Bass bite heats up

FALLS LAKE -- It came a little late this year, but largemouth bass finally have taken to their predictable fall behavior.

Sometimes as soon as early October, schools of shad head to the backs of the creeks off the main lake channel.

"The bass aren't going to be too far behind," said Jerry Lucas, a fishing guide and owner of Outhouse Tackle in Wake Forest.

But everything was a little off this fall.

Lucas set me up to fish with Scott Dupree, a sales manager for Bridgestone who spends much of his off time pursuing largemouth bass.

On this late October day, the trees lining the lake were at their peak fall color.

The largemouth bass bite, however, was more or less near the bottom of the valley.

Only a few days before, a cold front and rain lowered the water temperature, a welcome change of events as far as bass fishermen were concerned.

The day was warm, which normally wouldn't have been such a bad thing. This time of year, the air temperature can fluctuate quite a bit. But with the lake's level down several feet this fall, shallow water in the backs of the creeks warms up faster than usual.

With the sun beating down, the lake's temperature was 61 degrees. Dupree was eager for cooler water.

"Fifty-five degrees seems to be the magic number," Dupree said.

Dupree parked his boat halfway up the creek, and schools of shad appeared as large clumps on his digital fish-finder.

"I smell shad," Dupree said. "But I don't think the bass have followed them back."

It was the first school of shad we fished near on a day we headed up several creek arms. The results foreshadowed the day's catch.

"I want to see something demolish this shad," Dupree said. "But nothing even sneezed at them."

Starting to feed

For the better part of the day, baits were thrown vigorously but the effort was rewarded only by a couple of small bass - not the lunkers that can be had this time of the year when bass start to stock up for the colder winter months.

Only in the past week have the bass started to feed heavily. Bass jigs, spinnerbaits, small crankbaits and even top-water baits seem to be working.

In a phone interview, Lucas said he was surprised at how long it took for the bite to get going.

The only explanation he had was the low water level. As of Wednesday morning, the lake's elevation was at 247.45 feet, or more than four feet lower than normal levels.

"The fish never really moved up," Lucas said.

Less forage

Several Falls Lake fishermen have noticed that this year's shad crop is smaller and much more abundant than in years past.

"What's good for bass isn't always good for bass fishermen," Lucas said.

Dupree said there's a sweet spot after the colder water has killed off some of the shad. The fish are hungry and really start biting artificial baits, he said.

"You just pray that you're lucky enough to be out here then," he said.

Vary tactics

Lucas stressed November can be a good time for throwing a top-water bait.

This time of the year, cold fronts can shut down the bass bite on a day-to-day basis.

Wednesday's showers left the lake muddy, making it difficult for fish to see baits, Lucas said.

Tweaking tactics is often needed but not always predictable.

When a cold front moved in last week, as the fish finally started to bite, fishing guide Jamie Olive, also reached by phone, first tried to slow his presentation, but that didn't work.

He knew the bass were finally in shallow water in the backs of the creeks, but they were a bit lethargic.

Olive tried a tactic towake up the bass.

Olive allowed spinnerbaits and jigs to sink down into cover and drew reaction strikes by banging his bait against weeks, logs and brush piles.

Change inevitable

There were signs of colder weather even on that warm October day.

Back in a cove on the lake's southern end, a common loon, a bird that summers in the northern United States and Canada, was paddling around.

And until the water temperature drops into the lower 50s and 40s, bass should still move shallow to feed, loading up on any remaining shad.

The biggest bass are probably going to be found in shallow water that's close to deep water.

"We were mystified," Lucas said. "We had the cooler weather for weeks, but they only started biting in the last week or so. The good thing is, it should go for a while now."

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