Fall bass fishing can be feast or famine. Unfortunately, the weather dictates which one of these situations an angler will face. Elite Series pro Kelley Jaye faced one of the toughest conditions possible on this October outing: bluebird skies without a breath of wind. As you will see, the bass were spooky. Follow his lead, though, and you can scratch out bites when other anglers zero.
6:40 a.m. It’s dark and 48 degrees when Jaye and I arrive at Lake L’s launch ramp. He pulls several ALX rods equipped with Lew’s reels from storage. “This is starting off to be a typical fall day: cool in the morning and heating up by noon,” he says. “This area has had almost no rainfall since early August, paired with record high temperatures the past week. With little runoff, I expect the lake to be clear, which works for me because I love throwing jerkbaits.” Jaye preps the Ranger for launching.
7 HOURS LEFT
7 a.m. We launch the Ranger. Jaye checks Lake L’s surface temp: 58 degrees. “I expect to see the water temp rise to near 70 degrees by late morning. I anticipate a typical fall pattern, with bass feeding up on shad. Moving baits tend to work best now; I’ll start out with topwater and then try a jerkbait.”
7:06 a.m. Jaye makes a short run to Lake L’s dam, where he makes his first casts of the day with a bone colored River2Sea Whopper Plopper surface bait. He retrieves it steadily parallel to riprap. “This lure imitates an injured shad.”
7:12 a.m. Jaye’s graph shows the water temp slowly rising and baitfish schools suspended off a ledge in front of the dam. He switches to a green and white Megabass Ito Shiner jerkbait, slice casting it to the riprap and retrieving it with quick, hard jerks. “In cold water, you want lighter jerks and longer pauses, but in this temperature range, you want to fish it aggressively.”
7:18 a.m. Jaye tries a green and white Storm Chug Bug topwater chugger. “The newer Chug Bugs have internal rattles; this is a 15-year-old plug with no rattles. It sits higher in the water and spits better.” A bass swirls on the bait as he works it around the riprap; Jaye reels in quickly and casts a half-ounce brown and purple (pbj) Chomper’s jig with a green pumpkin Yamamoto Twin Tail grub trailer to the fish. No takers.
7:19 a.m. Jaye again casts the Chug Bug to the dam and bags his first keeper bass of the day, a 1-pound, 1-ounce largemouth. “There’s a ledge that drops from 8 to 23 feet about 6 feet off the dam, and this little guy hit right at the drop.”
7:25 a.m. The dam terminates in a concrete retaining wall. Jaye works the Chug Bug parallel to the structure.
7:36 a.m. A local angler is fishing the far end of the wall, so Jaye moves across the lake to a submerged rockpile marked by a warning buoy. He tries a shad pattern Smithwick Pro Rogue jerkbait around the rocks.
7:39 a.m. Jaye switches to a black 1/4-ounce War Eagle buzzbait around the rockpile. The water here is 66 degrees.
7:41 a.m. Jaye pauses to pick a leaf off the buzzbait’s hook. “When it’s fall, you’re going to hook leaves!”
7:42 a.m. A keeper bass follows the buzzbait to the boat.
7:46 a.m. Jaye ties on a shad pattern Heddon Zara Spook stickbait and dog-walks it across the rockpile.
7:49 a.m. Jaye moves to a nearby cove and casts the buzzbait to the bank. A bass sucks it in, runs under a nearby dock and gets off. “That fish was 5 pounds!”
7:50 a.m. Jaye makes a follow-up cast to the dock with the jig, then returns to the buzzer.
7:56 a.m. Jaye catches a nonkeeper on the Chug Bug.
6 HOURS LEFT
8 a.m. Jaye kicks the Minn Kota into high gear and moves quickly along the bank with the buzzbait.
8:02 a.m. Jaye pauses to add a trailer hook to his buzzbait, then moves to the back of the cove, where it’s shallow and choked with hydrilla.
8:10 a.m. Jaye moves a quarter mile uplake to fish a bank littered with laydown trees. A small bass swirls on the Chug Bug.
8:14 a.m. Jaye casts the buzzbait to the timber as he moves swiftly down the bank.
8:20 a.m. He walks the Spook over a submerged tree. “It’s 20 feet deep off the end of that tree.”
8:22 a.m. Jaye tries the Ito Shiner around the tree. “This is the perfect spot for a big fish!” Or not.
8:26 a.m. Jaye runs to Lake L’s opposite shore to fish a series of docks on a steep bank. “The channel runs in close to this bank; it’s an ideal place for bass to intercept baitfish schools.” He tries the Ito Shiner, then switches to the buzzer.
