Find the bait, find the fish—that’s the consensus of freshwater guides from around Alabama this week, who report that the fall migration is underway for largemouths from deep water to the shallows as the water cools.
From Guntersville, Captain Mike Gerry reports that fish are here today, gone tomorrow as they move with the changing weather and torrential rains, but he says that the weedless frog bite is steadily getting better if you can find a “live” moss bed where there’s abundant bait. The trick is to keep moving from bed to bed, and concentrate on those with at least 3 feet of water under them, near a current area, and with evidence of bait underneath, like the “popping” of bream. Gerry likes the Spro Bronzeye frogs for this duty, but also notes that buzzbaits fished over scattered grass in 2 to 3 foot depths are pulling up some fish early in the morning. Otherwise, anglers should keep an eye out for bass chasing shad to the surface at any time of day, and fish them with topwaters like the Heddon Spook; www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com.
At Pickwick, the recent BFL tournament there was won mostly with a smallmouth catch by an angler who found his fish at about 12 feet over a shell bed with good current flow. The winning lure was a Strike-King 3XD crankbait, and as usual, finding the fish on electronics was an important part of the catch. Otherwise, some good catches of largemouths are starting to come on soft plastics, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits from the grassy flats alongside the channel, but you may have to search a while to find an area that has not been worked over by other anglers. Crappie fishing is still slow but should pick up by the end of the month with the cool-down—best areas will be Bear and Yellow creeks, where trolling the channels at 10 to 12 feet with tiny jigs will help locate the schools.
At Lewis Smith, the spotted bass bite is around the herring schools at 10 to 20 foot depths, often over much deeper water as the fish suspend near the bait balls. Winning anglers in the regional tournament there last weekend all relied on vertical fishing with Damiki-type rigs, small jigs with soft plastic tails fished straight down on schools spotted on electronics. Striper fishing is also good around the bait schools, with some anglers scoring with Storm and Tsunami swim-shad lures, though live shad is always best for these giants. Below the dam, trout fishing is always dependable in the first half-mile when current is flowing at a moderate pace—live worms, Berkley Trout Bait or wet flies get them; www.riversideflyshop.com.
From Weiss Lake, guide Mark Collins reports water temperature is 68 to 70 degrees, ideal for bass and better for crappies and stripers, too. He said bass are on offshore humps, ledges and drops where they are taking Rat-l-Traps, flat-sided crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Crappie fishing, Collins’ specialty, is starting to pick up with the cooler weather, but most are still at 12 to 14 feet on woody cover in the channels, and drifting live minnows is still the best tactic, though some fish can be caught “shooting” docks with brush piles underneath; www.markcollinsguideservice.com.
From the coast, water temperature dropping into the 70′s means the trout and redfish bite will pick up rapidly through the end of the month, but some areas of Mobile Bay still have too much fresh water for these saltwater species—best bet is to fish Mississippi Sound and around Dauphin Island and Orange Beach and look for clear water and bait schools. Diving birds will key you in to trout feeding in the lower bays—fish the schools with a Vudu Shrimp or DOA Shrimp under a popping cork. For reds, try riprap areas, gas rigs, bridge pilings and other hard structure with live croakers or other live fish, or plastic- tailed jigs hopped along bottom. In the surf, pompano fishing should pick up as the water clears and becomes more briny—catch them on live sand fleas, or fresh cut shrimp with a strip of Fish Bites Sand Flea flavor attractant on a pompano rig; www.ateamfishing.com.
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