft. of water until it cools off for them to move shallower. They will frequently move up early and late each day to chase bait in productive areas for the top water bite. Finding those areas means fishing as many as you can get to each morning the first hour until you find the one area that will really pay off.

My best advice on this is watch the shad and water temp. When the water gets down in the 60's the shad are going to group up much tighter than in the 70's and 80's and begin moving to flats and creeks and pockets. Rock and clay points with long shallow flats will hold huge numbers of shad and bass. I like to throw square bills and traps. The trap bite is awesome when you can yo-yo the trap just off the bottom. The bigger fish usually sit below the smaller fish and will crush a trap on the fall just before it hits the bottom. this is a great technique for points and flats, but when you get into creeks and around cover the square bill and spinner bait tend to be the most productive for not getting hung up and catching the bigger single fish that are ambushing shad as they migrate. Every year is different because ethe temps don't always fall into the 60's at the same time. last year I was catching literally hundreds of bass as late as Christmas when the water was just getting into the mid to high 50's. Hope this helps.

Thanks guys, I know following the bass would be the best way but needless to say some of us have those stupid things called jobs...Thanks again, good info

Let the water hit the 60's and tie on an A-rig until mid Feb or so...

fish become active and move shallow... shad move shallow. crappie usually come shallow as well and they feed on the shad and then bass get to feed on the shad and crappie. its a good time. big girls come up from the deep. my two DD's came in the fall in shallow water off rock piles in about 4-5' of water

So for all the guys that have played this game for years, will this year get back to normal this fall or do you think the bite will be tough all year?

I think the fall bite this year will be incredible!

you would have to imagine it would be solid this year with all the new water and fresh cover. Everything typically moves shallow until the water temp gets below 50....should be a solid top water year

A touch off subject but do yall think the cold front coming in will have any effects on the bite tomorrow? I know its tough already but if Im not mistaken the fish really seem to shut down during a summer time cold front. I have tomorrow off and I was thinking about going out, just wondering if all my expectations should be is getting the boat wet...