8:33 a.m. It’s dead calm under bluebird skies as Jaye probes the channel bank with the jerkbait. “I wish the wind would blow in on this bank!”
8:41 a.m. Jaye runs farther uplake to a long, shallow, main-lake point, where he tries a sexy shad Strike King KVD Splash popper. The water is murkier here.
8:48 a.m. He catches a short fish on the popper.
8:50 a.m. Jaye rigs a white soft jerkbait, brand unknown, on a 4/0 hook. He casts it to a wood retaining wall and retrieves it with rod twitches so it darts and settles.
5 HOURS LEFT
9:02 a.m. The wall terminates in a shallow point; Jaye does a 180 and works back up the structure with the buzzbait and soft jerk.
9:10 a.m. Jaye moves into a cove with matted hydrilla and tries a black Spro Poppin’ Frog around the grass.
9:16 a.m. Jaye tries the Ito Shiner in open water at the edge of a hydrilla break.
9:21 a.m. Jaye stows his trolling motor. “I haven’t had any action uplake, so I’m going to run back to where I started.”
9:26 a.m. Jaye races downlake to a steep bank adjacent to the dam, where he tries the Rogue on a channel break. It comes back slogged with slimy grass.
9:34 a.m. Back at the dam, Jaye parallels the riprap with the Megabass jerkbait. A small bass nips at the lure and comes unbuttoned.
9:40 a.m. A light easterly breeze ripples the water as Jaye hooks a keeper bass on the Ito Shiner. He works it to the boat and swings aboard keeper No. 2, 1 pound, 4 ounces.
9:51 a.m. Jaye has fished the remaining length of the dam without another hit. He idles into a nearby cove to hit some docks with the Ito Shiner.
9:55 a.m. Jaye tries the popper around a dock.
4 HOURS LEFT
10 a.m. It’s warming up rapidly. Jaye removes his jacket and presses deeper into the cove with the buzzbait and popper.
10:04 a.m. A 3-pounder flashes on the Ito Shad right by the boat.
10:10 a.m. Jaye runs the buzzbait across submerged hydrilla in the back of the cove. “There’s got to be bass in this grass!” As if on cue, a 5-pounder chases the buzzer to the boat. “These fish are really spooky! This high-pressure system isn’t helping.”
10:11 a.m. Jaye drops his Power-Poles and fancasts the soft jerkbait around the hydrilla. A 2-pounder shoots out of the grass, grabs the lure and shakes off.
10:13 a.m. Jaye tries a 1/8-ounce black Strike King buzzbait across the hydrilla. “This finesse buzzer has a tiny blade. They’ll often hit it when they’re short-striking a bigger buzzbait.”
10:19 a.m. No takers on the mini-buzz, so Jaye moves to a steep, grassy point at the mouth of the cove and tries the Ito Shiner. A bass bumps the jerkbait but doesn’t hook up.
10:26 a.m. Jaye switches from the Megabass Ito Shiner to the slightly smaller Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait, same color. “Hopefully, they won’t short-strike this one.”
10:31 a.m. Jaye tries the 110 and soft jerkbait around several main-lake docks.
10:33 a.m. Jaye skips the soft jerkbait under a pontoon dock. A bass grabs it; he swings and misses.
10:40 a.m. Jaye moves into a cove he fished earlier and tries the soft jerk around shallow hydrilla.
10:44 a.m. He catches a tiny bass on the soft jerk.
10:46 a.m. Jaye is back on the spot where he lost the 5-pounder on the 1/4-ounce buzzbait. A good fish boils on the 1/8-ounce buzzer but doesn’t hook up.
10:49 a.m. A solid keeper grabs the soft jerk next to a pontoon boat but spits it out. “They’re in here, but they aren’t very aggressive.”
10:55 a.m. He catches keeper No. 3, 1 pound even, on the soft jerkbait. “He bit when the lure sank down into that hydrilla. I may have to go to a punch bait in the grass, which I’m not crazy about doing; I prefer to fish faster.”
3 HOURS LEFT
11:02 a.m. Swing and a miss on the soft jerkbait. What’s Jaye’s take on the day so far? “I know I’m around some good fish, but they’re just not wanting to eat the lure. I’ve tried drops, grass, riprap, laydowns and docks with three small keepers to show for it. Often the bite picks up later in the day in autumn, so I’ll just keep hunting and see what happens. I’m going to spend more time fishing the soft jerkbait in the grass and see if I can’t catch a big fish.”
11:15 a.m. Jaye rigs up a lure for punching hydrilla: a green pumpkin/purple Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog creature on a 4/0 flippin’ hook with a pegged 1-ounce tungsten sinker. He then runs uplake to a long stretch of matted grass and begins pitching the creature into the salad. “The heavy sinker gets the bait down through the mat to more open water below. They usually hit it as it’s sinking; if not, I’ll shake it a couple times when it’s on the bottom before reeling in and making another pitch.”
