We’re not too far from one of my favorite times of the year, but we’re not there yet. I’m talking about fall in Oklahoma, and my gut tells me it won’t be much longer.
I fished a tournament on Lake Eufaula the second week of September, and the water temperature was in the 80s. At that temperature level, the fish are not concerned with chasing bait. They’re still in that late summer pattern, and they still haven’t made any transition to the backs of creeks.
During that tournament, I caught them early on topwater and then moved out to deep brush, timber and anywhere I had caught them in August. I didn’t even look for those shallow patterns.
At this point, we’re probably two weeks away from the beginning of fall. We had a late summer, so it’ll probably happen in early October. We just need a week of cool weather and it will get going.
In my experience, you know fall has arrived when you start seeing the deer moving around early in the morning and not just in the evenings. There’s more life in nature.
On the water, you see shad flipping, and it’s not just stagnant like it had been during late summer. When I fished that recent tournament with my dad, he and I said, “It just feels dead.” There were no carp moving around, no gar snapping.
But once that water gets around 70, stuff starts popping. There’s life everywhere.
The bass are moving shallower and getting on the bait school. It seems like you’ll see more grouping. They’ll start showing themselves and feeding more aggressively.
Lake turnover is a big part of the fall transition and that normally happens for us about now. After a recent cool spell, the water started looking and I think it was trying to turn over, but the weather got stable and hot again and the thermocline was solid at 15 feet.
We have some cooler weather coming, so that should start getting the lakes turned over.
When things get right and true fall conditions arrive, it’s strictly about covering water. If the water temperature is 70 or under, I’ll rarely be deeper than 3 feet.
You don’t really know where they’re going to be from the main lake to the backs of creeks, so you have to focus on moving fast and hitting a lot of spots.
One of my favorite fall baits for covering water is a Heddon Zara Spook. I also like the BOOYAH Boss Pop when I need to briefly slow down around docks and other shallow cover. I can keep that bait in the strike zone and call those fish out of cover.
The other bait I’ll have tied on is the War Eagle Screaming Eagle spinnerbait. It has smaller blades, and you can really burn it without it rolling over. It’s a compact bait that matches the smaller fall baitfish.
Whatever you throw, don’t get frustrated. Oklahoma is a tough place to fish, especially in the fall so you have to keep your head down. One day can be tough and the next can be magical.
And stay positive. It’s easy to get negative, but stay after it because you could run into them just about anywhere and when you do, they’re going to be ready to bite.
That’s good advice for pretty much anywhere in the South.