11:35 a.m. Jaye has flipped the entire patch of hydrilla without a strike. He switches to the soft jerk at the outer edge of the mat and immediately catches a short fish. He drops his Power-Poles and saturates the area thoroughly with the minnow mimic.
11:48 a.m. Jaye rigs a PBJ Zoom Baby Brush Hog creature on a 3/0 hook with a pegged 1/4-ounce sinker and works the lure around a 10-foot dropoff at the edge of the grass mat. “This bait sinks a lot slower than the punch bait; maybe that’s what they want.”
11:55 a.m. Back to the soft jerkbait. “It’s deader than disco up here! I need to get back to the lower end, where I was at least getting some bites.”
2 HOURS LEFT
12:01 p.m. Jaye rockets downlake and stops at a clay point, where he tries the green 110 jerkbait.
12:03 p.m. He changes 110 colors to natural shad and resumes pounding the point. No takers here.
12:09 p.m. Jaye idles to the back of a nearby creek and twitches the soft jerk around some overhanging bushes.
12:13 p.m. He tries the 1/4-ounce buzzer and the Whopper Plopper around the bushes.
12:16 p.m. Jaye skips the soft jerkbait under a dock. A huge fish boils on it but doesn’t eat it. “That was a freakin’ giant! It’s like they’re just head-butting the lure. I waited before setting the hook, but he just didn’t have it.”
12:19 p.m. Jaye tries the larger Megabass Ito Shiner jerkbait in front of a dock.
12:23 p.m. Jaye runs to a main-lake retaining wall and tries the soft jerkbait and Whopper Plopper.
12:28 p.m. Jaye catches his fourth keeper, 1 pound, 6 ounces, off a dock on the Baby Brush Hog.
12:32 p.m. Jaye pitches the Zoom creature between a dock and a Jet Ski cradle. A bass runs out and grabs the lure, stripping it off the hook. He rigs up a replacement and resumes hitting the docks.
12:40 p.m. A small fish pecks the creature under a dock.
12:45 p.m. Jaye switches to the Megabass 100 and slimes it with grass on his first cast.
12:57 p.m. Jaye runs a half-mile to the wooded bank he fished earlier and tries the soft jerkbait. “So far this wood hasn’t panned out like I’d hoped.”
1 HOUR LEFT
1 p.m. Jaye skips the soft jerk around a submerged tree. A big fish rolls off the cover, but it’s a carp.
1:06 p.m. He switches to the Baby Brush Hog around the timber.
1:09 p.m. The Ito Shiner fails to draw a strike on the timbered bank.
1:14 p.m. Jaye runs back to the dam and catches a peckerhead on the Ito Shiner.
1:21 p.m. He zips to the grassy point he fished earlier and catches a shorty on the Ito.
1:27 p.m. Jaye runs to the back of a cove he fished earlier and begins raking the 1/4-ounce buzzbait over submerged hydrilla. “I’m going to go down swinging and try to catch one big one!”
1:42 p.m. No cooperation from the fish back here, so Jaye moves to the mouth of the cove and pitches the Baby Brush Hog around docks.
1:48 p.m. With a few minutes remaining, Jaye races to the submerged rockpile he fished earlier and tries the Ito Shiner.
2 p.m. Jaye’s time is up. He ends his day on Lake L with four keeper bass totaling 4 pounds, 11 ounces.
THE DAY IN PERSPECTIVE
“The bluebird skies did me in today,” Jaye told Bassmaster. “I had several hits from good fish around docks and grass, but they sure didn’t seem very interested in eating. If I were to fish here tomorrow under these same conditions, I’d move out deeper and fish a big worm or diving crankbait. If that didn’t work, I’d try to muster up more patience, move into that thick hydrilla and punch grass for a big fish.”
WHERE AND WHEN JAYE CAUGHT HIS KEEPER BASS
1. 1 pound, 1 ounce; green and white Storm Chug Bug surface chugger; ledge adjacent to dam; 7:19 a.m.
2. 1 pound, 4 ounces; green and white Megabass Ito Shiner jerkbait; riprap at dam; 9:40 a.m.
3. 1 pound; white generic soft jerkbait on 4/0 hook; hydrilla in shallow cove; 10:55 a.m.
4. 1 pound, 6 ounces; peanut butter and jelly Zoom Baby Brush Hog creature on 3/0 hook with 1/4-ounce sinker; dock; 12:28 p.m.
TOTAL: 4 pounds, 11 ounces